Documentary heritage submitted by Benin and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 1997.

The proposed element of the documentary heritage, or most of it, dates from the colonial period. The history of this period is that of a brief (scarcely one century) but none the less decisive episode: the meeting between colonizers and colonized, between Western culture and African culture caused major political upheavals in Africa, economic disintegration, the dislocation of social structures, the disorganization of traditional bonds and the reshaping of modes of cultural expression and authentic standards of civilization.

• Year of submission: 1997
• Year of inscription: 1997
• Country: Benin