The small west African nation of Benin last year enacted a law granting citizenship to descendants of enslaved people to acknowledge the country’s complicity in the transatlantic slave trade, and promote tourism.

Cassandra Lewis, whose family’s legacy goes back to one of the most notorious slave ships in American history, was among the first to apply for citizenship.

Lewis is the great-great-granddaughter of Kossola “Cudjo” Lewis, the most well-known of the 110 Africans forcibly brought to Alabama aboard the Clotilda from Benin. She is still awaiting word on whether she will be a new citizen of the West African nation where her family’s story began.

“They said the process would be slow,” said Lewis, 60, of Decatur, Ga., who’s been featured in West African news outlets and has met with

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