American filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife Tonya Lewis Lee, Benin's voice among African Americans

Beninese authorities have decided to call on the Lee couple as part of a program that allows members of the Afro-descendant diaspora to obtain the country's nationality.

American filmmaker Spike Lee and his partner Tonya Lewis Lee are the new ambassadors of Benin "to the Afro-descendant diaspora in the United States of America," according to the Beninese government press release published on July 23. Their "appointment" is part of the launch of a platform which allows people of African descent to apply for Beninese nationality, which has been officially offered to them by the country since the end of 2024.

Cotonou believes that the Oscar-winning director, whose latest film , Highest 2 Lowest, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last May, and producer Tonya Lewis Lee " have profoundly shaped the contemporary narrative of the African diaspora." As part of their mission, they will contribute "to raising awareness, fostering dialogue, and supporting initiatives that promote cultural reconnection and the duty of remembrance."

Spike Lee regularly displays his attachment to his African roots. He discovered that he had Cameroonian roots through his father and that his mother was from Sierra Leone. "It was one of the happiest days of my life when I got the results." (DNA)", the filmmaker confided during a tribute ceremony in July 2021 at the Cameroonian embassy in Paris. The American filmmaker took part, before going to the Croisette where he was to chair the jury of the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival (New window). . Spike has . The director of Do the Right Thing had also emphasized how much "science and DNA" had revolutionized the quest for the origins of African Americans whose ancestors were torn from the African continent and enslaved for four centuries in America.

Like Ghana, which declared 2019 the year of return for the descendants of slaves , Benin intends to participate "in the process of reparation and memorial healing of the transatlantic slave trade and of opening paths of return, both spiritual and civic."