Benin Unit

Sometimes when I’m doing these geography units something vividly stands out. Sometimes, I only remember bits and pieces, and then there are countries like Benin, where it’s slowly all coming back to me as I type up this post, but it’s all run together in my mind. Sigh, clearly this is why it’s important to review our geography lessons so I remember what happened in our Benin unit. It’s not just kids who forget what they’ve learned. And this is part of our overall Africa Unit.

Benin Unit

Also, it was interesting to find a picture of Benin. Most pictures from the country are of people, and I generally try not to use people. I kind of wish I’d chosen to go with the Door of No Return, a monument to the captured people from the slave trade, but decided to go with the statue because so much of what I learned had to do with the voodoo religion.

Yeah, and then I saw a larger version of the picture, and…. very prominent phallic symbol with bright paint. And while I feel fine with editing European artwork (like David) because it was artwork, but I do not feel comfortable doing that to someone’s religious symbol. I’m leaving the link to the original picture so you can see it at the bottom of the post.

(there are affiliate links in here)

Benin Unit Resources

Benin not being a country in Africa that is Egypt, there is very little on the country in our library.

Now that I think about it, there are a few other countries in Africa that also have at least one or two books, but Egypt and Egypt hogs all the glory with all of their mummy books.

Benin unit geography lesson

But, getting back to the point of this post, Benin resources. Oh my, finding any sites with useful facts was an interesting search, most of them have only 5 facts… So if you notice more unique websites, like the CIA, that’s why.

I did find one more, but it was 7 facts and not particularly useful facts.

And here is the Geography Now video.

And the geography more, which is just random cool facts he didn’t include in the episodes. Later this became part of Flag Friday.

Benin Unit recipe: Chicken Meatballs with Red Sauce

Sometimes you run into a recipe that is not in the least bit what you’re expecting, and that definitely happened as I made our Benin recipe, because I was not expecting a meatball recipe to have peanut butter.

Benin chicken meatballs

At some point I really do need to make a meatballs around the world post, because there are some truly interesting meatball recipes. Though I will admit, it is usually the sauce that makes the meatball unique.

Though, not in this case.

Benin chicken meatballs ingredients

  • 1 pound ground chicken or turkey
  • 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (make sure no sugar is added)
  • 1 habanero pepper minced
  • 1 bunch green onions chopped
  • 4 onions chopped
  • 1 can diced tomatoes (original recipe calls for blanching, peeling, and deseeding 6 tomatoes)
  • 1 cup oil
Benin chicken meatballs recipe main dish

Let’s make some meatballs!

  1. Combine about half of the peanut butter with hot water, just enough so you can stir it, then set aside.
  2. Put the peanut butter, chicken, habanero, green onion, and salt into a food processor. Pulse until smooth.
  3. Take about a tablespoon of the mixture and form it into a meatball.
  4. Bake meatballs in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
  5. While the meatballs bake, combine the onion, tomato, and peanut butter mixture on the stove on medium. Once it is simmering, reduce the temperature to low and cover it with a lid. Pour over meatballs.
  6. Alternatively, cook the meatballs in oil on the stove, and once the meatballs are golden add the onion, tomato, and peanut butter mixture to the meatballs, stir to combine, and cook for another 15 minutes.

It was a unique sauce, and I have the feeling if I’d been raised with this flavor profile I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Also, I’ve come to the conclusion, I do not like the texture of meat that has been pureed until it is a paste, which is the side effect of putting items in the food processor.

Benin Chicken Meatballs

Benin chicken meatballs recipe main dish
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground chicken or turkey
  • 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (make sure no sugar is added)
  • 1 habanero pepper minced
  • 1 bunch green onions chopped
  • 4 onions chopped
  • 1 can diced tomatoes

Instructions

  1. Combine about half of the peanut butter with hot water, just enough so you can stir it, then set aside.
  2. Put the peanut butter, chicken, habanero, green onion, and salt into a food processor. Pulse until smooth.
  3. Take about a tablespoon of the mixture and form into a meatball.
  4. Bake meatballs in oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
  5. While the meatballs bake, combine onion, tomato, and peanut butter mixture on the stove on medium. Once it is simmering, reduce temperature to low and cover with lid. Pour over meatballs.

Notes

Alternatively, fry the meatballs in oil, then add the onion, tomato, and peanut butter mixture to that and allow the meatballs to continue cooking in the mixture.

Benin Unit notebooking pages

We used the Africa notebooking pages, and now having looked up more facts for writing this post, I would add a few more facts that I didn’t write down.

Benin notebooking pages

Since Benin is so incredibly early in the alphabet, Barb hadn’t really settled on things, at least it is significantly longer than the Afghanistan video, but still not as much as I wish.

  • voodoo is still widely practiced (this primarily intrigued me because of how often it was mentioned in older books and movies when I was a kid.
  • they have two capitals, that is so incredibly rare
  • a snake temple????? That sounds interesting to visit
  • There is a lake village with houses mostly on stilts, that would be so cool to visit
Benin Unit for homeschool geography

More great learning ideas

Let’s see what should I pick? As I was working on this, I was thinking about some of the events from history in Africa, so let me see if I can find a few of those.

I had another post, on folklore, but I couldn’t find it easily, and it makes me wonder if I actually did write it…

See what I mean about Egypt hogging all the information? Most of my history posts in Africa are about Egypt.

Benin Unit geography Africa 11th

Comments

3 responses to “Benin Unit”

  1. Armand Agassounon Avatar
    Armand Agassounon

    Hi,
    As Beninese living in Prague in the Czech Republic I could proudly add few hints to inspire your Benin unit:
    1- The lake village you mentioned is named “Ganvié” which meaned “We are safe here….from the soldiers hunting people for the slave trade…” in Tofin language.
    Another fact about the people leaving in Ganvié is that in case a couple cannot procreate the first wife can go and choose a younger women that she will marry and integrate into the couple making a “ménage à trois” allowing more chance of a baby to come to the family.
    2- The 2022 historic movie The Woman King by Viola Davis is on Dahomey which used to be the former name of Benin. The legendary amazones of Dahomey and the role of women generally in the society was more advanced than even in today’s western societies.

  2. Natalie PlanetSmarty Avatar
    Natalie PlanetSmarty

    Wow, I see what you mean about the statue 😉 I am super surprised that Benin recipe required peanut butter – I thought that peanuts originated in the Americas. Well, maybe at least something positive came from the cross-pollination of plants across the world after the “discovery” of America.

  3. I love the additional facts that Armand Agassounon added in the comments!

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