More than 160 years after her ancestor was forcibly taken from West Africa aboard the Clotilda, Cassandra Lewis has returned to Benin and received citizenship.

Lewis is the great-great-granddaughter of Cudjo Lewis, one of the last known survivors of the transatlantic slave trade and a survivor of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States.

Through Benin’s “My Afro Origins” programme, Lewis has become bthe first descendant of the Clotilda survivors to receive Beninese citizenship.

Her return is part of a growing effort by African countries to reconnect with descendants of the diaspora not simply through ancestry and heritage, but through citizenship and a tangible sense of belonging.

For Lewis, the journey represents something much bigger than a trip home: a connection between a family history shaped by forced migration and a homeland that is now inviting its descendants back.