ACCOMMODATIONS:
Students will live in a hotel while in Cotonou and will live in comfortable, but modest field housing in Bohicon near the field site.
UCLA Summer Sessions reserves the right to change the housing location. Should this become necessary, we will arrange comparable accommodations elsewhere.

MEALS:
Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided Monday through Friday. Students who opt to sign up for the optional weekend excursions will be provided meals on Saturday as part of the excursion fee. Otherwise students are responsible for their own weekend meals.

Please let us know when you apply for this program if you have special dietary needs, as well as any medical or physical conditions. We will advise you accordingly.

Program:
• Survey: Students will conduct systematic survey in the hinterlands of Cana.
• Excavations: Students will participate in excavations at selected sites.
• Recordation: Students will participate in filling out specific excavation forms, map finds, and record stratigraphy.
• Cataloging: Students will participate in field sorting and cataloging of finds.
• Laboratory: Scheduled lab tasks will include washing, sorting, cataloging of finds, and field form data entry.

Number of credits: 12 UCLA credit units
Offered by: UCLA
Tuition: $4,900 UC Students; $5,350 all others

EXCURSIONS:
At least two field trips to significant sites will be planned. This program has limited free time for independent sightseeing. Please consult with the faculty about independent travel during the program.
• Field Trip #1 – Whydah and Savi, historic slaving port and ancient capital of the Hueda Kingdom respectively.
• Field Trip #2 – Abomey, capital of the precolonial kingdom of Dahomey and its royal palaces

Cost: Covered by tuition

TRAVEL:
You are responsible for making your own travel arrangements. Please plan to arrive to Cotonou, Bénin (COO) by July 17 (Saturday) as classes will begin on Monday at 9:00am. A number of airlines fly to Cotonou. The best prices are typically associated with the purchase of an international flight originating in the US and ending in Cotonou, via Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France. Alternatively there are direct flights from the U.S. to Dakar, Senegal, with connections to Cotonou if you plan on doing additional West African travel before or after the field season. Please consult your travel agent for further details.

VISA REQUIREMENTS:
Please note that for all US passport holders there is a $100 visa fee for travel to Bénin. Visas must be received PRIOR to departure in the U.S. or you will be turned away at the U.S. airport. Please consult the Embassy of Bénin’s website for application details (http://www.beninembassy.us). For additional information, please consult the US State Department website, at http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1066.html.

 

Contact Person:

Dr. J. Cameron Monroe
310-825-3050

UCLA

DeCorse, C. (1998): “The Europeans in West Africa: Culture Contact, Continuity and Change,” in Transformations in Africa, pp. 219-241.

Kelly, K. (1997): “Indigenous Responses to Colonial Encounters on the West African Coast: Hueda and Dahomey from the Seventeenth through Nineteenth Century” in The Archaeology of Colonialism, pp. 96-117.

MacEachern, S. (2004): “Two thousand years of West African history.” In African archaeology. A critical introduction, edited by Ann Stahl, pp. 441-466. Blackwell Publishers, London.

Monroe (2007): “Continuity, Revolution, or Evolution on the Slave Coast of West Africa?” Journal of African History.

Posnansky, M (1986): "Anatomy of a Continent”, chapter in The Africans: A Reader, 31-49