OUIDAH, Benin, Jan 14 - Isaline Attelly, a native of the Caribbean island of Martinique, had been living in Benin for nearly a year before she learned that her family's connection to the West African country went back much further.

Genealogical records confirmed her great-grandmother on her mother's side was born in what is now Benin and, at the height of transatlantic slavery, was trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean.