Beninese cuisine is known in Africa for its exotic ingredients and flavorful dishes. Beninese cuisine involves lots of fresh meals served with a variety of sauces. Meat is usually quite expensive, and meals are generally light on meat and generous on vegetable fat.
Songs and dances are a part of the social fabric of Benin and celebrate joyous events such as festivals, childbirth, rites of passage, or occasions of sorrow such as mourning of the dead.
Politics of Benin takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Benin is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system.