July 25, 2025
Spike Lee And His Wife Appointed Benin Ambassadors For African Americans In The US
Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee will work to unite the diaspora as Benin ambassadors to African Americans in the U.S.
Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee will be bridging gaps between West Africa and the United States after being named Benin’s official ambassadors to African Americans in the U.S.
The Academy Award-winning filmmaker and his producer-author wife have been appointed by Benin’s president as “thematic” ambassadors to the U.S., tasked with strengthening ties between Benin and the Afro-descendant diaspora, Business Insider Africa reports. The power couple finalized the role during their visit to Cotonou, part of Benin’s push to reconnect with descendants of Africans impacted by the transatlantic slave trade.
The Lees’ appointment follows Tonya’s 2024 visit to Benin and her application through the country’s new Afro-descendant initiative, which lets descendants of enslaved Africans apply for citizenship. She was among hundreds who applied and received a positive response as part of Benin’s outreach to its global diaspora.
Their new ambassador roles will help reconnect “people of African descent around the world to their historical, cultural, and spiritual roots,” the government stated. They also view it as a means to promote cultural tourism in Benin.
Spike Lee has traced his father’s roots to Cameroon and his mother’s to Sierra Leone; Tonya Lewis Lee’s ancestry remains private.
The couple, married since 1993, hs spent decades championing civil rights and social justice through their work. Lee’s films often center on the African-American experience, tackling race, identity, and justice, while Lewis Lee most recently executive-produced She Runs the World, a documentary on Olympian Allyson Felix’s fight for maternal protections in sports.
“Through their long-standing commitment to justice, their exceptional creativity, and their global reach” both have “profoundly shaped the contemporary narrative of the African diaspora,” Benin’s government said.
Benin’s initiative echoes efforts like Ghana’s 2019 “Year of Return,” which invited the African diaspora to reconnect with their roots. But Benin’s program is even more deeply tied to history, as the West African country was once a major hub of the transatlantic slave trade. Through its infamous port of Ouidah, millions of Africans were captured, imprisoned, and shipped to the Americas over centuries.
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