Benin

Benin, Africa, is my geographic contemplation for September. History is layered deeply upon this tiny wedge of a country on Africa's west coast. Its capital, Porto Novo, was built in the 1600s by the Portugese as a slave port -- one of the wounds, then, through which Africa bled her people into the world.

It is to Benin that many emancipated slaves, especially from Brazil, later returned -- adding the flavor of Brazil to an African country whose official language is French.

Porto Novo is not a big city, as cities go -- has about 200,000 people. It would be a thrill, though, to turn on my t.v. and see this place featured, instead of yet another cliched re-tread of London or Rome. For every city in the world is unique; it centralizes and embodies the zeitgeist of a nation.

I found some tasty-sounding Benin recipes to enjoy this month.

Africa has problems -- but can you find any continent without them? Maybe Antarctica, but hey, it's melting.

Egypt, Madagascar, Morocco, South Africa, Ethiopia ... and Benin. Vastly different places, a scattering of geography, a handful of names out of so many on the map. And exquisite refutation of the notion that Africa fits a stereotype.

City thoughts

Today I drove through a great American city -- Washington, D.C. I rolled down roller-coaster overpasses and through a great shining sea of traffic.

The prognosticators say that a majority of human beings will live in cities by the end of this century -- and that we need to do a better job of making them livable.

The temperament of a nation is told by its cities. In your mind, picture the difference between Athens and Moscow, Boston and Beijing, Montreal and Manila.

Some cities have been loved -- or loathed -- for centuries -- and everyone has a picture in their head of them. I think of London and Rome, Berlin, Paris and New York. Others are not so famous -- yet whisper the word and the expatriate and the exile sigh ... Dublin, Budapest.

There are cities almost as old as humanity itself, it seems -- Mexico City, built upon the ancient Aztec original; Memphis (in Egypt, not Tennessee!);Jerusalem, the holy city of Monotheism -- and brash new cities where swamp, desert or jungle has only been supplanted in living memory.

Cities fascinate me.