Benghazi See BanghazT
Beni \'ba-ne\ River River, Bolivia. Rising in the eastern cordillera of the Andes Mountains, it flows north and unites with the Mamore River to form the Madeira River at Villa Bella. Near its mouth it receives the Madre de Dios River. It is 994 mi (1,599 km) long.
Benin \bo-'nen\ officially Republic of Benin formerly Dahomey Country, western Africa. Area: 43,484 sq mi (112,622 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 7,649,000. Capitaclass="underline" Porto-Novo (official), Cotonou (de
facto). The Fon people and related groups constitute two-fifths of the population; minorities include the Yoruba, Fulani, and Adjara. Languages: French (official), Fon.
Currency: CFA franc. Religions: tradi¬ tional religions, Islam, Christianity. Extending about 420 mi (675 km) inland from the Gulf of Guinea, Benin includes a hilly region in the north¬ west, where the maximum elevation is 2,103 ft (641 m). There are plains in the east and north and a marshy region in the south, where the coastline
extends about 75 mi (120 km). Benin’s longest river, the Oueme, flows into the Porto-Novo Lagoon and is navigable for 125 mi (200 km) of its 280-mi (450-km) length. Benin has a developing mixed economy based largely on agriculture and operates an offshore oil field. It is a republic with one legislative house; the head of state and government is the presi¬ dent, assisted by the prime minister. In southern Benin the Fon established the Abomey kingdom in the early 17th century. In the 18th century the kingdom expanded to include Allada and Ouidah, where French forts had been established in the 17th century. By 1882 the French were firmly rees¬ tablished in the area, and conflict between the French and Africans ensued. In 1894 Dahomey became a French protectorate; it was incorporated into the federation of French West Africa in 1904. It achieved independence in 1960. Dahomey was renamed Benin in 1975. Its chronically weak economy created problems for the country into the 21st century.
Benin, Bight of Bay, northern section of Gulf of Guinea. It extends along the West African coast about 400 mi (640 km) from Cape St. Paul, Ghana, past Togo and Benin to an outlet of the Niger River in Nigeria. Major ports include Lome, Cotonou, and Lagos. It was the scene of exten¬ sive slave trading during the 16th-19th century, and the region of coastal lagoons west of the Niger delta became known as the Slave Coast. By the 1830s trade in palm oil had become the major economic activity. Petro¬ leum was discovered in the Niger delta in the 1950s.
Benin, kingdom of One of the principal historic kingdoms (12th—19th century) of the western African forest region. Founded by the Edo people, the kingdom was centred on present-day Benin City in southern Nigeri- a.With the accession of Ewuare the Great in the mid 15th century, the Benin kingdom was vastly expanded, including the founding of the city of Lagos. The Portuguese first visited Benin in the late 15th century, and, for a time, Benin traded ivory, palm oil, pepper, and slaves with Portu¬ guese and Dutch traders. Benin stopped trading slaves with Europeans in the 18th century and focused attention on dependent regions around it. Succession struggles in the 18th and 19th centuries put a series of weaker kings on the throne. After the British attacked and burned Benin City in 1897, the kingdom was incorporated into British Nigeria.
Benjamin, Judah P(hilip) (b.
Islands—d. May 6, 1884, Paris,
France) Prominent lawyer in the U.S. and Britain and member of the Confederate cabinet. He moved with his parents from St. Croix to South Carolina in his early youth. In 1832 he began building a successful law practice in New Orleans. He was the first Jew elected to the U.S. Senate (1853-61), where he was noted for his proslavery speeches. After the South seceded, Jefferson Davis appointed him attorney general (1861), secretary of war (1861-62), and secretary of state (1862-65).
Late in the war he enraged many white Southerners by urging that slaves be recruited into the Confed¬ erate army and emancipated after their term of service. At the end of the war he escaped to England, where he was called to the bar (1866) and served as queen’s counsel
(1872).
Benjamin \'ben-ya-,men,\ English Vben-js-monX, Walter (b. July 15, 1892, Berlin, Ger.—d. Sept. 26, 1940, near Port-Bou, Spain) German lit¬ erary critic. Born into a prosperous Jewish family, Benjamin studied phi¬ losophy and worked as a literary critic and translator in Berlin from 1920 until 1933, when he fled to France to avoid persecution. The Nazi take¬ over of France led him to flee again in 1940; he committed suicide at the Spanish border on hearing that he would be turned over to the Gestapo. Posthumous publication of his essays has won him a reputation as the leading German literary critic of the first half of the 20th century; he was also one of the first serious writers about film and photography. His inde¬ pendence and originality are evident in the essays collected in Illumina¬ tions (1961) and Reflections (1979). His writings on art reflect his reading of Karl Marx and his friendships with Bertolt Brecht and Theodor Adorno.
Aug. 6, 1811, St. Croix, Virgin
Judah Benjamin
COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
200 I Benn ► Bentham
Benn, Gottfried (b. May 2, 1886, Mansfeld, Ger.—d. July 7, 1956, Berlin) German poet and essayist. He received military medical training and was made medical supervisor of jail inmates and prostitutes in occu¬ pied Brussels during World War I. His early poems, including those in Fleisch (1917; “Flesh”), contain allusions to degeneracy and medical aspects of decay. Because of his Expressionism and despite his right-wing views, he was penalized during the Nazi era. He regained literary atten¬ tion with Statische Gedichte (1948; “Static Poems”) and the reappearance of his old poems. A broad selection of his poetry and prose was published in English as Primal Vision (1961).
Bennett, Alan (b. May 9, 1934, Leeds, Yorkshire, Eng.) British dra¬ matist, screenwriter, and actor. He first gained success with the brilliant satirical revue Beyond the Fringe (1960), which he cowrote and per¬ formed with Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, and Jonathan Miller. His first stage play. Forty Years On (1968), was followed by plays such as Get¬ ting On (1971) and Enjoy (1980). He later wrote works for television, including An Englishman Abroad (1982) and Talking Heads (1988), which were marked by his characteristic mixture of wry comedy and sadness. His screenplays include Prick Up Your Ears (1987). His successful play The Madness of King George (1991) was made into an acclaimed film in
Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold (b. May 27, 1867, Hanley, Staffordshire, Eng.—d. March 27, 1931, London) English novelist, playwright, critic, and essayist. His major works, inspired by Gustave Flaubert and Honore de Balzac, form an important link between the English novel and the mainstream of European realism. He is best known for his highly detailed novels of the “Five Towns”—the Potteries in his native Staffordshire— which are the setting of Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives’ Tale (1908), and the three novels that make up The Clayhanger Family (1925). He was also a well-known critic.
Bennett, James Gordon (b. Sept. 1, 1795, Newmill, Banffshire, Scot.—d. June 1, 1872, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Scottish-born U.S. editor. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1819 and was employed on various news¬ papers until 1835, when he started The New York Herald. The paper became very successful and introduced many of the methods of modern news reporting. Among other innovations, Bennett published the first Wall Street financial article (1835), established the first correspondents in Europe (1838), maintained a staff of 63 war correspondents during the Civil War, was a leader in using illustrations, introduced a society depart¬ ment, and published the first account in U.S. journalism of a love-nest murder (1836).