Cana is a town in the

Zou Department Zou is one of the twelve departments of Benin, named for the Zou River which travels through the department before emptying into the Atlantic in the south of the country. The department of Zou was split in two in 1999, with the northern territo ...

of south-western

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

, just southeast of

Bohicon Bohicon or Gbɔ̀xikɔn is a city in Benin, and a conurbation of Abomey lying 9 kilometres east of the city on the railway line from Cotonou to Parakou and on Benin's main highway RNIE 2 which joins the RNIE 4. The commune covers an area of 139 ...

. The city was an important administrative and trade hub under the

Kingdom of Dahomey The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional ...

, and was a stop on the royal road leading from the capital

Abomey Agbome or Abomey is the capital of the Zou Department of Benin. The commune of Abomey covers an area of 142 square kilometres and, as of 2012, had a population of 90,195 people. Abomey houses the Royal Palaces of Abomey, a collection of small tr ...

to Whydah and the

Oyo Empire The Oyo Empire was a Yoruba people, Yoruba empire in West Africa. It was located in present-day western Nigeria (including the South West (Nigeria), South West zone, Benin Republic, and the western half of the North Central (Nigeria), North Cent ...

. The

Kings of Dahomey The King of Dahomey (''Ahosu'' in the Fon language) was the ruler of Dahomey, a West African List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history, kingdom in the southern part of present-day Benin, which lasted from 1600 until 1900 when the French Third ...

built multiple palaces in Cana which served as administrative headquarters and pens for enslaved people on the way to the coast, where they were sold to Europeans. Today the main industry of the town revolves around the oil processing plant.

Famous People

*, former bishop of

Cotonou Cotonou (; ) is the largest city in Benin. Its official population count was 679,012 inhabitants in 2012; however, over two million people live in the larger urban area. The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west. The city lies ...

References

Populated places in the Zou Department {{ZouDepartment-geo-stub