Dancing salsa in Benin: Connecting the Creole Atlantic.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Cotonou, Benin, the essay explores historical and contemporary dynamics pertaining to the different ways in which salsa is creatively appropriated in Benin. The analysis of the specificities of Beninese salsa dialogues with the ever-growing body of literature interrogating the ability of the Black Atlantic heuristic to grasp South-South transatlantic cultural circulations. I thereby redefine the transatlantic affiliations that are perceptible through the beninisation of salsa as emanating instead from what I call the Creole Atlantic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]