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Cotonou has the unusual civic arrangement of being the largest city and seat of government of Benin, where most ministries operate and all foreign embassies are located, while the official constitutional capital is the smaller city of Porto-Novo, thirty kilometres to the east. The name Cotonou means 'by the river of death' in the Fon language, a reference to the channel connecting Lake Nokoue to the Atlantic that local fishermen once considered treacherous. King Ghezo of the Dahomey kingdom formally founded the settlement in 1830, and the French developed it as a port colony from the 1890s onward.

The Autonomous Port of Cotonou is one of the largest in West Africa, and the container cranes visible from the Cadjehoun neighborhood remind you that this is a working port city first.

The Dantokpa Market, one of the largest open-air markets in West Africa, sprawls across the banks of the Cotonou Lagoon with a section devoted entirely to voodoo supplies, medicinal herbs, and ritual items that reflects the fact that Benin is the birthplace of the Vodun religion. Motorbike taxis called zemijans, from the Fon phrase for 'take me fast', swarm the streets by the thousands and constitute the backbone of urban transport.