Dahomey, the latest documentary from Franco-Senegalese director Mati Diop, was awarded the Golden Bear at the Berlinale earlier this year. It was only the second African film ever to do so, an achievement all the more meaningful given its subject matter. Reckoning with the persisting legacy of colonialism in Africa, and interrogating the very meaning of cultural heritage and restorative justice, Diop’s second feature film tackles these complex topics with poetry and grace.
The film opens in Paris towards the end of 2021. 26 treasured artifacts from the Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin) – originally looted by French colonial troops back in 1892 – are set to be returned to the place from whence they came. The ceremonial repatriation is the cause of great celebration, and the result of lengthy lobbying and negotiation on the part of Beninese president Patrice Talon. Whether this act is motivated by a genuine sense of justice or serves more as a piece of political theatre remains a question for the skeptics.
Not one to shy away from stillness, Diop’s lets her camera rest on the hushed corners of the Musée du Quai Branly as the staff meticulously prepares the artifacts for their long journey. It feels somewhat jarring to see these artifacts in this displaced modern context. The ginger, methodical packaging of these kings and warriors – the plunderous spoils of war – seeming somehow comical. Soon enough we are introduced to the ancient, disembodied voice of our narrator: artifact #26, a striking zoomorphic figure of Ghezo, King of Dahomey from 1818 to 1858.
The pieces arrive in Benin to a joyful, heroes’ welcome. There is dancing, music, and disconcertingly, the sound of gunshots in the distance. As Diop lingers on the mundane, modern trappings of her surroundings, our narrator muses at the strangeness of his environment. How far modern Benin has strayed from the country fixed in his dreams, the fearsome kingdom he left behind. Complicating any easy narrative that would paint the forebears of the present-day Beninese merely as gentle victims of the French colonialist forces, our narrator’s fellow artifacts reveal something more complex as they are reintroduced to their ancestral home. Dahomey was in fact a highly militaristic nation characterized by its expansionist policies and its enslavement of the populations in the regions it conquered.
Reflecting the complexity of Beninese politics and cultural heritage, the centrepiece of the film is an extended debate amongst students at the University of Abomey-Calavi. The fascinating conversation unveiling the wild breadth of passionate opinions young Beninese today hold regarding their own heritage in general, and how exactly this small act of repatriation fits into that framework. At first mention, the repatriation of these artifacts seems like a move in the right direction. A symbolic gesture, perhaps (nearly 7000 artifacts remain in France to this day), but a powerful one. One young woman recounts being moved to tears at the opening exhibit, only to be met by ridicule by her fellow students.
Some scoff at the event as insignificant tokenism, intended to rehabilitate the French brand on the African continent. Others problematize the lionization of President Talon, alleging that his ancestors facilitated the plunder of the objects in the first place. Others still tear down the importance of devoting scant resources to the preservation of objects they see as meaningless in the face of widespread poverty and hunger. They debate politics, and art, and history … and disagree on nearly every point.
As the debate rages on, one of the students made a point that has stuck with me. Beninese history is not taught in any of their own languages. It is taught in French. Indeed, the debate itself, a debate about the past and future of Benin, is held in the language of their colonial oppressors. Diop lets these arguments be heard in their own voices, imposing no overriding perspective of her own, and they are all the more powerful for it. There are no easy answers to these questions, but it is important that we are asking them. With Dahomey, Diop has crafted a poetically engaging piece that will keep us doing just that.
Dahomey will have its Canadian theatrical premiere on October 25th.
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