Palace Sculptures Of Aboney: History Told on Walls. . - books - book review

African Arts, Autumn, 2001 by Dana Rush

PALACE SCULPTURES OF ABOMEY History Told on Walls

Francesca Pique and Leslie H. Rainer, with contributions by Jerome C. Alladaye, Rachida de Souza-Ayari, and Suzanne Preston Blier

Conservation and Cultural Heritage series 3. The Getty Conservation Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999. 116 pp., 18 b/w & 136 color illustrations, 4 maps. $24.95 paper.

In the early seventeenth century, Fon peoples (of the contemporary Republic of Benin) established a society that would be governed by a dynasty of rulers who created and expanded the Dahomey kingdom, building an extraordinary complex of palaces in the capital, Abomey, that became the heart of the kingdom's civic, social, and religious life. The mud walls of the palace were embellished with multicolored bas-reliefs that told many of Dahomey's famous legends and stories of military conquest while celebrating the reign and accomplishments of individual kings. In a culture historically without written language, these artworks have sustained much of the kingdom's past glory. Nondichao Bachalou, the official historian of the royal families of Abomey, states: "The bas-reliefs are our only remaining `written' history. They are history told on walls" (p.3).

Palace Sculpture of Abomey recounts the history of the kingdom through an in-depth exploration of its royal palace structures and these narrative sculptural scenes. The magnificent visual imagery (color photographs of the palace structure, bas-reliefs, applique arts, and rare nineteenth-century historical photographs and illustrations) is guided by a succinct and engaging text and explicit captions for each illustration. In addition, the book details the collaborative efforts of the Benin Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) to conserve the bas-reliefs.

The volume is divided into nine sections, including an introduction, followed by suggested readings and acknowledgments. The introduction lays out the general history and functions of Abomey's palace structures and bas-reliefs as "cultural memory" of Fon peoples, which by the late 1800s represented ten successive generations of Abomey kings. However, a casualty of time, nature, and humankind, the entire palace compound was included among the endangered sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1985, just forty years after the Historic Museum of Abomey, housed in these royal compounds, was established as the first national museum in west Africa. In 1988 the palace of King Glele, a nineteenth-century super-king, had to be rebuilt because of structural damage. Before this royal residence was demolished, however, its fifty-six bas-reliefs were cut out of the walls and stored throughout the palace. Enter the Getty Conservation Institute.

Following an initial assessment in 1991, the GCI undertook an intensive collaborative venture with the Republic of Benin's Ministry of Culture and Communication that lasted from 1993 to late 1997. The institute was to document the condition of the sculptures, investigate the sources of their retrogression, and prevent further deterioration. In tandem with this ambitious project, the GCI set up conservation training and a maintenance and monitoring program for members of Benin's Department of Cultural Heritage to ensure the long-term benefits of their shared conservation efforts. While local artists were hired to replicate the original bas-reliefs for the new palace facade being reconstructed by the Beninese government, the GCI's team of conservators and scientists focussed on repairing the original works. The great success of the project is today evident in the Historical Museum: a set of fifty conserved bas-reliefs are now integrated into the museum's exhibition spaces, allowing visitors to witness the continued glory of Dahomey's royal dynasty.

Accompanied by a useful timeline, the next section of the book, "The Kingdom of Dahomey," presents a deftly condensed history of the kingdom's famous "expansionist tradition" (p.9) through brief discussions of individual rulers renowned for their accomplishments in this regard: King Houegbaja (reigned ca. 1645-85), who founded the kingdom in the seventeenth century; King Agaja (r. ca. 1708-32), who subjugated the critical port town of Ouidah; King Guezo (r. 1818-58), who held the monopoly on the Ouidah slave trade; Guezo's son King Glele (r. 1858-89), who resisted European intervention in the highly lucrative slaving market. We are given details of Dahomey's last independent ruler, King Behanzin (r. 1889-94), who is distinguished as a great resistance fighter who attempted to safeguard his kingdom from French colonizers. Near the end of his reign, King Behanzin ordered his troops to burn the royal palaces rather than see them fall into French hands. Before he and his family went into French-imposed exile (illustrated on a 1905 French postcard on p.20), the king gave an address to his soldiers that to this day is taught to Beninese schoolchildren as one of the most important speeches in Fon history (reproduced on p.19). In 1897 the French appointed Behanzin's half-brother, Agoli-Agbo I, to stand as king (though stripped of his power) in the French-controlled colony of Dahomey, only to depose and exile him soon thereafter, and formally abolish Abomey's royal dynasty. Today's king, a descendant of Agoli-Agbo, is a delegate representative of the royal lineage who carries out fundamental ceremonial duties (pp.8-23).