Restitution, wrangling and regeneration in Benin 

​In November 1892, after two centuries of conflicts between French colonial forces and the African country of Danxomè ( also known as Dahomey ), several hundred soldiers led by the French-Senegalese general Alfred-Amédée Dodds marched into its fabled cash, today the capital of Abomey in Benin. Its massive guarded red-earth buildings were found semi-abandoned, the wonderful King Béhanzin, said to have descended from the pairing of a lion and a Tado lady, had fled with his judge. The soldiers, disappointed not to get any of the kingdom’s renowned wealth, raised a European flag and drank Béhanzin’s scotch. Some days later, they started digging in one of the buildings. A memory of aristocratic objects was revealed: amulets, statues and elaborately sculpted doors. The best of it was claimed by General Dodds, who afterwards donated many of the items to the Paris-based Muséed’Ethnographie du Trocadero ( they later were moved to the Musée du Quai Branly ), including a sacred image of Béhanzin that depicted him as half-man, half-shark. For more than a century, the remnants of Danxomè inspired dozens of Germans, among them Pablo Picasso, while decades of Beninese felt robbed not just of their treasures but also the tones of their predecessors. The Great Mosque of Porto-Novo, Benin’s money city© Louis BarthélemyAn indigo workshop in Cotonou, on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea © Louis BarthélemySo when, in 2021, after years of repeated requests, the 26 objects were eventually sent up to the country’s financial capital, Cotonou, the Beninese rejoiced. Thousands gathered to greet their arrival. The royal treasures were shown in the presidential palace as part of a world-class exhibition, Art of Benin from Yesterday and Today, which attracted more than 200, 000 visitors in three months. A contemporary section featured more than 100 works by 34 Beninese artists, such as Romuald Hazoumè and Emo de Medeiros. The government ministries staged the exhibition a second time because it was so popular. The Conciergerie in Paris is currently hosting the contemporary artworks until January 5th, and they are currently on a world tour. ” Rich, poor, young, old, everyone came. More than once”, says Marie-Cécile Zinsou, a French-Beninese art patron who was among those advocating for the treasure’s return ( these objects are not to be confused with the celebrated Benin Bronzes, some of which have been returned to Nigeria ). It was a significant turning point in the history of Benin’s culture. This year, Dahomey, a documentary about the restitution by the French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop that elucidates the profound impact on Benin’s national identity and its youth, has been selected as Senegal’s entry in the 2025 Academy Awards. Louis Barthélemy and I, the French artist, have traveled to Benin to see the positive transformation that President Talon’s ambitious development plan, which emphasizes culture and heritage, has sparked. His second visit is my first. ” It is at the end of the old rope that the new one is best woven”, he said recently, citing an old African proverb. A royal palace in Abomey © Louis Barthélemy Inside the Zinsou Foundation’s contemporary art museum in Ouidah © Louis Barthélemy The Zangbeto vodun temple in Porto-Novo © Louis BarthélemyAlready, much new rope has been added. We stay at the recently opened Sofitel in Cotonou, which is set on a never-ending line of white-sand beaches lined with newly planted palm trees. The resort is rife with networking in its impressive lobby, which is full of contemporary Beninese art. Just a short walk from the hotel, we join local families in a vast square to crane our necks at a 98ft statue of Queen Tassi Hangbe, said to be the first of Danxomè’s famous Amazons, the all-female military regiment that inspired The Woman King, which starred Viola Davis. Le Quartier Culturel et Créatif, a cultural neighbourhood designed by Côte d’Ivoire-based architects Koffi &amp, Diabaté, will soon be located close to the statue, a massive construction site. It will be home to a concert arena, galleries, a crafts village and spaces for artists ‘ residencies, along with Cotonou’s new Museum of Contemporary Art” I hate politics, but what President Talon has accomplished in the past few years is incredible”, says the artist Romuald Hazoumè, sitting at a table on the terrace of his family home in Cotonou. Do you know what a few people here have to say about the restitution? Hazoumè looks at me expectantly. They assert that the Beninese people and not the French government ultimately caused the situation. They claim that the objects themselves made the decision to return because they had no idea who could care for them. Hazoumè practises vodun. Meaning” spirit” in the Fon language, vodun is one of the world’s oldest religions, rooted in ancestor worship and the spiritual animation of all things, from trees to animals and sacred objects. Hazoumè notes that while a reported 50 per cent of the country’s 14 million citizens are Christian,” 100 per cent still believe in vodun”. To valorise this rich spiritual culture, Talon is also building the International Vodun Museum in Porto-Novo, Benin’s capital, where Hazoumè keeps a second home. It is already rising in the city’s centre, a dramatic conical structure inspired by the fortresses of Benin’s Somba people. Several cities, including Porto-Novo, claim to be the capital of vodun, but it’s in Ouidah that Vodun Days, a festival of vodun rituals inaugurated in the 1990s, takes place every January. The small city, which was once one of Africa’s most lucrative slave ports, has a storied history. It was first run by the Portuguese before being overtaken by the Kingdom of Danxomè in 1727. According to some, millions of Africans emigrated from Ouidah to the Americas, most frequently to Brazil and the Caribbean. The International Museum of Memory and Slavery, which will open next year in a renovated 18th-century Portuguese fort where countless Africans were imprisoned before being transported across the Atlantic, will also be in it soon. The current version of the Ouidah is told a different story, one that is characterized by optimism and creative dynamism. The first place we go is Couleur Indigo, a local brand that aims to revive the indigo dyeing tradition. The founder of Nadia Adanle leads us to a whitewashed rooftop terrace, where much of the dyeing and production takes place. In the distance, there are a dozen large plastic barrels filled with the leaves of the indigofera plant that have been fermenting for a while, and dark blue fabric that has been twisted and knotted in the sun is drying in the distance. Adanle has created a pattern based on one of the restituted thrones on a bolt of cotton that is laid out on a work table. The Yedmadjé collective of appliqué craft masters in Abomey © Louis BarthélemyKing Migan XIV of Porto-Novo © Louis Barthélemy Not far away is the Zinsou Foundation, which has a contemporary art museum inside the Villa Ajavon, a faded but elegant Afro-Brazilian-style building on a dusty, lively street lined with shops and galleries. The foundation also has a café, a boutique, and a lush courtyard garden, in addition to dozens of exhibition rooms. Founder Marie-Cécile Zinsou arrives, wearing a brightly patterned wax-fabric top and skirt. In Cotonou, she inaugurated the first Zinsou Foundation in 2005. Eight years later she moved it here, rebranding the Cotonou space as Le Lab, with a cinema, café and exhibition space. Zinsou, who resides between Paris and Benin and whose father’s family can be traced to 1860 in Ouidah ( her father was Benin’s prime minister in 2015-16 ), has spent the last five years battling for the restitution of the royal treasure. She is currently wrangling the return of a 27th object, a throne, from Finland. She claims that the optimism and energy here is not about the west returning the goods. ” That is a moral obligation. It’s about how Benin and its people and government are using this opportunity to say to the world,” Look at who we are. ‘” To reach Abomey, the original capital of Danxomè, from Cotonou takes about three hours. The sprawling 120-acre complex of 10 discrete royal palaces is still the heart of this antiquated Unesco world heritage site despite the destruction caused by the Franco-Dahomean wars. The palaces are being renovated, funded in part by Japan. Preserving Abomey’s royal complex is significant both politically and culturally, as it’s one of few in west Africa that weren’t ravaged in the colonial wars. The Ashanti king’s residence was almost completely destroyed in 1897, and the English almost completely destroyed it in 1874. The market in Porto-Novo © Louis BarthélemyArtist Romuald Houmazé in Porto-Novo © Louis Barthélemy Marie-Cécile Zinsou, founder of the Zinsou Foundation in Ouidah © Louis BarthélemyAbomey is small, lush and slow-paced, with more motorcycles than cars. The palace walls are red-earth cob, and their surfaces are covered in striking bas-reliefs that represent the various kings ‘ emblems or historical battles. Inside, the royal complexes are a series of courtyards of increasing prestige, in several of them we found textile workshops. The kingdom was, and still is, a centre of art and craft, from appliqué designers to bronze artisans and weavers. Last January, on an exploratory trip to Benin, Barthélemy– whose projects involve collaborating with textile artisans who are often custodians of a dying craft – met Yêmadje Alexis, a member of Abomey’s royal collective of appliqué artisans. The two agreed to work together on a large-scale project: four cotton panels the size of the royal doors, appliquéd with a historical narrative of Danxomè and the restitution as imagined by Barthélemy. On this visit, Alexis organises for Barthélemy to be introduced to the rest of the collective. What we assume will be a casual meeting turns into a journey in time, opening the door to the ancient kingdom of Danxomè. Alexis leads us through a courtyard to a small, one-roomed building, the grand arched entrance to the official workshops, and then through a courtyard to the official workshops. Inside, a dozen male artisans dressed in traditional costume are waiting for us, the walls behind them hung with appliquéd tapestries, but present unexpectedly is the chief of the collective, wearing a royal cap and carrying a sceptre. Barthélemy collects himself and, after formal introductions, presents his project to the group. A vodun ceremony takes place in a shrine adorned with numerous intricate altar staffs, bird bones, and feathers, which lasts for several hours over two days. ” I had expected to dive right into technical details”, says Barthélemy later,” but instead was immersed in a world where craft still holds a sacred power” .From Abomey we drive for four hours along a road still under construction to Benin’s capital, Porto-Novo, for our final meeting: with King Migan XIV. While there are currently several non-sovereign monarchs in Benin – in the 17th century, the descendants of the mythical princess and the leopard founded different kingdoms, including Danxomé, Allada and Porto-Novo– they’re regarded by some as more symbolic than active. However, Migan is a well-known figure in his constituents who is clearly committed to preserving both local politics and history. A vodun temple in Abomey © Louis Barthélemy A motorcyclist in Abomey © Louis Barthélemy The 70-year-old, wearing an emerald-green formal costume, is waiting in his faded, two-storey royal complex. “You’re late”, he admonishes us. When we blame the construction he responds:” You know we are building that for you, the tourists”. His throne room, which is decorated with old photos, leads us there. Seated, he explains that historically, the kingdom of Porto-Novo had been independent from that of Danxomè, sometimes even its enemy, its own sacred objects had not been taken during colonial rule. He claims that he stole a lot of heads in its day and carefully unpacked it to prove it. He claims he is revealing an old sword, one that, according to him, cut off quite a few heads in its day. Through a window, we can see the half-finished National Assembly, designed by the Burkinabé-German architect Francis Kéré. I inquire what the King thinks about it. ” I am so pleased with Francis and his design, which is like a great tree”, he says. It’s especially meaningful, he explains, because the land on which the new National Assembly is rising was once a sacred forest protected by his ancestors, then taken and built upon by the French. Now his people don’t just have Danxomè’s treasure returned, he says, they also have their spiritual roots back. ” It gives me much hope”. Gisela Williams and Louis Barthélemy were guests of Sofitel Cotonou Marina Hotel &amp, Spa ( from about £220, sofitel. accor.com )