I now know a lot more about Benin and its history of colonisation.

Mati Diop takes a simple event loaded with significance and spins a story that lets us be bystanders to a moment in Benin history. Dahomey was the military kingdom located where present day Benin is. It existed for 300 years until French colonisation at the turn of the 20th century (the Dahomey Amazons are depicted in the recent film The Woman King (2022)).

Around 7000 cultural artifacts were stolen by the French and in 2021, 26 royal treasures were returned. Diop follows their journey from Paris to Cotonou, overlaying the painstaking packing and shipping with a sonorous voice over from the point of view of one of the statues.

It’s interesting enough but the real spark comes from a lengthy and feisty debate between young Beninese about the significance of the return. They have many different views, some conservative and some revolutionary. They rightly argue that 26 out of 7000 is an insult and can’t decide if it’s an empty political gesture or not. As one woman says, she learns about her culture in French and is a slave to language. 

It feels like a tantalising teaser rather than something fully formed. Slavery is touched upon and we are left to ponder what commonality these royal treasures as representations of a maybe brutal regime have with the youth of Benin today. It still feels like old people in power calling the shots.