Danxomè
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Summary:
The year is 1892. The Dahomey campaign is at its height. King Behanzin is fighting the French with his fearsome agojie battalions, made up of women who swear to fight to the death for their ruler. Seventeen-year-old Alexandre Maurel is the son of a French military doctor who has brought him to Dahomey to assist him on the battlefield. He wants to make a man of his son, who has a delicate face like a girl. Alex is a gentle soul who sees no glory in the bloody colonial conquest of Danxomè. Agosì is a fourteen-year-old Dahomey girl whose family has been disgraced, her father executed. She is forced to join the agojie forces and becomes a bloodthirsty warrior, ready to fight for king and country. The two cross paths briefly and their lives are forever changed by war.
Edited by: Université Sorbonne Paris Nord
Comment:
A stunning, thoroughly researched text that offers a clear-sighted view of the French colonisation of Benin. The two main characters are far from gender stereotypes and show courage and kindness in a terrible conflict. Both come to understand that warlike heroism is a mere façade, barely masking the hatred and violence of powerful rulers. The novel approaches the issue of emancipation in all its guises. The characters shake off the burden of tradition and refuse to obey orders from their king or government. But the story also has a personal dimension, as Alex achieves emancipation from his father and rejects the norms of gender and heterosexuality. The first-person chapters told from Alex’s point of view are followed by passages in the second person in which he tells Agosì’s story as if he were talking to her directly. These remarkable passages are powerfully poetic. Agosì becomes Xlohun, the untouched, who merges with the forest, becoming one with nature.