Dahomey proves Mati Diop is no fluke. After her incredible debut with Atlantics, Diop proves she’s just as adept with documentaries as with narrative films. I also now know where Benin is on a map, another testament of why everyone should keep paying Diop to tell stories about places we rarely hear anything about.
Places like Benin were pillaged by Europeans for centuries. The remnants of that pillaging are in museums across Europe, still profiting from the forced taking of beloved historical pieces of countries like Senegal or Benin. Dahomey is about 26 artifacts France decides to repatriate back to Benin, following the artifacts as they get transferred, as well as having discussions about the who/what/where/when/why/how implications of having 26 pieces of history returned to Benin.
Dahomey could so easily have been a boring, clinical exercise in how artifacts get transferred from one place to another. But Mati Diop is much more interesting than that. She takes one of the artifacts, King Ghezo, and anthropomorphizes him. While traveling from one location to another, an other wordly voice narrates transitions putting the questions and themes of the movie into a 1st person account of what is going on. Immediately all bets are off, as that ephemeral voice draws you in, paying attention to what it has to say, leading to the next section of the artifacts’ journey. This instantly connects you to this story, bringing you along for the ride instead of just observing what is happening like a history book. Mati Diop’s greatest trick with Dahomey is making you feel like you’re now participating in history, not just reading about it, making it that much more exciting.
The 2nd half goes onto more familiar ground, putting us into a Benin university debate over how to handle these 26 artifacts. Diop reaches the right conclusion: there isn’t one, because there’s so much to take into account. Why does the President have these artifacts and not some Benin version of a museum? Why use a museum at all, since it’s a Western creation? Why are only 26 of 7000+ artifacts returned? Should this repatriation be celebrated, or condemned? The narrative voiceover gets us ready for these questions and puts us in the point of view of the moderator of the debate, listening to all sides and opinions. I suppose I’m pro having these artifacts back, thought like the students I’m also wary of them being used for anything other than education of Benin history: most Beninese kids know nothing about where they come from, in one of the most poignant parts of the debate.
I hope Dahomey is played on loop around all of these 26 artifacts, at least the debate section. Mati Diop again finds a new way into a tried and true story, putting a very specific unknown exciting new movie voice to it. I can’t wait to see what else she does, and what new tales she brings to the world from West Africa, or wherever else she wants to bring them from.