Fiction Related to Benin:
Doguicimi
: The First Dahomean Novel
by
Paul Hazoume, Richard Bjornson (Translator)
Why Goats Smell Bad and Other Stories
by Raouf Mama (1998)
In the preface to this collection of folktales from his native Benin, Mama (now an associate professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University) states that the book springs from his ongoing project, preserving the stories of "one of the richest oral traditions in Africa, the tales of the Fon people." The anthology includes stories of orphans, children, spirits, animals, and tricksters as well as cautionary and pourquoi tales. They all share a sense of dignity in the telling, whether the narrative involves a Cinderella figure who attends the ball dressed in rags, a man who honors a leper at his wedding, or a glutton who outfoxes a self-satisfied goat. Mama's notes appear at the end of each tale. Although he's too creative a storyteller to present the tales exactly as recorded, Mama is too good a scholar not to tell what he has changed or added. A rich, varied source of lively tales for children and storytellers to enjoy. Carolyn Phelan
by Bruce Chatwin (1988)
"In this vivid, powerful novel, Chatwin tells of Francisco Manoel de
Silva, a poor Brazilian adventurer who sails to Dahomey in West Africa to
trade for slaves and amass his fortune. His plans exceed his dreams, and
soon he is the Viceroy of Ouidah, master of all slave trading in Dahomey.
But the ghastly business of slave trading and the open savagery of life in
Dahomey slowly consume Manoel's wealth and sanity."
Stuart Sevens (1990)
I read this while I was in Benin and I could totally relate to so many aspects of West African culture that the main character encountered on his wild adventure across the Sahara desert. I thought it was very funny and engrossing.
Modern
African Adventures - A look at Reality, September 9, 1999
Reviewer: kgepp@juno.com from San Diego, California
This is a story on HOW one travels in Africa. Some stories Stevens paints
may sound outrageous or outlandish, but that's exactly how it is in
Africa. Experienced in traveling and living in this fabulous continent, I
can only say "welcome to reality". The author has a very
humorous style of telling wild tales of African Bureaucracy and logic as
encountered during their misfortunate trip through the Sahara. I smiled my
way through the book that I hardly could put down. The tales are so real
(as anyone will testify who has been there) that it rocks the reading
chair of anyone getting into the book. Don't read the book, if you are
planning your first trip to Africa but read it if you want to immerse
yourself in real African mentality, shrewdness, and irrationality held
together by a humor hard to resist.
by Richard Dooling 1995
I read this when I was in Benin and loved it!- Chris
From
Booklist:
Dooling's novel reads like two different books--both worthwhile and
engaging. One is the story of Boone Westfall, a nice young Hoosier who
travels to primitive, impoverished Sierra Leone in West Africa to search
for his best friend, Michael Killigan, a Peace Corps volunteer who has
disappeared. Boone's story is the oft-told tale of a white in black Africa
who is slow to understand that his way isn't the only way. It's filled
with vivid, authentic-sounding portraits of the harshness of life in the
bush and of magic, witches, swears, and counterswears. The second story is
a spectacularly wicked satire about bankruptcy lawyers, personified by the
missing volunteer's father. Randall Killigan, Dooling tells us, has made
his name "synonymous with commercial savagery in the Seventh
Circuit" and has "less and less time for nonbankruptcy
irritations and intrusions," like the disappearance of his son. One
of Dooling's points, of course, is to make sure readers ask themselves,
Who is the primitive? Thomas Gaughan --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
by Jane Cowen-Fletcher
The author was a Peace Corps Volunteer
Reviewer: A reader from Portland, OR
I lived in Benin for two years and I must say that the drawings in this book are amazingly realistic
and incredibly detailed. It is a wonderful story for children and families. I usually give it to first time
parents (unique baby shower gift). Regarding the previous review -
"Cho" and "Yay Gay" are
interjections similar to "Oh No" or "Oh My".
Ages 3-6. The communalism of African village life is at the heart
of this cheerful picture book set in Benin, West Africa. The author spent
two years in Benin with the Peace Corps, and her realistic colored pencil
illustrations with watercolor wash show a variety of individual people in
the vital marketplace, which is filled with pottery, fabrics, baskets, and
produce. It's a simple story: Yemi is proud that she's to take care of her
little brother, Kokou, while their mother is busy selling mangoes. When he
wanders off, Yemi searches everywhere for him, but in fact, everyone in
the village has taken special care of him, just as Yemi's mother always
knew they would. The title comes from the African proverb, "It takes
a village to raise a child." Hazel Rochman
The Kingdom of Benin in West Africa
by Heather Millar
Description on Amazon- It has a copyright notice so I can't reproduce it here.
Dahomey
: The Warrior Kings (The Kingdoms
by Philip Koslow 1996
Surveys the history of the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful West African states during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and describes the important role of its military women.
Only
One Cowry : A Dahomean Tale
by
Phillis Gershator, David Soman (Illustrator)
A clever man manages to find a wife for a
stingy king willing to pay
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