Tribal Portraits - Shapero Rare Books

103. PENN, Irving.
Five Dahomey Girls, One Standing.
[1967]. Printed before 1974. Gelatin silver print, signed, initialled, dated,
numbered 4413 in ink, Penn/Conde Nast copyright credit reproduction
limitation stamps on reverse of mount, silver prints of this negative not exceeding
23 on verso. Dimensions: paper size 350 by 350mm. (13½ x 13½ inches.).
These particular girls belong to the Tofino and Aizo tribes of
the Dahomey. Their ancestors, the Fon women, the Amazons
of the Kingdom of Dahomey, carried arms and were the Kings
guard. The way they wrap their turbans gives a clue to their
status whether brides or girls in search of a husband.
Dahomey was the name of a country in west Africa now
called the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey
was a powerful west African state founded in the
seventeenth century which survived until 1894. From
1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa.
The independent Republic of Dahomey existed from
1960-1975. In 1975, the country was re-named Benin after
the Bight of Benin (not the unrelated historical Kingdom
of Benin) since “Benin”, unlike “Dahomey”, was deemed
politically neutral for all ethnic groups in the state.
ref: 77549 £19,500
Bernard J Shapero Rare Books
Tribal Portraits
75