Revisiting Verger’s Dahomey: a photographic contrast

Michigan State University Associate Professor Darcy Greene will offer a gallery talk at 3 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 2, at the MSU Museum to explain the themes in her show “Revisiting Verger’s Dahomey.” I have had the privilege of a private presentation as she was putting the show together. I can verify that this is a remarkable body of work that brings together the work of both photographers, then and now.

An overview from Darcy Greene:

While serving in Benin (formerly Dahomey), West Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1969 to 1971, I discovered a copy of Pierre Verger’s 1954 publication entitled, Dieux D’Afrique (Gods of Africa). I was captivated by its contents. I had seen a number of the activities it depicted—Vodun ceremonies in particular—in the village in which I had lived and worked. In the years since my return home I had often wondered how Verger’s compelling photographs would compare to those taken today.

In the spring of 2012, with the support I received from a Michigan State University Humanities and Arts Research Program (HARP) Development Grant, I travelled to Salvador, Brazil to conduct research in the photo archives of the Pierre Verger Foundation.

The time I spent in the archives allowed me to review over 1,000 of the more than 5,000 images that Verger had made while in Benin. I was primarily interested in examining pictures he had taken in the southern tier of the country, especially in the town of Abomey. I believed those photos would be more likely to include some of the Vodun ceremonies I had seen in Dieux D’Afrique (Gods of Africa) and I felt the scenes of village life I would see would be similar to those I would have witnessed in person over 40 years earlier when I had lived in that same area.

I was able to return to Benin in the summer of 2012. While there I spent nearly a month taking pictures in Abomey, and revisiting some of the same sites where Verger had taken his.

The work presented in this exhibition is a reflection of my ongoing interest in using photography to consider what has changed and what has remained the same in people’s lives and environments over time.

The exhibit is a reflection of my long-held interest in using photography to examine what has changed and what has remained the same in people’s lives and environments over time - Darcy Greene

TWINS

Twins with mother, Ishédé, Benin, c. 1948 – 1979
Pierre Verger

Sèmassou twins with sister, Abomey, Benin, 2012
Darcy Greene

Twins (hoxo) are favored in Benin, particularly among the Fon and Yoruba people. The shared womb experience is thought to bond the twins in a special way. Each pair is believed to share one soul. If one twin is deceased, its mother must always carry a statue (ibeji) that represents the dead child. It is expected that parents will frequently dress twins in identical clothing.
Verger’s photo is of a mother and her twin infants. The first of Greene’s is of 7-year-old Bernis Sèmassou holding her 5-year-old twin sisters, Eulodie and Eulodianne. The second is of Fabien Hounsi, age 54, seated between his 6-year-old twin daughters, Amouda and Maïmouna. Hounsi and his family are followers of Dan, the god of fertility and riches. Dressing in white is a reflection of the family’s devotion.