5 - Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey

Abstract

Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey by Edna G. Bay. University of Virginia Press, 1998, 350pp. ISBN 0-8139-1791-3 – ISBN 0-
8139-1792-1

Wives of the Leopard is probably the last book published on Danxome, although it was published by the Virginia University Press as far back as 1998.² Given the rapid pace of review of fresh ideas in the academic world, writing about this subject some ten years after publication might look anachronistic.
However, I presume that, for most of us, this book remains very current for two critical reasons: firstly, while it may constitute old stuff for the Anglophone academia, their francophone colleagues may yet not be very conversant with it. Secondly, for us Beninese, this book raises such vital questions that transcend time and space...