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49. Divination Portrait of King Gbehanzin as a Man-Shark
Sosa Adede (fl. ca. 1860–1900)
Fon, Republic of Benin
Wood, paint; H. 160 cm (63 in.)
19th century
Laboratoire d'Ethnologie, Musée de l'Homme, Paris
93.45.3

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49. Divination Portrait of King Gbehanzin as a Man-Shark
Sosa Adede (fl. ca. 1860–1900)

As an image of force and invulnerability, this monument represents the defiant response of King Glele's successor, Gbehanzin, to the prediction of a difficult reign. In his interpretation of Gbehanzin's resolve, the artist, Sosa Adede, depicted the metamorphosis of a mortal into the awesome being of a Dahomean king. The tragic nature of this work is that it was made for the king who presided over the Fon at the time of the subjugation of his people by the French. Despite his being armed with foresight and protective imagery, the shifting tide of history proved too powerful to overcome, and thus the subject of this divinatory likeness stands as a defeated figure.

This gigantesque monument of a man-shark is one of the most renowned royal Fa bocio sculptures linked to martial enterprises. Its role in the context of conquest is alluded to in one of Gbehanzin's court songs:

Gaou [the war minister] made a "bo" for me, the shark
I will try the "bo" to see
If I try this "bo" in the land of no matter whom
I will take his child as my child
I will take his wife as my wife
I will take his country as my country
I will suppress all who are there
And if someone is there
He will say what happened.1

In its focus on the individual, Fa provided Dahomean royalty with an ideal alternative to the more communal and popular forms of Fon divination that predated its introduction. In the privacy of Fa consultations, highly trained male specialists acted as intermediaries with the spirit world.2 Similar aesthetic characteristics distinguish bocio commissioned by popular patrons from those sponsored by individual kings. While commoner works (see cat. no. 40) reflect an anti-aesthetic in their overt display of the unrefined ingredients that empower them, royal bocio are invariably outwardly elegant and refined, concealing the materials within that endow them with power.3

Known as the "shark who made the ocean waters tremble," Gbehanzin was the son of one of Dahomey's most illustrious kings, Glele.4 Founded at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the kingdom of Dahomey rapidly expanded through military conquest until it reached its apogee in the nineteenth century. Gbehanzin's brief reign from 1889 to 1894 coincided with Dahomey's fall and conquest by French colonial forces. After his defeat, he was exiled to Martinique and died in Algeria in 1906.

Gbehanzin's divination sign, Aklan Winlin, foreshadowed a powerful enemy and a reign characterized by adversity and serious conflict.5 Likewise, warnings of the dangers of the ocean were pervasive.6 In an attempt to control and influence these predictions, an image believed capable of conquering and subverting them was given the form of a surreal predator regarded as invulnerable, whether on land or in the sea. Commissioned and publicly presented on the occasion of a king's enthronement, such works were believed to allow leaders to prevail in dangerous conflicts, and became icons that referred obliquely to their divination signs.7

In its fusion of human and shark features, this work embodies the transformative powers attributed to Dahomean kingship.8 Incised scales create a textured pattern across the surface of the torso, and dorsal, frontal, and lateral fins project outward. The figure's dynamic stance—left arm extended forward, right arm extended laterally and raised upward—evokes both the powers of the god of metal, war, and technology, Gu, and the ferocity of Dahomey's troops.9 The position of the stocky, muscular legs, the left leg forward with slightly bent knee, suggests a distribution of weight reminiscent of contrapposto. It has been suggested that the posture and gesture are derived from European prototypes. Local artists were aware of and influenced by outside artistic traditions through an expansionist policy of warfare against their neighbors, as well as by participation in transatlantic trade. This particular pose is shared by a group of lifesize sculptures of Catholic saints acquired by Glele's father, Guezo, from the French.10

A related work by Sosa Adede honoring King Glele portrays him as a man-lion. Glele's du, Abla-Lete, in contrast to his son's du, promised a full, rich, and prosperous life (see cat. no. 48). Over the course of a reign that conformed to these optimistic expectations, Glele commissioned an extensive corpus of impressive works that rank among the most exceptional achievements in African art. These include two additional divination portraits whose imagery draws upon phrases associated with his sign—a copper-alloy warrior figure in the Musée Dapper (cat. no. 48) and an iron war god at the Musée de l'Homme, both in Paris.11

1. Blier 1995, p. 330.

2. Edna G. Bay, Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1998), pp. 94, 256.

3. Blier 1995, pp. 30, 336.

4. Blier 1998, p. 120.

5. It includes the phrase "Gbe hen azi bo aji jele" ("The earth holds the egg that the universe desires").

6. In this du sign, one of those verses portends: "The ale bird will lose itself in the ocean while singing." Anyone holding this sign is warned to avoid the sea, so as not to be swallowed up and destroyed by the forces that reside within. Blier 1995, p. 333.

7. Blier 1993, p. 191; Blier 1998, p. 120.

8. Blier 1995, p. 316.

9. Ibid., pp. 202–4.

10. Blier 1998, p. 120.

11. Blier 1993, pp. 191–92.