For sheer dripping tropical lushness of prose that at the same time is watertight and flowing, nothing can beat Chatwin's VICEROY OF OUIDAH. I have long admired the author's essays, and this is only my second (and far from last) foray into his fiction. Picture to yourself a story in two parts, each occupying roughly half the book. The first is a gathering of Francisco da Silva's descendents years after his death; the second follows his life from its humble beginnings in Brazil to his glory days as a much-loved and much-hated slave-trader and finally ending in his slow undoing in the vortex of passions, jealousies, and greed in the West African society in which he lives.

That same society was described by another great writer almost a century earlier. Sir Richard Francis Burton's A MISSION TO GELELE, KING OF DAHOMEY captures the scene perfectly some 50 years or so after da Silva's passing, including the all-female army regiments of the King and the weird dysfunctionality of his court. Chatwin seems to have taken a few leaves from Burton's book and woven a fascinating study of the rise and fall of a very limited man.

We never really see into da Silva's mind: In the first part of the book, he is merely a revered forefather; in the second, an adventurer whose decline is as precipitate as Citizen Kane's. The King's Amazon warriors howl at his passing: "It was not the leopard that killed him. Not the buffalo that killed him. It was night. Night that killed him." That -- and everything else.

At no time does da Silva understand the irony of his being a slave broker whom the slaving ship captains could trust. We do not follow the slavers to the New World, just see them off at the docks as they begin their grim voyage. The Dahomean kings use da Silva, but profoundly distrust him. When he no longer serves their purpose, they and the whole society in which he lives drive him to the final extremity.

There is one link between the life of da Silva and the celebrations of his descendents: The character of Mama Wewe. We see her only at the end of both parts, yet she unifies and justifies Chatwin's bi-partite division. Put this one on the shelf next to Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS.

The Viceroy of Ouidah was Francisco Manoel De Souza, (da Silva in Chatwin's book) who came to Ouidah (also spelled "Whydah"; part of the Abomey Empire, later called "the Slave Coast", Dahomey, and currently, Benin) in the 1750's and eventually became the main broker between African slave sellers and European slave buyers. He played a significant role in the nation's history, and was actually named Viceroy of Ouidah by an Abomey king.

Chatwin's "The Viceroy of Ouidah" (his fist novel, written after visiting West Africa) is a very well written book. I found it a pleasure to read, hard to put down (it is one of the few books I have read in a single sitting). It is a short book: nothing in Chatwin's text is extraneous; every sentence advances his story, which is an intriguing blend of fact and fiction, past and present.

Werner Herzog made a film titled "Cobra Verde" (1988, starring Klaus Kinski) which is based on "The Viceroy of Ouidah". In his "Wonders of the African World" book and television program Henry Louis Gates, Jr. travels to modern-day Ouidah and encounters the descendents of De Souza, who still live on his estate.

Chatwin possessed the rare gift of suggesting in such a slight volume the destiny of a man, of times and of places that are completely lost in the terrae incognitae blanks of our minds. The density of his prose, the way it goes so immediately to the heart of the matter (and the matter here is human flesh, corrupted by the years, sold on slave markets, cut in pieces to make Dahomey-style kitchenware) like African termits are supposed to ruin overnight wooden mansions. Quite a fascinating tale. Good fiction, it reminded me, cannot lie, it merely unfolds glimpses of truths that have or have not been but that would be lost to the historian or the anthropologist. But of course this shouldn't be read as an impartial account of the "ebony trade".

Letter to Paula Girshick Ben-Amos, author of "Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin." Your book, "Art Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin", is superb. I'm not a reviewer so the much I can see is that you lead us, the reader, easy and firmly across the ancient history of a Kingdom with her obas, uzamas, ezomos, iyases, chiefs -- and give us a handy list of the obas from Ehengbuda to Akengbuda, and teach us how they were, through the art they left behind. You make ease to understand the Civil War and different behave of various obas and chiefs. As well their relation with the spiritual world. When you refer to Father Monteleone, and the cloths "made in five or, at the most, six months" on pg. 41, using Ryder, you touch in a subject that has connection with Brazil. In the book "A enxada e a lança", (The Hoe and the Spear), the Brazilian writer Alberto da Costa e Silva depicts a panel of Africa, before the Portuguese's arrival (he starts his book on Africa's prehistory), and refers (pg. 526)to Pano da Costa (Cloth from the Coast - Ijebu), largely exported from Benin to Brazil on the first half of Eighteenth Century. It seems, later on, when the slave traffic has ended, and commerce between Bahia (Brazil) and West Coast was very strong, industrialized Pano da Costa, produced in Brazil has turned itself into a largely disputed merchandise all over the Coast, including in Benin . And moreover, in your book you teach us how to see and comprehend the bronzes, plaques, heads, in metal, ivory, clay and wood. Is all absolutely perfect. If one want to have a spotless ideas, in 177 pages, about the Kingdom of Benin, in your book one will find it. So, I indeed have enjoyed your book.

José Luiz Pereira da Costa Brazil e-mail: dacostaq@cpovo.net

Divine Inspiration is an unusual coffee table book because the pictures do tell a thousand words, and because the text is helpful and interesting, not just filler. It is a good, respectful introduction to the Yoruba religion and its many offspring in the Americas.

If you love political and political history, keep reading.

"This book is Poetry in political dialogue".

This book for it is political minded, to those which can relate to hidden international political issues, with an open mindedness. Professor Ikime wrote history which is not wanted to be known by Britain.

The book is concerning itself with two local areas known as Countries. From Benin and Nigeria, and it's governing system of people living within the area of Niger Delta. The inner trials and tribulations of the events and issues of Merchant TRADERS, the corruption's, as well as slavery, and the domination of the British exploitation through manipulation to deceive and destroy to control it. All while secretly destroying a perfectly running system which was culturally sound and prospering but exploited as non-Christian like business operations.

One man realizes that the British were wrong, now has to fight against there exploitations. Eventually, all is turned upside down and inside out and the best of the worse happens......

"The Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta" hit all the basis with facts and details. My utmost repect for Professor Ikime work.

If you love hard core political work, there is another similar book called "The Peasants Interview" which goes into a general world view look into all of the aspects of political issues of Africanism.

The Art of Benin first came onto the world stage in 1897, when the British TOOK thousands of art works which were in the Royal Palace. The Royal City of Benin was a JEWEL that was DESTROYED by the British. Many of the pieces went to London. Others were sold. For the very first time westerners saw magnificnet pieces of art executed with great technical sophistication.

The Perls Collection consists of 163 objects, and is considered to be the finest collection of Benin Art in the world. The art reflects the life of the OBA who is the central figure in the kingdom. He rules witth divine right and is believed to have spiritual powers. The art directly reflects this. Among the works found in this catalogue are the heads of the OBA and the Queen Mother, which are executed in both wood and brass. These heads were just some of the items placed on the royal altar. Other items were royal altar tusks which were carved with figures of Kings, Queen Mothers, Priests, warriors and other figures. There are brass figures of court attendants, foreigners & priests. One will also find Altar Tableaus which consists of symmetrical, standing figures. Other objects placed on the Royal Altars were brass bells & rattle-staffs. Another symbol of the court is the brass rooster, which commemorate the Queen Mothers of Benin, ivory containers, And ivory trumpets. At the end of the book is an excellent chapter on the art of the Yoruba Kindoms which were greatly influenced by the Benin court.

I am pleased that this great collection is housed in my home town of New York City, and that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has produced this excellent catalogue!

Bill Bryson meets Freya Stark... what a precious book! Caulfield has this rare ability to inform and entertain all at once. Her delightful tongue-in-cheek humour, her keen eye for detail and thorough understanding of local affairs and politics is priceless. I laughed my head off. Very best female travel author I have read. Buy it!

The mythical Amazons of Greek legend were probably inspired by eye-witness reports of female cavalry soldiers of the ancient Russian steppe. But most historical record of those fierce Sarmatian, Sauromatean, and Scythian civilizations, except for some recently excavated kurgans, has been lost to time. Over a million women fought in the Soviet armed forces in World War ll. And Eritrean women have been fully integrated in combat for the past thirty years in that impoverished nation's civil war with Ethiopia. Most women warriors have fought in gender-integrated regiments under male command. None have been so thoroughly documented as the all-female regiments of Dahomey amazons. Author Alpern has done a remarkable job of translating those documents for a comprehensive history of this once-splendid African kingdom. As early as 1729, European traders recorded existence of the fighting-women of the Fon (Dahomey people) and their neighbors the Ashanti. Originally retained as an elite royal guard, Dahomey amazons held semi-sacred status as celibate warrior "wives" of the King. They prided themselves on their hardened physiques and highly-trained martial skills, and constantly strove to outperform their male counterparts. During two centuries of raids and wars against neighboring kingdoms, Dahomeyan women increased their reputation as merciless undefeatable opponants. By 1890 they comprised over 30 percent of the Dahomey fighting force. With considerable bloodshed, and at cost of some 2000 amazons' lives, the Fon were finally defeated by the French Foreign Legion in 1892. The commanders of the Legionaires wrote admiringly of the "incredible courage and audacity" of the amazons, who did not flinch from superior French firepower and made the "ulimate sacrifice for their King". The last surviving veteran of the female regiments died in 1979, four years after Dahomey achieved independence and changed its name to Benin. Mr. Alpern's fascinating book has rekindled interest in the amazons, who otherwise might have faded into obscurity. Recently the bimonthly magazine "Military History" published an article, apparently based on material from the book, about the final battle between the Dahomey amazons and their French conquerers.

We are talking about female soldiers with their own officers and uniforms, formed into units and trained to fight with muskets, machetes and their bare teeth. The first part of the book covers these subjects, plus the physical and insensitivity training they had to help them overcome pain and increase discipline.
The second part deals with their history in battle from their first use against other tribes to their last battles against the French before the kingdom's downfall.

Amazons of Black Sparta is good reading whether your interest is military or ethnographic.

The first half of the book is arranged topically, laying a groundwork for the campaigns that follow. Each chapter presents an aspect of Amazon life and the culture that produced it. The chapters stand alone, although the topics build on one another to give a well-rounded image of this unique fighting force.

I found the cultural descriptions fascinating and, for the most part, well-researched particularly because I live and work among a people that were once a part of the Dahomey kingdom. Many of the things Alpern describes are still a part of daily life in rural Benin (formerly Dahomey); others have disappeared with history. The memory of the Amazons, however, is still very alive and elders still tell stories of the women who tore trees out of the ground to use as clubs. Alpern has done a good job drawing from a variety of sources to separate fact from fiction and to produce believable yet amazing history.

The second half of the book will be more interesting to the military-minded. The chapters are arranged more chronologically and give accounts of battles, tactics, and the eventual downfall of Dahomey as an independent kingdom. Many of these places are easy to find today and the oral tradition lives on, although there are no battlefield markers or museums to commemorate them.

Stanley Alpern's style is smooth, easy reading, neither too technical nor too simplistic. For those who want a taste of the culture and a good understanding of the Amazons this is an excellent introduction. For those interested in an unusual military phenomenon and an account of military cultures colliding, this will spice up your library.

In any case, this book was well worth the price and the time it took to read.

The subtitle of this work is "the impact of white civilization on three great African monarchies". The author states that many African kingdoms succumbed to the pressure of a new civilization and new technology. Some tried to adapt to the new ways, others retreated or fought against them. It mattered little which tactic they adopted. Most African kingdoms disappeared under the onslaught of European colonialism. A few survived, but always as puppets or anachronisms living at the mercy of a colonial power. Scholefield's aim is to tell the story of three such kingdoms---the old kingdom of Congo, Dahomey, and Lesotho---widely separated geographically, but sharing similar struggles. He does so on the basis of English language sources only.

South African-born author of seven novels by 1974, Alan Scholefield comes to comparative history with a gift for story-telling and capturing interesting details. THE DARK KINGDOMS is certainly well-written and will keep your attention. Whether or not it is professional history is another question. I would say that this volume is excellent for whetting one's appetite for a knowledge of African history, for getting students interested in various questions in the field, and as a starting point for further readings. However, the author does not stick to his topic, often wandering into byways and circumlocutions that are fascinating, but produce no ammunition for his stated aim of describing the impact of Europe on Africa. The tendency is most acute in the section on Dahomey, where Richard Burton, his life and activities in Africa take over from the matter at hand. I felt that Scholefield really does not say what impact Europe had on Dahomey, other than a kind of postscript in which he tells how the French finally took over, while his chapter was entirely on the English ! The chapter on Lesotho and its relations with English, Afrikaaners, and other African peoples is best, perhaps because the story is most familiar to the author. In addition, too much time may have been spent detailing lurid episodes of cannibalism, ritual murder, the slave trade, tribal wars, etc. This always draws in readers, true, but is it necessary for a serious history ? In conclusion, I cannot say THE DARK KINGDOMS is bad. There are interesting illustrations and three decent maps. The author attempted to be fair in his portraits, he wrote interestingly, and I enjoyed the book. Is it good history ? Did he write what he said he was going to write ? These questions made me hesitate to give it four stars, but I do so on the basis of readability.

Robert B. Edgerton's book is probably the worst book on the Amazons of Dahomey. Unsubstantiated (and wrong) accounts of lesbianism, ill-researched 'facts', and sweeping generalisations abound, not only of the women themselves, but of other African cultures, most notably the Kikuyu and the bride-price custom he writes about.

Anyone seeking a concise history of these women warriors should see Stanley B. Alpern's 'Amazons of Black Sparta'. The Amazon reviews of Alpern's work point to the book's excellence and worth.