An exhibition in Paris tells the story of Benin with a focus on the warriors known as the Queens of Dahomey

The Albert Kahn Museum in Paris is hosting an exhibition titled "Bénin, aller-retour," which revisits a 1930 anthropological mission to Dahomey (present-day Benin) by missionary Francis Aupiais and filmmaker Frédéric Gadmer. The show features vintage films, autochrome photographs, and historical objects on loan from the Musée du quai Branly, with a special focus on the legendary female warriors known as the Amazons of Dahomey or the Queens of Dahomey.

The exhibition matters because it draws on the museum's vast "Archives of the Planet" collection—72,000 autochromes, stereoscopic plates, and early films—which was recognized by UNESCO in 2025 as a Memory of the World documentary archive. By highlighting the history and visual culture of Benin through these early 20th-century images, the show contributes to ongoing conversations about colonial-era documentation, cultural heritage, and the representation of African societies in Western archives.