How it began
Applique cloths were made for the Fon court of Dahomey in Abomey, in what is now Benin. The British Museum, citing the anthropologist Melville Herskovits, records that all such work was done by a restricted guild in Abomey. Its curators name the Yemadje family as the traditional makers within the royal palace and note that banners made around 1900 were based on patterns first made for palace banners showing battles in the reign of King Ghezo, from 1818 to 1858. The sources do not give an earlier starting date.
How it works
According to the description quoted by the British Museum, a pattern is first cut from muslin or thick paper. It is tacked onto colored cloth so the piece can be cut to shape. That piece is tacked to the background cloth, which is kept flat while the figures are sewn down. The makers sewed away from the body, not toward it as elsewhere. The guild kept its patterns, so a family could later order new cloths with the same set of images.
What changed first
The guild worked mainly on commission for chiefs and nobles. Its output included ceremonial caps, hammocks and state umbrellas as well as flags and banners. A man who had done well in war could order a banner telling the story through a sequence of figures. Kings ordered cloths with royal images such as the lion, the shark and the white-breasted crow. Many images appear to derive from the bas-reliefs on palace walls.
What lasted
Because patterns were kept and reused by descendants, the British Museum notes that the cloths became heraldic devices tied to particular families. The Albany Museum of Art describes how each Dahomey king was represented by a distinct symbol, often an animal, plant or tool, so that a single banner can refer to a king, his predecessors and his successors.
Where it stands today
Examples made around 1900 to 1912 are held by the British Museum, the Musee du Quai Branly and other museums. The writers quoted by the British Museum observed that applique banners were still made but for a commercial market, and judged that style and technique had declined as a result. Smithsonian archive records describe Fon men and boys in Abomey making banners with traditional designs and technique.
