The British Museum
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La Bouche du Roi:
an artwork
by Romuald Hazoumé
March 22-May 13, 2007

La Bouche du Roi comprises 304 jerrycans forming the hull of an immense galley. Each jerrycan is identifiable, "personalized," and represents a mask symbolizing a slave carried off from Africa. The prow of this symbolic vessel features two separate ‘masks’ representing the King of Benin and the "Chacha," the viceroy appointed to Benin during the colonial period, and governor of Ouidah (one of West Africa’s largest slaving ports). The pair symbolizes the complicity of Westerners and some Africans in the development of the slave trade.


At the heart of the principles behind La Bouche du Roi is the Beninian artist’s observation that a new form of slavery exists in the world today, connected above all to economic issues, and to the precious commodity of petrol in particular. Hundreds of liters are regularly transported in jerrycans, powerful as bombs, by men on mopeds.

Artifact and word combine in the installation by virtue of a sonic background that seems to emanate from the masks themselves. In the Claude Lévi-Strauss Theater foyer, an alternating litany echoes — the names of slaves and improvised songs in five Central and Southern Beninian languages, Yoruba, Idaacha, Mahi, Mina and Holli, ‘lamentations’ or entreaties to end the suffering of these men who "know not where they go." Thus does the installation breathe life into these many jerrycan masks, transporting us into the depths of a slave trader. Subtle fragrances emanate from the side upon which the names of slaves are to be heard – coffee, cumin, and cloves ... While from the lamentations side come the odors of urine, fecal matter and rotten fish, all the better reflecting the conditions that slaves had to endure.

Romuald Hazoumé’s work on La Bouche du Roi included regular filming of traffickers going about their daily business. They go to the market, buy jerrycans, and fill them up with petrol – the petrol used by the people of Benin. The seven-minute film runs alongside the installation, playing on the slave trader metaphor by showing how jerrycans are carried across the river, and the cramped space and overcrowding during their journey. “The jerrycans spring leaks, they have to be patched up or thrown overboard, and customs officers have to be avoided. The whole of life centers on these makeshift artifacts, which become the slaves of today.” Romuald Hazoumé

The reality of slavery may have been transformed, but it is still very much there for these jerrycan traffickers, ever in danger of being handed that ‘one way ticket to the tomb’, as in the closing verse of the ‘Ballad of the Slave Trader’ a long poem written in 1686 that influenced Romuald Hazoumé.

“Contrary to what might appear, La Bouche du Roi (‘The King’s Mouth’), does not speak of past slavery, but rather of that which exists today," says Romuald Hazoume, "for it is the mouths of our present-day ‘kings’ that kill us. In times gone by, the slaves who set sail to Ouidah or Porto-Novo knew from whence they came, but knew nothing of where they were heading. Today, they still do not know where they are heading, but they have forgotten, and no longer know where they came from. I denounce an Africa and a world ruled over by corrupt kinglets who steal, pillage, hijack, appropriate, and enrich themselves at their peoples’ expense. I am not afraid of denouncing them. Today, many families are still forced to sell their children in order to survive. This is unacceptable.”

First presented in Cotonou in 1999, La Bouche du Roi explores the history of slavery and colonialism in West Africa, and the heritage it left behind for succeeding generations of Africans and Westerners.

Romuald Hazoumé was born in Porto-Novo, Benin, in 1962, and it is there that he lives and works. He draws inspiration from the ancestor cult, and since 1993 has been working on a plastic interpretation of Fa, the oracle presiding over divination: “Being an artist means answering questions, and my answers no longer satisfied me. I had to go back to the source in order to understand why we had this attitude, this fatalism ... To understand why my Yoruba ancestors made masks. This is what pushed me towards the fashioning of kaeletas (masks). I had to see what was beyond. I immersed myself in the Fa. The Fa region extends from southwestern Nigeria to southwestern Ghana. Fa is the divinatory geomancy giving knowledge of the future [...]. The work I have done on the Fa has brought me forward greatly [...].

“People, Beninians in particular, do not dare to look upon the Fa pictures, which I can understand. They say it is ‘too much for them’ so as to hide ignorance of their culture. Everyone pretends to know about the Fa, but when you are confronted with its reality, either you face up to it, if you can, or take flight if you cannot. I have, however, kept the best works, the strongest works, with me. And during the recent exhibition in Cotonou, at the Zinsou Foundation — which is currently the only center for contemporary art in sub-Saharan Africa — I observed some extreme reactions: rejection and fear from some, curiosity and a search for identity on the part of others. In any case, the masks have entertained. But, most importantly, people rediscover themselves in my work! They find themselves confronted with the timeless realities of Benin.”

Romuald Hazoumé makes his “jerrycan” masks from the petrol cans that are to be seen everywhere on the roads of Benin while being extremely difficult to purchase, and therefore much prized and carefully preserved by traffickers. The cans become highly expressive, a face being added to the traffickers’ original colors, brands and inscriptions.

Says Hazoumé, “There is not a single street in Benin where you won’t find a jerrycan of the same kind that I use: the petrol trafficking can. Petrol trafficking goes on everywhere in Porto-Novo.. [...]. It’s like the one I’ve just photographed, for I didn’t come by them easily [...]. My work on La Bouche du Roi included filming those expert survivors, the traffickers, every day, going about their daily business. They go to the market, buy the cans, fill them with petrol, and this petrol is used by the people of Benin. But when you see how the trafficking is done, you realize that the cans are treated just as slaves once were. A metaphor can be made comparing the two situations [...]. The whole of life centers on these makeshift artifacts, which become the slaves of today. That’s to say that slavery exists throughout the world today, in other, more unwholesome forms. When you see women carrying petrol with their babies on their backs, and know that the babies are breathing in petrol fumes on a daily basis ... but these women have no other choice.”

Hazoumé says, “This work shows that objects collected in Africa are charged with history. As for me, I have the power to transform an object into a ‘mask’. The most difficult thing to do is to make a simple object which says everything in few words. I can create works stripped of all display that say everything necessary. I am the keeper of this tradition, a rich tradition, which must be perpetuated and modernized (...). Today, we have arrived at a stage when everybody must assume their responsibilities. Africans first of all, for we must cast off our poverty. We must not be led to believe that others will do it for us. I am first talking to my own people. I am resisting — I want to be as my people were in the beginning. By continuing to be myself, by not aping others, by not playing at being a Western artist, I am a world artist, an artist for today. I have a culture, I come from somewhere. There is modernity in my work, and I bring it to the world, but you must take me as I am, boubou and all. I’m not in the least put out by being treated as an African artist.”

Romuald Hazoume, La Bouche du Roi, installation view.

Romuald Hazoume, La Bouche du Roi, installation view.

Romuald Hazoume, La Bouche du Roi, installation view.

Romuald Hazoume, La Bouche du Roi, installation view.

Romuald Hazoume, La Bouche du Roi, installation view.