Dahomey’s Royal Architecture takes readers through the history of the Royal Palace of Abomey, which for author Lynne Ellsworth Larsen is simultaneously a history of kingship and power in the Kingdom of Dahomey. Larsen argues that the palace is a site of memory: She emphasizes the two-way street of memory in relation to the past and the present and how it is enabled through architecture. A fascinating biography of a building from its inception to its present uses, the book highlights how architecture exists within society and responds to it.

In the introduction, Larsen sets up dichotomies that she explores and complicates throughout the book: continuity and change, tradition and innovation, the dead and the living, deterioration and restoration, and public and private. These concepts undergird Larsen’s discussion of the palace complex’s architectural foundations—the hounwa (semipublic entrance), ajalala (reception hall), adoxo (tomb), and djexo (resting place for the king’s spirit)—which...

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