Wives of the Leopard - by Edna G Bay

About the Book

In these and other ways, the book provides an accessible portrait of Dahomey's complex and fascinating culture without exoticizing it.

Book Synopsis

Wives of the Leopard explores power and culture in a precolonial West African state, Dahomey, whose army of women and practice of human sacrifice earned it notoriety in the racist imagination of late nineteenth-century Europe and America.

Review Quotes

A truly mature work of scholarship, Wives of the Leopard blurs the divisions between political and social history, between ritual studies and military history, between anthropology and history. Edna Bay challenges existing interpretations, advancing our knowledge of Dahomey and suggesting questions and paths to pursue in the study of other political systems in Africa and other parts of the world.

--Beverly J. Stoeltje, Indiana University

About the Author

Edna G. Bay is Associate Professor at the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University and is the editor of several books in African studies.