On Kings, Heritage and Democracy in Benin
In this paper, the author examines the return of kings to the public arena in Benin. Indeed, since the very beginning of colonization, the pre-colonial kingdoms have been under the watchful eyes of the rulers who, by making them heritage, lay claim to their power. The author sets out the idea that the king, as a representation of pre-colonial authority builds himself up through images of power, which nourish democratization and the processes of decentralization in contemporary Benin. Thus, she looks closely at Louis Marin’s concept of representation as power through a few portraits of kings, who emerged after the National conference discussing it in the context of Claude Lefort’s theory of the locus of power in democracy as an empty space.