[COMMERCIAL] New in 2020/21/22 Dahomey & Madagascar 1890 campaigns fr. Gringo40s

[italwars]

Slightly out of topic, but for inspiration...

The Élysée (office of the president of France) said today that statues taken by the French army in 1892 in the royal palace of Abomey, which are kept in a museum in Paris, will be given back to Bénin.



https://www.ouest-france.fr/monde/afrique/art-africain-la-france-va-restituer-26-oeuvres-reclamees-par-le-benin-6087720

    they are so ugly  that such an opportunity to make space in the musés de France should'nt be lost..

[Patrice]

they are so ugly

   ...Not sure if you are joking or what.

I find the fish-man statue (right of picture) fascinating. If someone ever makes it in 28mm miniature it could be useful as: 1) a Dahomey statue (in Dahomey in 1892, or later in a Pulp museum), 2) a "colonial-fantasy" creature, 3) some creature in a Cthulhu context.

[Belgian]

    they are so ugly  that such an opportunity to make space in the musés de France should'nt be lost..

Quite appalled, by your comment to be honest ... These pieces are Benin's national treasures taken away by invading forces.

These statues represent a nations culture and heritance and the only thing you can say is ugly? Don't think they are ugly, they are really impressive and unique in the world. True pieces of native art.

[Earlinger]

I think that giving back those pieces is a mistake due to a French ideological mode called repentance.
The world history is mostly made of wars and conquest, but also through this conflicts of intellectual, cultural and technological exchanges between conquerors and conquered.
If all countries begin to claim back what they lost or gave during their history, it will be a great mess. Especially for the most historically old countries.
I think past is the past, let look at the future. And the future is miniatures for the Dahomey war.

[Patrice]

I think that giving back those pieces is a mistake due to a French ideological mode called repentance.

That's going very political, and I'm much tempted to answer this, but it would not be wise to talk too much politics on on a hobby forum.

The world history is mostly made of wars and conquest, but also through this conflicts of intellectual, cultural and technological exchanges between conquerors and conquered.

Yes certainly. That's why we could look at it so many years later, and avoid too much discussion.
My great-grandfather was a fisherman captain from St-Malo to Terre-Neuve/Newfoundland.
Later (some years before WW1) he was a French harbour officer in colonial Tanger (Tangier, Morocco).
When I was a child I often heard my great-grandmother (his widow) saying that in Tanger when there was a storm he always went out on sea to help the local fishermen (most other French officers didn't care about them) he said that on sea all men are equal.

Um I apologize if I've highjacked the Gringo 40 Dahomey thread with all this.

Please could we talk about miniatures again.
...but I still think that these statues are inspiring to play this historical period. 

[italwars]

it's forbidden to talk about politics but it seems that some ones  after having underlined hastily that they totally respect the  most easy to follow  political side pay their tribute to the political correct imposed thinking...while , on the other  hand, my opinion and my normal esthetic sense allow me to see how are useless and ugly those pieces of wood and, while in Paris, i would prefer to look at David, Renoir, Toulouse Lautrec ecc....

[Patrice]

Please could someone moderate all this discussion or we're soon going to have a REAL big political problem in here.

[italwars]

on the other hand.. i cannot agree with the fact that art artifacts should remain or, absurdly, be given back to the original countries..some few examples, even about my country (Italy):
..i live close to the Colyseum which is , probaly, the most famous monument of mankind. Well i can assure you that is , nowdays, a real open air latrine...almost abandoned, without any true and well selected guides..with tourist forced to open their path between marauding delinquents and pushers and without any chance to meet a police officer or somebody able to say a word in English. Even the possibility to drink a glass of water or going to the toilet do not exist....Years ago i visited the Adrian Wall in UK..well ..sorry for the British Friends but in practice there is nothing ..but the visit, the replicas , the explanations, the people, the shops were so well done , elegant and friendly that it was real enjoyment for me having borne in the Eternal City..Have you nver been in Creta, In Partenone, in the South of Italy or worst of all in Pompei (the land of Mafia)?....i was..a total cultural desert...i prefer two day in British Museum to appreciate Classical or Roman art....

[italwars]

speaking about native opponents of French in Subsaharian Africa ..the same French minis used in Dahomey (Tirailleurs, Spahis, Marsouins, Bigors) could be fielded in Sudan (the French Soudan) vs big and variated armies with, sometime, an impressive pourcentage of cavalry and variation in weaponry...from bows to modern rifles...like for example the ones of the big slaver warlord Samory:

[marco55]

After Dahomey I wish Ged would do Western Sudan instead of Madagascar.
Matrk

[Captain Blood]

The discussion appears to have veered back onto topic.
Please let’s keep it there and avoid digressing onto issues and opinions concerning topics of politics and morality. This miniatures hobby forum is not the place for debate over such deep, divisive and potentially inflammatory real world matters.
Thank you.

[marco55]

Yeah I hear so much crap on tv I don't watch the news that much anymore.Getting back to the topic a "Samori"figure  plus his army would be great but I'm very happy with what Ged is releasing and I know he has a plan but maybe someday "SAMORI".
Mark

[Earlinger]

Dahomey, Madagascar, Sudan, Mali, etc...All miniatures increasing the range which allow to play the colonial history of France are welcome. Especially the conflicts where « troupes de marines » (marsouins, bigors) were involved. 

[marco55]

Yes I'm much more interested in these campaigns than the North African ones now.
Mark

[ecwcaptain]

Maybe I should finish my book of 10-12 actions for the 1892 French Campaign against Samori, and get that to print.