Writing on the Road: Identity Formation and Place-Making in Post-Colonial Dahomey and Benin
Marcus Filippello
Assistant Professor
History
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Time and Location
12:00pm, 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI
Download Poster (pdf)
Description
In an era of independence, leaders of African states drew on infrastructure projects and the building of infrastructure as a means develop local economies. In this paper, Filippello explores the government of Dahomey and Benin’s role in re-building a road crossing a valley of seasonal wetlands in the southeastern part of the country. Using the road as a category of analysis, he also examines how a local community living in the valley refashioned its collective identity during the construction process.
Bio
Marcus Filippello is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. His current project, Crossing the ‘Black Earth’: A Biography of a West African Road, explores the complex nature of relationships between Africans and their surrounding