Maximilien Quénum

Maximilien Quénum was born on December 5, 1911, in Ouidah, a nephew of Prince Kojo Tovalou Houénou. Educated in Dakar and France, Quénum became one of the earliest indigenous African ethnologists to document traditional Dahomeyan culture from within.

In 1938, he published his seminal ethnographic masterwork, Au pays des Fons: us et coutumes du Dahomey, which was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix de l'Académie Française. His 1946 novel Trois légendes africaines retold ancestral oral legends with literary grace. He also served as a senator in the French Union, defending the political rights of colonial subjects.