Since 2016, our collaborator Noémie de Bellaigue has been following a boarding school in Benin. This powerful and moving work has just been collected in a book published by Polygone.
Noémie shared these images and this text with us.
In a boarding school in northern Benin, the lives of fifty teenage girls intersect and intertwine. I went there for the first time in 2016 and have returned regularly since. During my stays, I discovered a rare and precious microcosm, a refuge where a humble fight against the inequalities faced by Beninese women outside its walls is waged. Driven by the urgency of recounting this boarding school in order to preserve it, this long-term documentary work has now become a book, intended as a tribute to the resilience of the young girls of Kandi.
Peul, Bariba, Dendi, Boo, Mokole… The boarders, of diverse ethnic and social origins, come from more or less remote villages and return to their families only for holidays. In Kandi, the day dawns to the sound of brooms scraping in the courtyard. This is where the girls meet in the early morning, during their breaks or when they come home from school. Together, they chat, do their hair, do their laundry, put on makeup, cook, study, and on Saturday evenings, dance to the rhythm of their own drums. When night falls, the small solar lamps, like fireflies, illuminate the whispers of those still awake, and thus the boarding school gently falls asleep.
Here, girls learn that their will can, despite everything, shape their future. Beyond a rigorous education, over time they acquire essential tools to write their own destiny.
This boarding school was founded in 1966 by Beninese and French nuns in the heart of the city of Kandi, in northeastern Benin, in Alibori, where only 10% of middle school girls manage to access high school. This region faces persistent poverty, exacerbated in recent years by the deterioration of the security situation, due to the presence of armed groups and political tensions between Niger and Benin, with significant socio-economic repercussions for the population.
Each year, the boarding school welcomes around fifty young girls. Some attend the city’s middle and high schools from sixth grade to final year, while others pursue training in sewing, weaving, or hairdressing.
Noémie de Bellaigue
Les Filles de Kandi, published by Polygone, is available for pre-order until August 30, 2025.
The book is available for pre-order on the Polygone Editions website:
https://editionspolygone.com/shop
