Féral Benga: African Muse of Modernism
41 • November 2017 44 • Nka DOI 10.1215/10757163-4271641 © 2017 by Nka Publications I n 1923, at the age of seventeen, François Benga (1906–57) left his native Dakar, Senegal, and traveled with his father to Paris. His father, who treated the young Benga badly, worked for the French colonial administration in Senegal and was educated by Catholic missionaries in France. While on this trip, François ran away and worked odd jobs to make ends meet. In 1925, learning that the Folies Bergère was on the lookout for black dancers, Benga auditioned and was hired. He then adopted the stage name “Féral” (wild, untamed) and within a few years became one of the star attractions of the Parisian music-hall scene. From the mid-1920s into the 1930s, Benga was the “darling” of the international elite dance and performing arts circuit and attracted the attention of some European and American modern artists. The latter group, whose depictions of him are briefly discussed in this essay, include Richmond Barthé, George Platt Lynes, James A. Porter, and Carl Van Vechten. Féral Benga’s body, I argue here, serves as a nexus through which the black Atlantic is revealed as a creative dialogue between white modernists and those of the black diaspora. Benga’s role as a dancer and artist’s model lays bare the extent to which African and African American artists have played FÉRAL BENGA