Dahomey (Air Afrique) | 1950s

Dahomey Air Afrique, Circa 1950s, by Jean Dessirier

This striking vintage travel poster depicts a vibrant scene from Dahomey (modern-day Benin) created for Air Afrique in the 1950s. The artwork showcases a distinctive green background with a stylized stilt house village along a waterway. In the foreground, two narrow boats carrying colourful produce and passengers navigate the water under a bright yellow moon. A figure in a purple and red outfit stands at the front of one boat, using a long pole to steer, while the other boat contains passengers and various fruits and vegetables in vivid hues of red, yellow, and green. The poster exemplifies mid-century commercial travel art with its bold colours and simplified geometric forms, perfectly capturing the allure of West African culture for potential travellers.

Dahomey was a historic kingdom and later a French colony in West Africa, corresponding to what is now the Republic of Benin. By the 1950s, when this poster was created, Dahomey was part of French West Africa, having been colonized by France in the 1890s after the defeat of King Behanzin. Air Afrique, featured prominently at the bottom of the poster, was an airline established in 1961 as a joint venture between Air France and several newly independent former French colonies in Africa. The airline operated until 2002 and commissioned a series of promotional travel posters like this one to attract tourists to various African destinations.

Jean Dessirier, the artist behind this captivating poster, was a French graphic designer who created a beautiful series of posters for Air Afrique in the 1950s and 1960s. His work is known for capturing the essence of African landscapes and cultural elements with bold colours and stylized imagery. Some sources indicate he may have been born around 1900. Later in his career, Dessirier turned from commercial illustration to sculpture, but his travel posters remain highly collectible.