The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a
West African kingdom located within present-day
Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...
that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the
Fon people
The Fon people, also called Fon nu, Agadja or Dahomey, are a Gbe ethnic group.[Fon people]
Encyclopædia Britan ...
in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by expanding south to conquer key cities like
Whydah belonging to the
Kingdom of Whydah
The Kingdom of Whydah ( known locally as; ''Glexwe'' / ''Glehoue'', but also known and spelt in old literature as; ''Hueda'', ''Whidah,'' ''Ajuda'', ''Ouidah'', ''Whidaw,'' ''Juida'', and ''Juda'' ( yo, Igelefe; french: Ouidah) was a kingdom on ...
on the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
coast which granted it unhindered access to the tricontinental
triangular trade
Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset t ...
.
For much of the middle 19th century, the Kingdom of Dahomey became a key regional state, after eventually ending tributary status to the
Oyo Empire
The Oyo Empire was a powerful Yoruba empire of West Africa made up of parts of present-day eastern Benin and western Nigeria (including Southwest zone and the western half of Northcentral zone). It grew to become the largest Yoruba language, ...
.
European visitors extensively documented the kingdom, and it became one of the most familiar African nations to Europeans.
[ The Kingdom of Dahomey was an important regional power that had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and ]slave labor
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, significant international trade and diplomatic relations with Europeans
Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) ...
, a centralized administration, taxation systems, and an organized military. Notable in the kingdom were significant artwork, an all-female military unit called the Dahomey Amazons
The Dahomey Mino (Fon language, Fon: Agojie, Agoji, Mino, or Minon) were a Fon people, Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey (in today's Benin, West Africa) that existed from the 17th century until the late 19th century. The ...
by European observers, and the elaborate religious practices of Vodun
Vodun (meaning ''spirit'' in the Fon, Gun and Ewe languages, with a nasal high-tone ''u''; also spelled Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Vudu, Voudou, Voodoo, etc.) is a religion practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and ...
.[R. Rummel (1997)"]
Death by government
'". Transaction Publishers. p. 63.
The growth of Dahomey coincided with the growth of the Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
, and it became known to Europeans as a major supplier of slaves. As a highly militaristic society constantly organised for warfare, it engaged in wars and raids against neighboring nations and sold captives into the Atlantic slave trade in exchange for European goods such as rifles
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with bo ...
, gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...
, fabrics, cowrie shells
Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
The term ''porcelain'' derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell (''porcellana'') du ...
, tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
, pipes
Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to:
Objects
* Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules
** Piping, the use of pipes in industry
* Smoking pipe
** Tobacco pipe
* Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circula ...
, and alcohol. Other remaining captives became slaves in Dahomey, where they worked on royal plantations or were subject to human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
during the festival celebrations known as the Annual Customs of Dahomey
The Annual Customs of Dahomey (''xwetanu'' or ''huetanu'' in Fon) were the main yearly celebration in the Kingdom of Dahomey, held at the capital, Abomey. These ceremonies were largely started under King Agaja around 1730 and involved significan ...
. Human sacrifice was often exaggerated, however, by contemporary anti-abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
Western authors, who sought to justify the continued need for slavery as a means to "rescue" Africans from a worse fate in Dahomey. The Annual Customs of Dahomey involved significant collection and distribution of gifts and tribute, religious Vodun ceremonies, military parades, and discussions by dignitaries about the future for the kingdom.
In the 1840s, Dahomey began to face decline with British pressure to abolish the slave trade, which included the British Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
imposing a naval blockade against the kingdom and enforcing anti-slavery patrols near its coast. Dahomey was also weakened after failing to invade and capture slaves in Abeokuta
Abeokuta is the capital city of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, near a group of rocky outcrops in a wooded savanna; north of Lagos by railway, or by water. , Abeokuta and the surrounding are ...
, a Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
city-state which was founded by the Oyo Empire refugees migrating southwards. Dahomey later began experiencing territorial tensions with France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
which led to the First Franco-Dahomean War
The First Franco-Dahomean War was fought in 1890 between France, led by General Alfred-Amédée Dodds, and Dahomey under King Béhanzin.
Background
At the close of the 19th century, European powers were busy conquering and colonising much o ...
in 1890, resulting in French victory. The kingdom finally fell in 1894 when the last king, Béhanzin
Béhanzin ( – 10 December 1906) is considered the eleventh (if Adandozan is not counted) King of Dahomey, modern-day Republic of Benin. Upon taking the throne, he changed his name from Kondo.
Biography
He succeeded his father, Glele, an ...
, was defeated by France in the Second Franco-Dahomean War
The Second Franco-Dahomean War, which raged from 1892 to 1894, was a major conflict between France, led by General Alfred-Amédée Dodds, and Dahomey under King Béhanzin. The French emerged triumphant and incorporated Dahomey into their gro ...
, leading to the country being annexed into French West Africa
French West Africa (french: Afrique-Occidentale française, ) was a federation of eight French colonial territories in West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea (now Guinea), Ivory Coast, Upper Volta (now Burki ...
as the colony of French Dahomey
French Dahomey was a French colony and part of French West Africa from 1894 to 1958. After World War II, by the establishment of the French Fourth Republic in 1947, Dahomey became part of the French Union with an increased autonomy. On 4 Octob ...
, later gaining independence in 1958 as the Republic of Dahomey
The Republic of Dahomey (french: République du Dahomey; ), simply known as Dahomey, was established on 4 December 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Prior to attaining autonomy, it had been French Dahomey, part of ...
, which would later rename itself Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...
in 1975.
Name
The Kingdom of Dahomey was referred to by many different names and has been written in a variety of ways, including ''Danxome'', ''Danhome'', and ''Fon''. The name ''Fon'' relates to the dominant ethnic and language group, the Fon people
The Fon people, also called Fon nu, Agadja or Dahomey, are a Gbe ethnic group.[Fon people]
Encyclopædia Britan ...
, of the royal families of the kingdom and is how the kingdom first became known to Europeans. The names ''Dahomey'', ''Danxome'', and ''Danhome'' all have a similar origin story, which historian Edna Bay says may be a false etymology
A false etymology (fake etymology, popular etymology, etymythology, pseudo-etymology, or par(a)etymology) is a popular but false belief about the origin or derivation of a specific word. It is sometimes called a folk etymology, but this is also a ...
.
The story goes that Dakodonu
Dakodonou, ''Dakodonu'', ''Dako Donu'' or ''Dako Danzo'' was an early king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, ruling from around 1620 until 1645. Oral tradition recounts that Dakodonu was the son of Do-Aklin, the founder of the roya ...
, considered the second king in modern kings lists, was granted permission by the Gedevi chiefs, the local rulers, to settle in the Abomey Plateau. Dakodonu requested additional land from a prominent chief named Dan (or Da) to which the chief responded sarcastically, "Should I open up my belly and build you a house in it?" For this insult, Dakodonu killed Dan and began the construction of his palace on the spot. The name of the kingdom was derived from the incident: ''Dan'' meaning "chief", ''xo'' meaning "belly" and ''me'' meaning "inside of".
History
The Kingdom of Dahomey was established around 1600 by the Fon people who had recently settled in the area (or were possibly a result of intermarriage between the Aja people
Aja or AJA may refer to:
Acronyms
*AJ Auxerre, a French football club
*Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport's IATA airport code
*Al Jazeera America, an American news channel
*American Jewish Archives
*''American Journal of Archaeology''
*, a Germa ...
and the local Gedevi). The foundational king for Dahomey is often considered to be Houegbadja
Houegbadja or Wegbaja or Aho was a King of Dahomey, King in the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from around 1645 until 1685. Houegbadja followed his father Dakodonou to the throne and formed much of the administration and religious p ...
(c. 1645–1685), who built the Royal Palaces of Abomey
The Royal Palaces of Abomey are 12 palaces spread over an area of at the heart of the Abomey town in Benin, formerly the capital of the West African Kingdom of Dahomey. The Kingdom was founded in 1625 by the Fon people who developed it into a pow ...
and began raiding and taking over towns outside of the Abomey Plateau.
Kings of Dahomey
Rule of Agaja (1708–1740)
King Agaja, Houegbadja's grandson, came to the throne in 1708 and began significant expansion of the Kingdom of Dahomey. This expansion was made possible by the superior military force of King Agaja's Dahomey. In contrast to surrounding regions, Dahomey employed a professional standing army numbering around ten thousand. What the Dahomey lacked in numbers, they made up for in discipline and superior arms. In 1724, Agaja conquered Allada
Allada is a town, arrondissement, and commune, located in the Atlantique Department of Benin.
The current town of Allada corresponds to Great Ardra (also called Grand Ardra, or Arda), which was the capital of a Fon kingdom also called Allada (t ...
, the origin for the royal family according to oral tradition, and in 1727 he conquered Whydah. This increased size of the kingdom, particularly along the Atlantic coast, and increased power made Dahomey into a regional power. The result was near constant warfare with the main regional state, the Oyo Empire
The Oyo Empire was a powerful Yoruba empire of West Africa made up of parts of present-day eastern Benin and western Nigeria (including Southwest zone and the western half of Northcentral zone). It grew to become the largest Yoruba language, ...
, from 1728 until 1740. The warfare with the Oyo empire resulted in Dahomey assuming a tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
status to the Oyo empire.
Rule of Tegbesu (1740–1774)
Tegbesu, also spelled as Tegbessou, was King of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1740 until 1774. Tegbesu was not the oldest son of King Agaja (1708–1740), but was selected following his father's death after winning a succession struggle with a brother. King Agaja had significantly expanded the Kingdom of Dahomey during his reign, notably conquering Whydah in 1727. This increased the size of the kingdom and increased both domestic dissent and regional opposition. Tegbessou ruled over Dahomey at a point where it needed to increase its legitimacy over those whom it had recently conquered. As a result, Tegbesu is often credited with a number of administrative changes in the kingdom in order to establish the legitimacy of the kingdom. The slave trade increased significantly during Tegbessou's reign and began to provide the largest part of the income for the king. In addition, Tegbesu's rule is the one with the first significant ''kpojito
The ''kpojito'' was the queen mother and consort of the pre-colonial African kingdom of Dahomey (modern-day Benin, West Africa).
History
Beginning in the early eighteenth century, the ''kpojito'' was a wife of the king's father, often born of co ...
'' or mother of the leopard with Hwanjile in that role. The ''kpojito'' became a prominently important person in Dahomey royalty. Hwanjile, in particular, is said to have changed dramatically the religious practices of Dahomey by creating two new deities and more closely tying worship to that of the king. According to one oral tradition, as part of the tribute owed by Dahomey to Oyo, Agaja had to give to Oyo one of his sons. The story claims that only Hwanjile, of all of Agaja's wives, was willing to allow her son to go to Oyo. This act of sacrifice, according to the oral tradition made Tegbesu, was favored by Agaja. Agaja reportedly told Tegbesu that he was the future king, but his brother Zinga was still the official heir.
Rule of Ghezo (1818-1859)
When King Ghezo ascended the throne in 1818, he was confronted by two immediate obstacles: the Kingdom of Dahomey was in political turmoil, and it was financially unstable. First, he needed to gain political independence by removing the tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
yoke that the Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
empire of Oyo had over the Dahomey since 1748. Secondly, he needed to revitalize the Dahomey economy. Both of these objectives relied on the slave trade. King Ghezo implemented new military strategies, which allowed them to take a physical stand against the Oyo, who were also a major competitor in the slave trade. He also put stipulations on Dahomey's participation in the slave trade. Under his reign, no longer would the Dahomey be traded, as they were under his brother's, Adandozan
Adandozan was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1797 until 1818. His rule ended with a coup by his brother Ghezo who then erased Adandozan from the official history resulting in high uncertainty about many aspects of h ...
, leadership. Dahomey would focus on capturing their enemies and trading them instead. King Ghezo did, however, seek to eventually lead his people toward the "legitimate" trade of palm oil.
The Dahomey were soon met with victory when they brought down the Oyo Empire and its yoke at Paonignan in 1827. While Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
's demand for slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
increased in 1830, the British started a campaign to abolish the slave trade in Africa. The British government began putting significant pressure on King Ghezo in the 1840s to end the slave trade in Dahomey. King Ghezo responded to these requests by emphasizing that he was unable to end the slave trade because of domestic pressure. He explained to them that the entire region had become dependent on the slave trading, so ending immediately would destabilize his kingdom and lead to anarchy. King William Dappa Pepple of Bonny and King Kosoko of Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
took the same stance towards the British requests. Instead, King Ghezo proposed an expansion of the palm oil
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...
trade and gradual abolition of the slave trade.
King Ghezo's reign was marked by great battles and significant changes to the empire, including the elevation of the Agojie
The Dahomey Mino (Fon language, Fon: Agojie, Agoji, Mino, or Minon) were a Fon people, Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey (in today's Benin, West Africa) that existed from the 17th century until the late 19th century. The ...
. These "Dahomey Amazon" were pivotal to the defeat of Oyo Empire. His reign also cemented the Kingdom of Dahomey as one of the most powerful African kingdoms that stood against British attempts, with Egba Egba may refer to:
*Egba people, a clan of the Yoruba people living in western Nigeria
* EGBA, the European Gaming and Betting Association
*Egba United Government, a late 19th century political entity of the Egba people that was located in what is ...
support, at converting people to Christianity, and maintained their traditional religion
In religious studies, an ethnic religion is a religion or belief associated with a particular ethnic group. Ethnic religions are often distinguished from universal religions, such as Christianity or Islam, in which gaining converts is a prima ...
, known as Vodun
Vodun (meaning ''spirit'' in the Fon, Gun and Ewe languages, with a nasal high-tone ''u''; also spelled Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Vudu, Voudou, Voodoo, etc.) is a religion practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and ...
. He abolished the human sacrifice of slaves and removed the death penalty for certain lesser offenses, such as adultery. Despite the kingdom's history of brutality, King Ghezo was often characterized as honorable and unconquerable, even by his enemies. British missionary Thomas Birch Freeman
Thomas Birch Freeman (6 December 1809 in Twyford, Hampshire – 12 August 1890 in Accra) was an Anglo-African Wesleyan minister, missionary, botanist and colonial official in West Africa. He is widely regarded as a pioneer of the Methodist Chur ...
also depicted him as "one of the most remarkable men of his age, whether we consider him in his private capacity as a man, or as a warrior and a statesmen."
End of the kingdom
The kingdom fought the First Franco-Dahomean War
The First Franco-Dahomean War was fought in 1890 between France, led by General Alfred-Amédée Dodds, and Dahomey under King Béhanzin.
Background
At the close of the 19th century, European powers were busy conquering and colonising much o ...
and Second Franco-Dahomean War
The Second Franco-Dahomean War, which raged from 1892 to 1894, was a major conflict between France, led by General Alfred-Amédée Dodds, and Dahomey under King Béhanzin. The French emerged triumphant and incorporated Dahomey into their gro ...
with France. The kingdom was reduced and made a French protectorate
A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over m ...
in 1894.
In 1904, the area became part of a French colony, French Dahomey
French Dahomey was a French colony and part of French West Africa from 1894 to 1958. After World War II, by the establishment of the French Fourth Republic in 1947, Dahomey became part of the French Union with an increased autonomy. On 4 Octob ...
.
In 1958, French Dahomey became the self-governing colony called the Republic of Dahomey
The Republic of Dahomey (french: République du Dahomey; ), simply known as Dahomey, was established on 4 December 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Prior to attaining autonomy, it had been French Dahomey, part of ...
and gained full independence in 1960. It was renamed in 1975 the People's Republic of Benin
The People's Republic of Benin (french: République populaire du Bénin; sometimes translated as Benin Popular Republic or Popular Republic of Benin) was a socialist state located in the Gulf of Guinea on the African continent, which would becom ...
and in 1991 the Republic of Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Republic of Dahomey, Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burki ...
.
Modern history
Today, the kingdom continues to exist as a constituent monarchy
A non-sovereign monarchy or constituent monarchy is one in which the head of the monarchical polity (whether a geographic territory or an ethnic group), and the polity itself, are subject to a temporal authority higher than their own. The const ...
located within Benin. Its rulers no longer hold any official powers under Benin's constitution, but they retain some political and economic influence. Modern kings participate in important Vodun
Vodun (meaning ''spirit'' in the Fon, Gun and Ewe languages, with a nasal high-tone ''u''; also spelled Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Vudu, Voudou, Voodoo, etc.) is a religion practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and ...
religious festivals and other traditional ceremonies.
Politics
Early writings often presented the kingdom as an absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute power, though a limited constitut ...
led by a despotic king. However, these depictions were often deployed as arguments by different sides in the slave trade debates, mainly in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, and as such were probably exaggerations. Recent historical work has emphasized the limits of monarchical power in the Kingdom of Dahomey. Historian John C. Yoder, with attention to the Great Council in the kingdom, argued that its activities do not "imply that Dahomey's government was democratic or even that her politics approximated those of nineteenth-century European monarchies. However, such evidence does support the thesis that governmental decisions were molded by conscious responses to internal political pressures as well as by executive fiat." The primary political divisions revolved around villages with chiefs and administrative posts appointed by the king and acting as his representatives to adjudicate disputes in the village.
The king
The King of Dahomey (''Ahosu'' in the Fon language
Fon (, ) is spoken in Benin, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Gabon by approximately 1.7 million speakers, and is the language of the Fon people. Like the other Gbe languages, Fon is an isolating language with an SVO basic word order.
Cultural and le ...
) was the sovereign power
Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person ...
of the kingdom. All of the kings claimed to be part of the ''Alladaxonou'' dynasty, claiming descent from the royal family in Allada
Allada is a town, arrondissement, and commune, located in the Atlantique Department of Benin.
The current town of Allada corresponds to Great Ardra (also called Grand Ardra, or Arda), which was the capital of a Fon kingdom also called Allada (t ...
. Much of the succession rules and administrative structures were created early by Kings Houegbadja
Houegbadja or Wegbaja or Aho was a King of Dahomey, King in the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from around 1645 until 1685. Houegbadja followed his father Dakodonou to the throne and formed much of the administration and religious p ...
, Akaba, and Agaja
Agaja (also spelled Agadja and also known as Trudo Agaja or Trudo Audati) was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, who ruled from 1718 until 1740. He came to the throne after his brother King Akaba. During his reign, Dahomey e ...
. Succession through the male members of the line was the norm, with the kingship typically (but not always) going to the oldest son.[ The king was selected largely through discussion and decision in the meetings of the Great Council, although how this operated was not always clear.] The Great Council brought together a host of different dignitaries from throughout the kingdom yearly to meet at the Annual Customs of Dahomey
The Annual Customs of Dahomey (''xwetanu'' or ''huetanu'' in Fon) were the main yearly celebration in the Kingdom of Dahomey, held at the capital, Abomey. These ceremonies were largely started under King Agaja around 1730 and involved significan ...
. Discussions would be lengthy and included members, both men and women, from throughout the kingdom. At the end of the discussions, the king would declare the consensus of the group.
The royal court
Key positions in the King's court included the ''migan'' (Prime Minister), the ''mehu'' (Finance Minister), the ''yovogan'', the ''tokpo'' (Minister of Agriculture), the ''agan'' (general of the army), the ''kpojito'' (or queen mother), and later the ''chacha'' (or viceroy) of Whydah. Each of these cabinet positionswhich, with the exception of the ''kpojito'', were headed by menhad a female counterpart to complement them. The ''migan''a combination of ''mi'' (our) and ''gan'' (chief)was a primary consul for the king, a key judicial figure, and served as the head executioner. The ''mehu'' was similarly a key administrative officer who managed the palaces and the affairs of the royal family, economic matters, and the areas to the south of Allada
Allada is a town, arrondissement, and commune, located in the Atlantique Department of Benin.
The current town of Allada corresponds to Great Ardra (also called Grand Ardra, or Arda), which was the capital of a Fon kingdom also called Allada (t ...
(making the position key to contact with Europeans).
Foreign relations
The relations between Dahomey and other countries were complex and heavily impacted by the transatlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
.
Brazil
In 1750, the Kingdom of Dahomey sent a diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
to Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, while the country was still under Portuguese rule, in order to strengthen diplomatic relations after an incident which led to the expulsion of Portuguese-Brazilian diplomatic authorities in 1743. The interest of maintaining these relations was economic, "with the aim of building closer ties with Portuguese colonial authorities and slave buyers residing in Brazil, and making sure they continued to buy slaves supplied by Dahomey rather than rival kingdoms." Dahomey was the first country to recognize the independence of Brazil in 1822.
Francisco Félix de Sousa
Francisco Félix de Souza (4 October 1754 – 8 May 1849) was a Brazilian slave trader who was deeply influential in the regional politics of pre-colonial West Africa (namely, current-day Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Togo). He founded Afro-Braz ...
, a Brazilian slave trader, became a politically influential figure in Dahomey after helping King Ghezo
Ghezo, also spelled Gezo, was King of Dahomey (present-day Republic of Benin) from 1818 until 1859. Ghezo replaced his brother Adandozan (who ruled from 1797 to 1818) as king through a coup with the assistance of the Brazilian slave trader F ...
seize power. He even held the office of ''chacha'' during his subsequent reign.
France
In 1861, the kingdom of Porto-Novo
Porto-Novo (Portuguese: "New Port", , ; yo, Àjàṣẹ́, ), also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe, is the capital of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people.
Situated on an inlet of the Gulf of Gu ...
, one of Dahomey's tributaries, was attacked by the British Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
, which was participating in anti-slaving patrols. Porto-Novo asked for protection from France and became a French protectorate as a result in 1863. However, this status was rejected by King Behanzin, who still declared Porto-Novo to be a tributary of Dahomey. Another issue of contention was the status of Cotonou
Cotonou (; fon, Kútɔ̀nú) is a city in Benin. Its official population count was 679,012 inhabitants in 2012; however, over two million people live in the larger urban area.
The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west. The ci ...
, a port the French believed was under their control because of a treaty signed by Dahomey's representative in Whydah. Dahomey ignored all French claims there as well and continued to collect customs from the port. These territorial disputes escalated into the First Franco-Dahomean War
The First Franco-Dahomean War was fought in 1890 between France, led by General Alfred-Amédée Dodds, and Dahomey under King Béhanzin.
Background
At the close of the 19th century, European powers were busy conquering and colonising much o ...
in 1890, resulting in French victory. Dahomey was forced to sign a treaty surrendering Porto-Novo and Cotonou to the French. However, Dahomey later returned to raiding the area and disregarded French complaints, triggering the Second Franco-Dahomean War
The Second Franco-Dahomean War, which raged from 1892 to 1894, was a major conflict between France, led by General Alfred-Amédée Dodds, and Dahomey under King Béhanzin. The French emerged triumphant and incorporated Dahomey into their gro ...
in 1892. The kingdom was defeated in 1894, it was annexed into the French colonial empire
The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French Colonial Empire", that exist ...
as French Dahomey
French Dahomey was a French colony and part of French West Africa from 1894 to 1958. After World War II, by the establishment of the French Fourth Republic in 1947, Dahomey became part of the French Union with an increased autonomy. On 4 Octob ...
, and King Behanzin was exiled to Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
.
Portugal
The Portuguese fort at Ouidah
Ouidah () or Whydah (; ''Ouidah'', ''Juida'', and ''Juda'' by the French; ''Ajudá'' by the Portuguese; and ''Fida'' by the Dutch) and known locally as Glexwe, formerly the chief port of the Kingdom of Whydah, is a city on the coast of the Repub ...
was destroyed by the army of Dahomey in 1743 during its conquest of the city, so King Tegbesu
Tegbesu (French: Tegbessou) or Bossa Ahadee was a King of Dahomey, king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1740 until 1774. While not the oldest son of Agaja, King Agaja (1718-1740), he became king after Agaja's death following a ...
desired to renew relations with Portugal. Dahomey sent at least five embassies to Portugal and Brazil during the years of 1750, 1795, 1805, 1811 and 1818, with the goal of negotiating the terms of the Atlantic slave trade. These missions created an official correspondence between the kings of Dahomey and the kings of Portugal, and gifts were exchanged between them. The Portuguese Crown paid for the expenses travel and accommodation expenses of Dahomey's ambassadors, who traveled between Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
and Salvador, Bahia
Salvador (English: ''Savior'') is a Brazilian municipality and capital city of the state of Bahia. Situated in the Zona da Mata in the Northeast Region of Brazil, Salvador is recognized throughout the country and internationally for its cuisine ...
. The embassies of 1805 and 1811 brought letters from King Adandozan
Adandozan was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1797 until 1818. His rule ended with a coup by his brother Ghezo who then erased Adandozan from the official history resulting in high uncertainty about many aspects of h ...
, who had imprisoned Portuguese subjects in the Dahomean capital of Abomey
Abomey is the capital of the Zou Department of Benin. The commune of Abomey covers an area of 142 square kilometres and, as of 2012, had a population of 90,195 people.
Abomey houses the Royal Palaces of Abomey, a collection of small traditional ...
and requested for Portugal to trade exclusively at Ouidah. Portugal promised to answer to his demands if he released the prisoners.
A long and detailed letter from King Adandonzan dated 9 October 1810 shows that he had knowledge of the Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
and the subsequent exile of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil, and he expressed remorse that he was not able to help the Portuguese royal family during their war against France. After detailing how he defeated the king of the Mahi nation, Adandonzan tells the Portuguese,
United Kingdom
Dahomey became a target of the British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
's anti-slavery campaign during the 19th century. The British sent diplomatic missions to Dahomey in an effort to convince King Ghezo
Ghezo, also spelled Gezo, was King of Dahomey (present-day Republic of Benin) from 1818 until 1859. Ghezo replaced his brother Adandozan (who ruled from 1797 to 1818) as king through a coup with the assistance of the Brazilian slave trader F ...
to abolish human sacrifice and slave trading. Ghezo did not immediately concede to British demands but attempted to maintain friendly relations with the British by encouraging the growth of new trade in palm oil
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...
instead. In 1851, the Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
imposed a naval blockade against Dahomey, forcing Ghezo to sign a treaty in 1852 that immediately abolished the export of slaves. However, the treaty was broken and slave trading efforts continued in 1857 and 1858.
Historian Martin Meredith
Martin Meredith is a historian, journalist, and biographer. He has written several books on Africa and its modern history.
Meredith first worked as a foreign correspondent in Africa for ''The Observer'' and ''Sunday Times'', then as a research ...
quotes Ghezo telling the British,
During a diplomatic mission to Dahomey in 1849, Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the Royal Navy received an enslaved girl (later named Sara Forbes Bonetta
Sara Forbes Bonetta, otherwise known as Sarah Forbes Bonetta, (born Aina or Ina; 1843 – 15 August 1880), was ward and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was believed to have been a titled member of the Egbado clan of the Yoruba people in West ...
) from King Ghezo as a "gift", who would later become a goddaughter to Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
.
United States
During the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, the rebelling Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
prohibited the international slave trade for a variety of economic, political, and moral reasons depending on the colony. Following the end of the revolution, President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
signed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves
The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (, enacted March 2, 1807) is a United States federal law that provided that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. It took effect on January 1, 1808, the earliest dat ...
in 1807, which officially outlawed the international slave trade at a federal level, though slavery itself would controversially persist due to domestic pressure until the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. Thus, the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
never established any formal diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Dahomey. However, the last known slave ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...
that sailed to the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
secretly and illegally imported a group of 110 slaves from Dahomey, purchased long after the abolition of the slave trade. The story was mentioned in the newspaper ''The Tarboro Southerner'' on July 14, 1860. On July 9, 1860, a schooner called '' Clotilda'', captained by William Foster, arrived in the bay of Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...
carrying the last known shipment of slaves to the U.S. In 1858, a man known as Timothy Meaher
Timothy Meaher (1812 3 March 1892) was a wealthy Irish-American human trafficker, businessman and landowner. He built and owned the slave-ship '' Clotilda'' and was responsible for illegally smuggling the last enslaved Africans into the United S ...
made a wager with acquaintances that despite the law banning the slave trade, he could safely bring a load of slaves from Africa.
Describing how he came in possession of the slaves, Captain William Foster wrote in his journal in 1860,
Zora Neal Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four no ...
wrote about her interviews with Oluale Kossola
Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis ( – July 17, 1935), born Oluale Kossola, and also known as Cudjo Lewis, was the third to last adult survivor of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the United States. Together with 115 other African captives, he was ...
, the last survivor of the ''Clotilda'', in her book ''Barracoon
A barracoon (a corruption of Portuguese ''barracão'', an augmentative form of the Catalan loanword ''barraca'' ('hut') through Spanish ''barracón'') is a type of barracks used historically for the internment of slaves or criminals.
In the Atl ...
''. A notable descendant of a slave from this ship is Ahmir Khalib Thompson
Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thou ...
, an American music artist known as Questlove. Mr. Thompson's story is depicted in the PBS Television show ''Finding Your Roots
''Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'' is a documentary television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that premiered on March 25, 2012, on PBS. In each episode, celebrities are presented with a "book of life" that is compiled with ...
'' eason 4, Episode 9
Yoruba
The Oyo Empire
The Oyo Empire was a powerful Yoruba empire of West Africa made up of parts of present-day eastern Benin and western Nigeria (including Southwest zone and the western half of Northcentral zone). It grew to become the largest Yoruba language, ...
engaged in frequent conflicts with the Kingdom of Dahomey and Dahomey became a tributary of the Oyo from 1732 until 1823. The city-state of Porto-Novo
Porto-Novo (Portuguese: "New Port", , ; yo, Àjàṣẹ́, ), also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe, is the capital of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people.
Situated on an inlet of the Gulf of Gu ...
, under the protection of Oyo, and Dahomey had a long-standing rivalry largely over control of the slave trade along the coast. The rise of Abeokuta
Abeokuta is the capital city of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, near a group of rocky outcrops in a wooded savanna; north of Lagos by railway, or by water. , Abeokuta and the surrounding are ...
in the 1840s created another power rivaling Dahomey, largely by creating a safe haven for people from the slave trade.
Notable Yoruba people
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
who were captured by Dahomey in slave raids following the collapse of the Oyo Empire include Sara Forbes Bonetta
Sara Forbes Bonetta, otherwise known as Sarah Forbes Bonetta, (born Aina or Ina; 1843 – 15 August 1880), was ward and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was believed to have been a titled member of the Egbado clan of the Yoruba people in West ...
(Aina), Cudjoe Lewis
Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis ( – July 17, 1935), born Oluale Kossola, and also known as Cudjo Lewis, was the third to last adult survivor of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the United States. Together with 115 other African captives, he was ...
(Oluale Kossola), Matilda McCrear
Matilda McCrear (c. 1857 – January 1940) was the last known living survivor in the United States of the transatlantic slave trade and the ship '' Clotilda''. She was a Yoruba who was captured and brought to Mobile, Mobile County, Alabama, a ...
(Abake), Redoshi
Redoshi ( 1848 – 1937) was a Beninese woman who was kidnapped and smuggled to the U.S. state of Alabama as a girl in 1860. Until a later surviving claimant, Matilda McCrear, was announced in 2020, she was considered to have been the last s ...
, and Seriki Williams Abass (Ifaremilekun Fagbemi).
Military
The military of the Kingdom of Dahomey was divided into two units: the right and the left. The right was controlled by the ''migan'' and the left was controlled by the ''mehu''. At least by the time of Agaja
Agaja (also spelled Agadja and also known as Trudo Agaja or Trudo Audati) was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, who ruled from 1718 until 1740. He came to the throne after his brother King Akaba. During his reign, Dahomey e ...
, the kingdom had developed a standing army
A standing army is a permanent, often professional, army. It is composed of full-time soldiers who may be either career soldiers or conscripts. It differs from army reserves, who are enrolled for the long term, but activated only during wars or n ...
that remained encamped wherever the king was. Soldiers in the army were recruited as young as seven or eight years old, initially serving as shield carriers for regular soldiers. After years of apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...
and military experience, they were allowed to join the army as regular soldiers. To further incentivize the soldiers, each soldier received bonuses paid in cowry shells for each enemy they killed or captured in battle. This combination of lifelong military experience and monetary incentives resulted in a cohesive, well-disciplined military.[ One European said Agaja's standing army consisted of "elite troops, brave and well-disciplined, led by a prince full of valor and prudence, supported by a staff of experienced officers". The army consisted of 15,000 personnel which was divided into right, left, center and reserve; and in each of these was further divided into ]companies
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
and platoons
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may range f ...
.
In addition to being well trained, the Dahomey army under Agaja was also very well armed. The Dahomey army favored imported European weapons as opposed to traditional weapons. For example, they used European flintlock
Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...
musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually d ...
s in long-range combat and imported steel swords and cutlasses in close combat. The Dahomey army also possessed twenty-five cannons. By the late 19th century, Dahomey had a large arsenal of weapons. These included the Chassepot
The Chassepot (pronounced ''SHAS-poh''), officially known as ''Fusil modèle 1866'', was a bolt-action military breechloading rifle. It is famous for having been the arm of the French forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. It replac ...
Dreyse, Mauser
Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ("Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory"), was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German arme ...
, Snider Enfield Snider may refer to:
Places
;United States
*Snider, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
*Sniderville, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community
Other uses
*Snider (surname)
*Snider–Enfield, a firearm
See also
*Snyder (disambiguation)
*Schne ...
, Wanzel, Werndl, Peabody action
The Peabody action was an early form of breechloading firearm action, where the heavy breechblock tilted downwards across a bolt mounted in the rear of the breechblock, operated by a lever under the rifle. The Peabody action most often used an ...
, Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
, Spencer, Albini Albini or de Albini (of white) is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Abramo Albini (born 1948), Italian Olympic rower
* Alessandro Albini (1568–1646), Italian painter
* Alfred Albini (1896–1978), Croatian architect
* Carlo Alb ...
, Robert Jones carbine
A carbine ( or ) is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges.
The smaller size and lighter ...
, French musketoon 1882 and the Mitrailleuse Reffye 1867. Along with firearms, Dahomey emplyed mortars
Mortar may refer to:
* Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon
* Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together
* Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind
* Mortar, Bihar, a village i ...
.
When going into battle, the king would take a secondary position to the field commander with the reason given that if any spirit were to punish the commander for decisions it should not be the king. Dahomey units were drilled constantly. They fired on command, employed countermarch, and formed extended lines from deep columns. Tactics such as covering fire
In military science, suppressive fire is "fire that degrades the performance of an enemy force below the level needed to fulfill its mission". When used to protect exposed friendly troops advancing on the battlefield, it is commonly called cove ...
, frontal attacks and flanking movements were used in the warfare of Dahomey. Unlike other regional powers, the military of Dahomey did not have a significant cavalry (like the Oyo empire) or naval power (which prevented expansion along the coast). The Dahomey Amazons, a unit of all-female soldiers, is one of the most unusual aspects of the military of the kingdom.
Dahomey Amazons
The Dahomean state became widely known for its corps of female soldiers. Their origins are debated; they may have formed from a palace guard or from (female hunting teams).
They were organized around 1729 to fill out the army and make it look larger in battle, armed only with banners. The women reportedly behaved so courageously they became a permanent corps. In the beginning, the soldiers were criminals pressed into service rather than being executed. Eventually, however, the corps became respected enough that King Ghezo
Ghezo, also spelled Gezo, was King of Dahomey (present-day Republic of Benin) from 1818 until 1859. Ghezo replaced his brother Adandozan (who ruled from 1797 to 1818) as king through a coup with the assistance of the Brazilian slave trader F ...
ordered every family to send him their daughters, with the fittest being chosen as soldiers. European accounts clarified that seven distinct movements were required to load a Dane gun
The Dane gun was originally a type of long-barreled flintlock musket imported into West Africa by Dano-Norwegian traders prior to the mid-19th century. The term is now used chiefly by Europeans living along the west African coast to generally desc ...
which took an Amazon 30 seconds in comparison to the 50 seconds it took a Dahomean male soldier to load.
Siege and engineering
In order to repress the navies of its neighbors, Dahomey built causeway
A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...
s starting from 1774. During a campaign against Whydah that year, Dahomey was able to force Whydah to fortify itself at an island called Foudou-Cong. Dahomey cut trees which were planted in the water to serve as a causeway and bridge the army's access to the fortified Whydah island. The causeway also obstructed the movement of a 700 canoe force belonging to Whydah. As a result, the Whydah army had to survive on the boats for months sustaining its forces with fish diet. According to Thornton, Dahomey used this strategy of siege causeways again in 1776 against another opponent state where it built 3 bridges to connect the island housing the opponent forces. Coastal belligerents opposing Dahomey allied with European forts against the state. Dahomey was able to capture Dutch and Portuguese forts in the 18th century through the use of ladders and sapper
A sapper, also called a pioneer (military), pioneer or combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefie ...
s. Thornton writes that in 1737, Dahomey used scale ladders against the Dutch fort in Keta
Keta is a coastal town in the Volta Region of Ghana. It is the capital of the Keta Municipal District.
Keta was an important trading post between the 14th and the late 20th centuries. The town attracted the interest of the Danish, because they f ...
simultaneously as its sappers built a tunnel under the fort's bastion
A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...
causing it to collapse when its defenders fired an artillery round within the bastion. A similar tactic was employed against a Portuguese fort with 30 mounted guns at Whydah in 1743 as its bastions collapsed enabling the Dahomey infantry to enter the fort. In 1728, Dahomey forces captured and destroyed a French fort at Whydah by blowing up the magazine that held the fort's ammunition and gunpowder. Another tactic for attacking coastal forts was the burning of nearby villages during a land breeze
A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes ar ...
in order for the wind to carry the flames towards the fort. This tactic was first revealed by a British commander at Whydah in 1728, who countered it by burning the nearby villages during a sea breeze
A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes ar ...
to prevent the Dahomeyan army from burning the villages during a land breeze.
As a result of the threat posed by Oyo in the 18th century, the state built fortifications of its own with the help of a French officer from whom they learnt field fortification
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
and artillery. According to a Dutch source in 1772, the king of Dahomey "has made deep ditches
A ditch is a small to moderate divot created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ar ...
around his entire country as well as walls and batteries mounted with cannons he captured at Fida hydah
Haida (, hai, X̱aayda, , , ) are an indigenous group who have traditionally occupied , an archipelago just off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for at least 12,500 years.
The Haida are known for their craftsmanship, trading skills, and ...
" Thornton suggests these fortifications were mostly built out of wood. Dahomey used a tactic of trench
A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit).
In geology, trenches result from eros ...
construction against Oyo where its forces withdrew into the trenches after confrontation with the Oyo force. Despite this, Dahomey was overwhelmed by an Oyo siege after the arrival of reinforcement. In the mid 18th century, Abomey was surrounded by a ditch accessible by bridges whiles in 1772 the royal residence was surrounded with a mud brick wall 20 feet high, "with blockhouse
A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
s on each wall."
Dahomey also built underground chambers in Abomey which served varying functions including that of providing military installations
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...
for the army. These souterrains
''Souterrain'' (from French ''sous terrain'', meaning "under ground") is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age.
These structures appear to have been brought northw ...
have been dated to the late 17th century. Wheeled vehicles are recorded to have been implemented in Dahomeyan warfare. In an operation against Abeokuta in 1864, Dahomey fielded three guns mounted on locally made carriages of which historian Robin Law adds that these weapons did not play an effective role in the battle. Some references exist about the possible production of guns and gunpowder in Dahomey. In 1880, king Béhanzin
Béhanzin ( – 10 December 1906) is considered the eleventh (if Adandozan is not counted) King of Dahomey, modern-day Republic of Benin. Upon taking the throne, he changed his name from Kondo.
Biography
He succeeded his father, Glele, an ...
informed a French mission that firearms were manufactured in the state. Amid the war with France in 1892, a French expeditionary force discovered tools and resources such as cartridge
Cartridge may refer to:
Objects
* Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition
* ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device
* Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators
Other uses
* Cartridge (surname) Ca ...
cases, signal rockets and electric batteries which are necessary for making cartridges and repairing firearms.
Economy
The economic structure of the kingdom was highly intertwined with the political and religious systems and these developed together significantly. The main currency was cowry
Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, ocean, marine Gastropoda, gastropod Mollusca, mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
The term ''porcelain'' derives from the old Italian language, Italia ...
shells.
Domestic economy
The domestic economy largely focused on agriculture and crafts for local consumption. Until the development of palm oil, very little agricultural or craft goods were traded outside of the kingdom. Markets served a key role in the kingdom and were organized around a rotating cycle of four days with a different market each day (the market type for the day was religiously sanctioned). Agriculture work was largely decentralized and done by most families. However, with the expansion of the kingdom, agricultural plantations began to be a common agricultural method in the kingdom. Craftwork was largely dominated by a formal guild system.
Herskovits recounts a complex tax system in the kingdom, in which officials who represented the king, the , gathered data from each village regarding their harvest. Then the king set a tax based upon the level of production and village population. In addition, the king's own land and production were taxed. After significant road construction undertaken by the kingdom, toll booths were also established that collected yearly taxes based on the goods people carried and their occupation. Officials also sometimes imposed fines for public nuisance before allowing people to pass. Several wealthy citizens stored their cowrie wealth in a building called ''akueho'' (cowrie huts) located in the compounds of their houses. Such cowrie huts were designed to protect the cowries from fire and theft. Iroko
Iroko (also known as in Igbo language, '' in the Urhobo language of Southern Nigeria, and as odum in the Kwa languages of Ghana) is a large hardwood tree from the west coast of tropical Africa that can live up to 500 years. This is the common n ...
argues that this was a form of banking
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
in Dahomey because the owners of such ''akueho'' houses regularly kept the deposits of others in the storehouse which they used as a form of loans to 3rd parties. Guyer Guyer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Adolf Guyer-Zeller (1839–1899), Swiss entrepreneur
* Brandon Guyer (born 1986), American professional baseball outfielder
* Charlie Guyer (1909–1977), Australian rules footballer
* ...
and Stiansen on the other hand, are skeptical of Iroko's theory.
Infrastructure
Royal Road
An unpaved road system was developed from the port of Ouidah
Ouidah () or Whydah (; ''Ouidah'', ''Juida'', and ''Juda'' by the French; ''Ajudá'' by the Portuguese; and ''Fida'' by the Dutch) and known locally as Glexwe, formerly the chief port of the Kingdom of Whydah, is a city on the coast of the Repub ...
through Cana
Cana of Galilee ( grc, Κανὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας; ar, قانا الجليل , translit= Qana al-Jalil , lit=Qana of the Galilee) is the location of the Marriage at Cana, at which the miracle of turning water into wine took place in ...
up to Abomey
Abomey is the capital of the Zou Department of Benin. The commune of Abomey covers an area of 142 square kilometres and, as of 2012, had a population of 90,195 people.
Abomey houses the Royal Palaces of Abomey, a collection of small traditional ...
. Its purpose was to improve the transportation of the king between Cana and Abomey. The Royal Road dates to the 18th century but most primary sources about the road date to the century after. The road stretched over seven miles in a near straight line, between the gates of the two towns and its width was estimated to be 20–30 meters. The road was occasionally kept weeded and cleared with cutlass. Primary sources give varying accounts that the Royal Road was kept cleared every two or three months or even six weeks. The road was shaded by tall trees. The biggest specimen was that of a bombax
''Bombax'' is a genus of mainly tropical trees in the mallow family. They are native to western Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the subtropical regions of East Asia and northern Australia. It is distinguished from the genu ...
tree species. Surrounding the road on both sides were intensive farms which Forbes stated in the mid 19th century, to have "rivaled that of the Chinese."
In addition, religious shrines were lined along the road and Forbes counted 60 of them en route to Abomey. A palace was built halfway along the road by Tegbesu
Tegbesu (French: Tegbessou) or Bossa Ahadee was a King of Dahomey, king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1740 until 1774. While not the oldest son of Agaja, King Agaja (1718-1740), he became king after Agaja's death following a ...
(1740–1774) to host the king as a resting place during transport. There is a lack of information about security provided across the Royal Road. Primary sources from the mid 19th century indicate that a large pair of carronades
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main fun ...
was placed on each side of the road near Abomey, which pointed towards Cana. A large number of cannons with diverse calibers
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...
were also placed at the road's end before the gates of Cana. Historian Alpern, indicates that the cannons in front of Cana might have served a ceremonial purpose because they lacked carriages to utilize.
Slavery
Both domestic slavery and the Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
were important to the economy of Dahomey. Men, women, and children captured by Dahomey in wars and slave raid
Slave raiding is a military raid for the purpose of capturing people and bringing them from the raid area to serve as slaves. Once seen as a normal part of warfare, it is nowadays widely considered a crime. Slave raiding has occurred since an ...
s were sold to European slave traders in exchange for various goods such as rifles, gunpowder, textiles, cowry shells, and alcohol. Dahomey used magical rituals for slave trading. Prior to being sold to Europeans, slaves were forced to march in circles around the "Tree of Forgetfulness" so they would lose memories of their culture, family, and homeland. The purpose of this ritual was to prevent the spirits of deceased slaves from returning and seeking revenge against the royalty of Dahomey.
Other war captives who were not intended to be sold to Europeans remained in Dahomey as slaves. There, they worked on royal plantations that supplied food for the army and royal court. Some historians such as Watson and Schellinger have argued that the shift from slave trading to a plantation economy
A plantation economy is an economy based on agricultural mass production, usually of a few commodity crops, grown on large farms worked by laborers or slaves. The properties are called plantations. Plantation economies rely on the export of cas ...
in the 19th century worsened the social perception of slaves in Dahomey. They cite reasons that slaves before then were treated as members of their master's family and they could attain free status after a generation or two. Following the intensification of palm oil in the state, it became common for slaves to be abused and ill treated. To solve this issue, King Ghezo declared the trial of cases involving the murder of slaves at the Judicial Court in Abomey.
There was a history of human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
using slaves.
Religion
The Kingdom of Dahomey shared many religious rituals with surrounding populations; however, it also developed unique ceremonies, beliefs, and religious stories for the kingdom. These included royal ancestor worship and the specific vodun
Vodun (meaning ''spirit'' in the Fon, Gun and Ewe languages, with a nasal high-tone ''u''; also spelled Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Vudu, Voudou, Voodoo, etc.) is a religion practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and ...
practices of the kingdom.
Royal ancestor worship
Early kings established clear worship of royal ancestors and centralized their ceremonies in the Annual Customs of Dahomey
The Annual Customs of Dahomey (''xwetanu'' or ''huetanu'' in Fon) were the main yearly celebration in the Kingdom of Dahomey, held at the capital, Abomey. These ceremonies were largely started under King Agaja around 1730 and involved significan ...
. The spirits of the kings had an exalted position in the land of the dead and it was necessary to get their permission for many activities on earth. Ancestor worship pre-existed the kingdom of Dahomey; however, under King Agaja, a cycle of ritual was created centered on first celebrating the ancestors of the king and then celebrating a family lineage.
The Annual Customs of Dahomey ( or in Fon) involved multiple elaborate components and some aspects may have been added in the 19th century. In general, the celebration involved distribution of gifts, human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
, military parades, and political councils. Its main religious aspect was to offer thanks and gain the approval for ancestors of the royal lineage. However, the custom also included military parades, public discussions, gift giving (the distribution of money to and from the king), and human sacrifice and the spilling of blood.
Human sacrifice was an important part of the practice. During the Annual Custom, 500 prisoners would be sacrificed. In addition, when a ruler died, hundreds, to thousands of prisoners would be sacrificed. In 1727, an English trader alleged that he witness the Dahomey massacre 400 people during a Vodun
Vodun (meaning ''spirit'' in the Fon, Gun and Ewe languages, with a nasal high-tone ''u''; also spelled Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Vudu, Voudou, Voodoo, etc.) is a religion practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and ...
ceremony. The number is also often reported to be 4,000.
Dahomey cosmology
Dahomey had a unique form of West African Vodun
Vodun (meaning ''spirit'' in the Fon, Gun and Ewe languages, with a nasal high-tone ''u''; also spelled Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Vudu, Voudou, Voodoo, etc.) is a religion practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and ...
that linked together preexisting animist traditions with vodun practices. Oral history recounted that Hwanjile Hwanjile (r. 1740–1774) was a high priest and ''kpojito'' ("reign mate") of the African Kingdom of Dahomey, in what is now Benin.
Life
Hwanjile was an Aja woman from the village of Home in an area west of Abomey, in the southern portion of moder ...
, a wife of Agaja
Agaja (also spelled Agadja and also known as Trudo Agaja or Trudo Audati) was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, who ruled from 1718 until 1740. He came to the throne after his brother King Akaba. During his reign, Dahomey e ...
and mother of Tegbessou
Tegbesu (French: Tegbessou) or Bossa Ahadee was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1740 until 1774. While not the oldest son of King Agaja (1718-1740), he became king after Agaja's death following a succession struggle wi ...
, brought Vodun to the kingdom and ensured its spread. The primary deity is the combined Mawu-Lisa (Mawu having female characteristics and Lisa having male characteristics) and it is claimed that this god took over the world that was created by their mother Nana-Buluku. Mawu-Lisa governs the sky and is the highest pantheon of gods, but other gods exist in the earth and in thunder. Religious practice organized different priesthoods and shrines for each different god and each different pantheon (sky, earth or thunder). Women made up a significant amount of the priest class and the chief priest was always a descendant of Dakodonou
Dakodonou, ''Dakodonu'', ''Dako Donu'' or ''Dako Danzo'' was an early king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, ruling from around 1620 until 1645. Oral tradition recounts that Dakodonu was the son of Do-Aklin, the founder of the roya ...
.
Arts
The arts in Dahomey were unique and distinct from the artistic traditions elsewhere in Africa. The arts were substantially supported by the king and his family, had non-religious traditions, assembled multiple different materials, and borrowed widely from other peoples in the region. Common art forms included wood and ivory carving, metalwork (including silver, iron and brass, appliqué
Appliqué is ornamental needlework in which pieces or patches of fabric in different shapes and patterns are sewn or stuck onto a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. It is commonly used as decoration, especially on garments. The technique ...
cloth, and clay bas-reliefs
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
).
The king was key in supporting the arts and many of them provided significant sums for artists resulting in the unique development, for the region, of a non-religious artistic tradition in the kingdom. Artists were not of a specific class but both royalty and commoners made important artistic contributions. Kings were often depicted in large zoomorphic
The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from the Greek ζωον (''zōon''), meaning "animal", and μορφη (''morphē''), meaning "shape" or "form". In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It c ...
forms with each king resembling a particular animal in multiple representations.
Suzanne Blier identifies two unique aspects of art in Dahomey: 1. Assemblage of different components and 2. Borrowing from other states. Assemblage of art, involving the combination of multiple components (often of different materials) combined in a single piece of art, was common in all forms and was the result of the various kings promoting finished products rather than particular styles. This assembling may have been a result of the second feature, which involved the wide borrowing of styles and techniques from other cultures and states. Clothing, cloth work, architecture, and the other forms of art all resemble other artistic representation from around the region.
Much of the artwork revolved around the royalty. Each of the palaces at the Royal Palaces of Abomey
The Royal Palaces of Abomey are 12 palaces spread over an area of at the heart of the Abomey town in Benin, formerly the capital of the West African Kingdom of Dahomey. The Kingdom was founded in 1625 by the Fon people who developed it into a pow ...
contained elaborate bas-reliefs
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
(''noundidė'' in Fon) providing a record of the king's accomplishments. Each king had his own palace within the palace complex and within the outer walls of their personal palace was a series of clay reliefs designed specific to that king. These were not solely designed for royalty and chiefs, temples, and other important buildings had similar reliefs. The reliefs would present Dahomey kings often in military battles against the Oyo or Mahi tribes to the north of Dahomey with their opponents depicted in various negative depictions (the king of Oyo is depicted in one as a baboon eating a cob of corn). Historical themes dominated representation and characters were basically designed and often assembled on top of each other or in close proximity creating an ensemble effect. In addition to the royal depictions in the reliefs, royal members were depicted in power sculptures known as ''bocio'', which incorporated mixed materials (including metal, wood, beads, cloth, fur, feathers, and bone) onto a base forming a standing figure. The bocio are religiously designed to include different forces together to unlock powerful forces. In addition, the cloth appliqué
Appliqué is ornamental needlework in which pieces or patches of fabric in different shapes and patterns are sewn or stuck onto a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. It is commonly used as decoration, especially on garments. The technique ...
of Dahomey depicted royalty often in similar zoomorphic representation and dealt with matters similar to the reliefs, often the kings leading during warfare.
Dahomey had a distinctive tradition of casting small brass figures of animals or people, which were worn as jewellery or displayed in the homes of the relatively well-off. These figures, which continue to be made for the tourist trade, were relatively unusual in traditional African art in having no religious aspect, being purely decorative, as well as indicative of some wealth. Also unusual, by being so early and clearly provenance
Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
d, is a carved wooden tray (not dissimilar to much more recent examples) in Ulm
Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...
, Germany, which was brought to Europe before 1659, when it was described in a printed catalogue.
Wheeled carriages
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...
were used in Dahomey after their introduction into the region of modern Benin in the late 17th century. Some carriages were manufactured indigenously while most were obtained as gifts from European allies. The carriages were often used for ceremonial purposes and were drawn mostly by men due to the small number of horses in the state. Carriages in Dahomey came in varying sizes and shapes. Some were modelled after ships, elephants and horses. Burton noted that the road between Abomey and the town of Cana, which was about six to seven miles long, was regularly kept weeded for the convenience of the royal carriages.
In popular culture
The Kingdom of Dahomey has been depicted in a number of different works of fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
or creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction or literary journalism or verfabula) is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contra ...
.
Literature and theatre
*In the novel ''Robur the Conqueror
''Robur the Conqueror'' (french: link=no, Robur-le-Conquérant) is a science fiction novel by Jules Verne, published in 1886. It is also known as ''The Clipper of the Clouds''. It has a sequel, '' Master of the World'', which was published in 19 ...
'' (1886) by Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
, the crew and passengers of the ''Albatross'' travel to Dahomey, where they interrupt an act of human sacrifice.
*''In Dahomey
''In Dahomey: A Negro Musical Comedy'' is a landmark 1903 American musical comedy described by theatre historian Gerald Bordman as "the first full-length musical written and played by blacks to be performed at a major Broadway house."Bordman, Ge ...
'' (1903) was a successful Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
musical, the first full-length Broadway musical written entirely by African Americans, in the early 20th century.
*Novelist Paul Hazoumé's first novel ''Doguicimi'' (1938) was based on decades of research into the oral traditions of the Kingdom of Dahomey during the reign of King Ghezo
Ghezo, also spelled Gezo, was King of Dahomey (present-day Republic of Benin) from 1818 until 1859. Ghezo replaced his brother Adandozan (who ruled from 1797 to 1818) as king through a coup with the assistance of the Brazilian slave trader F ...
.
*The anthropologist Judith Gleason wrote a novel, ''Agõtĩme: Her Legend'' (1970), centered on one of the wives of a king of Dahomey in the late 18th century, who offends her husband who sells her to slavery in Brazil; she makes a bargain with a ''vodu'' (deity), putting her son on the throne of Dahomey and bringing her home.
*Another novel tracing the background of a slave, this time in the United States, was ''The Dahomean'', or ''The Man from Dahomey'' (1971), by the African-American novelist Frank Yerby
Frank Garvin Yerby ( – ) was an American writer, best known for his 1946 historical novel ''The Foxes of Harrow''.
Early life
Yerby was born in Augusta, Georgia, on September 5, 1916, the second of four children of Rufus Garvin Yerby (1886– ...
; its hero is an aristocratic warrior.
*In the third of George McDonald Fraser's Flashman novels, ''Flash for Freedom!
Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Fictional aliases
* Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed:
** Flash (Barry Allen)
** Flash (Jay Garrick)
** Wally West, the first Kid ...
'' (1971), Flashman dabbles in the slave trade and visits Dahomey.
*''The Viceroy of Ouidah
''The Viceroy of Ouidah'' is a novel published in 1980 by Bruce Chatwin, a British author.
Summary
Chatwin's novel portrays the life of a fictional slave trader named Francisco Manuel da Silva, who is loosely based on a historical Catholic Brazi ...
'' (1980) by Bruce Chatwin
Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, i ...
is the story of a Brazilian who, hoping to make his fortune from slave trading, sails to Dahomey in 1812, befriending its unbalanced king and coming to a bad end.
*The main character of one of the two parallel stories in ''Will Do Magic for Small Change'' (2016) by Andrea Hairston
Andrea Hairston (born 1952) is an African-American science fiction and fantasy playwright and novelist. Her novel '' Redwood and Wildfire'' won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award for 2011. ''Mindscape'', Hairston's first novel, won the Carl Brandon P ...
is Kehinde, a Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
woman forced into the Dahomean army; she struggles with divided loyalty, and after the fall of Behanzin, joins a French entertainment troupe who intend to exhibit her as an Amazon at the Chicago World's Fair.
*The Booker Prize-winning novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'' (2019) by Bernardine Evaristo features a character named Amma who writes and directs a play titled ''The Last Amazon of Dahomey''.
*Behanzin's resistance to the French attempt to end slave trading and human sacrifice has been central to a number of works. Jean Pliya's first play ''Kondo le requin'' (1967), winner of the Grand Prize for African History Literature, tells the story of Behanzin's struggle to maintain the old order. Maryse Condé's novel ''The Last of the African Kings'' (1992) similarly focuses on Behanzin's resistance and his exile to the Caribbean. The novel ''Thread of Gold Beads'' (2012) by Nike Campbell centers on a daughter of Behanzin; through her eyes, the end of his reign is observed.
Film and television
*Dahomey's role in the slave trade is the central focus of the film ''Cobra Verde
''Cobra Verde'' (also known as ''Slave Coast'') is a 1987 German drama film directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski, in their fifth and final collaboration. Based upon Bruce Chatwin's 1980 novel ''The Viceroy of Ouidah'', the film de ...
'' (1987), directed by Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...
and adapted from the novel ''The Viceroy of Ouidah
''The Viceroy of Ouidah'' is a novel published in 1980 by Bruce Chatwin, a British author.
Summary
Chatwin's novel portrays the life of a fictional slave trader named Francisco Manuel da Silva, who is loosely based on a historical Catholic Brazi ...
'' (1980). The main protagonist is a fictional Brazilian slave trader who travels to the kingdom, and the character is based upon the historical Brazilian slave trader Francisco Félix de Sousa
Francisco Félix de Souza (4 October 1754 – 8 May 1849) was a Brazilian slave trader who was deeply influential in the regional politics of pre-colonial West Africa (namely, current-day Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Togo). He founded Afro-Braz ...
, who was politically and economically influential in Dahomey during the reigns of King Adandozan
Adandozan was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1797 until 1818. His rule ended with a coup by his brother Ghezo who then erased Adandozan from the official history resulting in high uncertainty about many aspects of h ...
and King Ghezo
Ghezo, also spelled Gezo, was King of Dahomey (present-day Republic of Benin) from 1818 until 1859. Ghezo replaced his brother Adandozan (who ruled from 1797 to 1818) as king through a coup with the assistance of the Brazilian slave trader F ...
.
*The historical television drama ''Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
'' (2016) portrays the real-life story of Sara Forbes Bonetta
Sara Forbes Bonetta, otherwise known as Sarah Forbes Bonetta, (born Aina or Ina; 1843 – 15 August 1880), was ward and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was believed to have been a titled member of the Egbado clan of the Yoruba people in West ...
being freed from slavery in Dahomey in season 2 episode 17 ("Comfort and Joy").
*The Dahomey Amazons are depicted in the film ''The Woman King
''The Woman King'' is a 2022 American historical action drama film about the Agojie, the all-female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey during the 17th to 19th centuries. Set in the 1820s, the film stars Viola Davis ...
'' (2022), directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
Gina Maria Prince-Bythewood (born June 10, 1969) is an American film director and screenwriter. She is known for directing the films ''Love & Basketball'' (2000), ''Disappearing Acts'' (2000), '' The Secret Life of Bees'' (2008), ''Beyond the Lig ...
.
Video games
Dahomey has been depicted in some historical war strategy video games.
*The Dahomey Amazons appear in the historical strategy video game '' Empire: Total War'' (2009), developed by Creative Assembly
The Creative Assembly Limited (trade name: Creative Assembly) is a British video game developer based in Horsham, founded in 1987 by Tim Ansell. In its early years, the company worked on porting games to MS-DOS from Amiga and ZX Spectrum platfor ...
.
*In the grand strategy
Grand strategy or high strategy is a state's strategy of how means can be used to advance and achieve national interests. Issues of grand strategy typically include the choice of primary versus secondary theaters in war, distribution of resource ...
video games ''Europa Universalis IV
''Europa Universalis IV'' is a 2013 grand strategy video game in the ''Europa Universalis'' series, developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive as a sequel to ''Europa Universalis III'' (2007). The game was rele ...
'' (2013) and ''Victoria 3
''Victoria 3'' is a 2022 grand strategy video game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It is a sequel to the 2010 game ''Victoria II'' and was released on 25 October 2022.
Gameplay
''Victoria 3'' spa ...
'' (2022), both developed by Paradox Interactive
Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an independen ...
, Dahomey appears as one of many historical nations that players can play as or interact with.
See also
* Asante people
The Asante, also known as Ashanti () are part of the Akan ethnic group and are native to the Ashanti Region of modern-day Ghana. Asantes are the last group to emerge out of the various Akan civilisations. Twi is spoken by over nine million Asante ...
* Blockade of Africa
The Blockade of Africa began in 1808 after the United Kingdom outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, making it illegal for British ships to transport slaves. The Royal Navy immediately established a presence off Africa to enforce the ban, called ...
References
Further reading
* In-depth description of the fighting methods of these warriors.
* A historical study of how royal power maintained itself in Dahomey. Bay and Alpern disagree in their interpretation of the women warriors.
* Dahomean artistic and cultural history seen through the development (up to the present day) of a single ceremonial object, the ''asen''.
* An academic study of the commercial role of Ouidah in the slave trade.
* Folktales of the Fon people, including legends of old Dahomey.
* Heavily-illustrated volume describing the royal palace in Abomey and its bas-reliefs, with a lot of information on the cultural and social history of Dahomey.
*
External links
*
{{Authority control
Countries in precolonial Africa
Kingdoms of Benin
Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a region ...
Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a region ...
French West Africa
Oyo Empire
States and territories established in the 17th century
States and territories disestablished in 1904
17th-century establishments in Africa
1904 disestablishments in Africa
Sacred sites in traditional African religions
Non-sovereign monarchy