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Glele, or Badohou (died December 29, 1889), was the tenth
King of Dahomey
The King of Dahomey (''Ahosu'' in the Fon language) was the ruler of Dahomey, an African kingdom in the southern part of present-day Benin, which lasted from 1600 until 1900 when the French Third Republic abolished the political authority of the ...
, ruling from 1858 until his suicide in 1889.
Life
Badohou, who took the throne name Glele, is considered (if
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 ...
is not counted) to be the tenth King of the Aja
kingdom of 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 ...
(part of modern-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 ...
).
He succeeded his father,
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 ...
, and ruled from 1858 to 1889.
Glele continued his father's successful war campaigns, in part to avenge his father's death, in part to capture
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 ...
. During his rule he sustained Dahomey's renaissance as a center of palm oil sales and slave trade.
Glele also signed treaties with the French, who had previously acquired a concession in
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 ...
from its king. The French were successful in negotiating with Glele and receiving a grant for a
customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...
and
commerce
Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...
concession in
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 ...
during his reign. Glele resisted British diplomatic overtures, however, distrusting their manners and noting that they were much more activist in their opposition to the
slave trade
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 ...
: though revolutionary France itself had outlawed
slavery
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 ...
at the end of the 18th century it allowed the trade to continue elsewhere; Britain outlawed slavery in the United Kingdom and in its overseas possessions in 1833,
and had its navy make raids against slavers along the
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
n coast
starting in 1840.
Glele's symbols are the lion and the ritual knife of the adepts of
Gu (
Vodou of fire, iron, war, and cutting edges). His favorite wife was
Visesegan Visesegan was an African official, the favorite wife of Glele, King of Dahomey. Visesegan was tononu of the Dahomey, a rank comparable to being the head of the wives. The first records of her date to 1863, when Richard Burton recorded that she was ...
.
Glele, despite the formal end of the slave trade and its interdiction by the Europeans, and
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
powers, continued slavery as a domestic institution: his fields were primarily cared for by slaves, and slaves became a major source of 'messengers to the ancestors' (
sacrificial
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exis ...
victims) in ceremonies.
In 1860, he met with William Foster, captain of the ''
Clotilda'', the final ship to (illegally) take slaves to the United States, presumably to approve the sale.
Near the end of Glele's reign, relations with France deteriorated due to Cotonou's growing commercial influence and differences of interpretation between Dahomey and France over the extent and terms of the Cotonou concession grant. Glele died suddenly just before the French arrived for negotiations, possibly by suicide.
Glele's son Prince Kondo handled negotiations with the French.
Glele died on December 29, 1889, to be succeeded by his son Kondo, who took the name
Béhanzin.
References
{{Monarchs of Dahomey
Kings of Dahomey
Year of birth unknown
1889 deaths
19th-century monarchs in Africa
19th century in the Kingdom of Dahomey