Dassa-Zoumé , also known as Igbó Ìdàáshà or simply Dassa, is a city in central

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

, on the Cotonou-to- Parakou

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

and the main north-south highway. It is the capital of

Collines Department Collines (, "hills") is one of the twelve departments of Benin, located in the centre of the country. The department of Collines was created in 1999 when it was split off from Zou Department. In 2016, the city of Dassa-Zoumé (also called Igbo ...

. The commune covers an area of , and as of 2013 had a population of 112,118. Jama'at Islamique Ahmadiyya Benin built its central mosque (Mosquée Moubarqiue) here in 2010, which has a tall 18-meter minaret, just outside the city on the main road towards Parakou. Jama'at Islamique Ahmadiyya Benin also built a French/English bilingual primary school here, called Ecole Primaire Publique Ahmadiyya. The indigenous population of Dassa are the Idaasha. They migrated from the Egba subgroup of western Yoruba in present-day Nigeria to settle here. The city is known as a place of

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

; the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

is said to have appeared in the Grotte Notre-Dame d'Arigbo, around which a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

has since been built containing several shrines.Butler, Stuart (2019) ''Bradt Travel Guide - Benin'', pgs. 148-51 The city is also known for its surrounding

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s and hills, many of which contain

Orisa Orishas (singular: orisha) are divine spirits that play a key role in the Yoruba religion of West Africa and several African diaspora religions, religions of the African diaspora that derive from it, such as Haitian Vaudou, Cuban Santería and B ...

shrines. Dassa is also home to a Yoruba constituent monarchy.

History

The founders of the city of Dassa came from among the Egba people in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

around the 12th century. The kingdom of Dassa was created around 1600 and was placed under a French protectorate in 1889.

List of rulers of Dassa

References

Communes of Benin Populated places in the Collines Department Communes in Yorubaland {{CollinesDepartment-geo-stub