Dahomey

On Saturday, my parents and my roommates and I visited the city of Abomey, which formerly served as the capital of the Dahomey kingdom, whose power lasted almost 300 years- from the beginning of the 17^th century to the end of 19^th century. In fact, after gaining its independence from the French, Bénin was originally named Dahomey, but ultimately it was changed to Bénin for the sake of unifying a country whose citizens' did not all trace their lineage back to the Dahomey kingdom.

After enduring a three hour car ride, half of which was on very rugged dirt roads, the six of us and our driver gratefully pried ourselves out of our 5 person taxi that we had been “cozily” wedged into during the ride, and began our tour of the Historic Museum of Abomey. As we were led through a maze of courtyards and ancient buildings that had previously served as the kings' royal court, our guide explained the purposes of each one, as well as the significance of the artifacts stored inside some of the rooms. As it always is with historic sites, it was hard to imagine such a serene and vacant location had been teeming with life less than a hundred years ago. There were also some pretty cool artifacts, such as 11 of the 12 original thrones for the kings, the oldest one dating back to the early 17^th century.

Some of the interesting facts I learned about the Dahomey Kingdom:

There were corps of female soldiers in the king's army known as the Amazonians. They were so good at their job that they were often favored over male soldiers when going to war. One of their most infamous tactics: if they were in danger of losing a battle, they would seduce the soldiers of the enemy, sleep with them, and then kill them.

The Dahomey Kingdom was bloody, brutal, and very involved in the slave trade with the Europeans, causing them to be disliked by neighboring kingdoms. Most of their slaves were captives from wars with groups to the east, in the area now known as Nigera, and the Dahomey kings would frequently offer these captives to the Europeans in exchange for canons, guns, and bricks. The practice of human sacrifice was also favored, of which the prisoners of war were generally the unfortunate victims.

There were 14 kings of Dahomey in total, but two were banished after selling their own relatives into the Transatlantic slave trade, so only 12 are represented in the museum.

The founder of the Dahomey kingdom was originally from the kingdom of Ashanti, which was located in the region now known as Ghana.

Despite being defeated by the French, the tradition of having a Dahomey king has been upheld through the present. Our guide was a descendent of King Glèlè (who ruled from 1858-1889) which allows him the privilege of living in the current king's house, which is located somewhere in Abomey.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum, but here are a few from the trip back to Ouidah, which was just as cozy and rugged as the trip to Abomey. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures capturing the dirt road on which we spent half the trip: