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The Path of the Leopard: Motherhood and Majesty in Early Danhomè

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Suzanne Preston Blier
Suzanne Preston Blier
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

This article examines Danhomè (Dahomey) myths of dynastic origin, offering at once a critique and counter-narrative to the official dynastic history. Critical to this counter-narrative are the early women of the state, most importantly the mothers and wives of the first rulers. The provocative stories of these women not only add an important human dimension to Danhomè history but also raise important methodological issues, for events associated with their lives contradict much of what has been previously written about the origins of this kingdom. In Danhomè, events associated with the beginning of the dynasty were mythologized into an elaborate fiction of leopard birth and incest. While scholars have long questioned this account's veracity, to date a coherent alternative has been lacking. Through an analysis of the stories of these royal women, the forging of a new history of the kingdom's origins is now possible.

Type
Kinship and History in West Africa
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , November 1995 , pp. 391 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 An earlier version of this paper was read at the 1988 African Studies Association meeting in Chicago. Field research on Danhomè art and history was undertaken during the summer of 1984 and an 11-month period in 1985–6. Financial and other support during the course of researching and writing this essay was provided by a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship, a Social Science Research Council Fellowship and a period of residence at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. In addition to this support, I also owe a deep gratitude to the Many individuals in the Republic of Bénin who made this research possible, both by helping me to acquire permissions and by providing vital information. Translations from French were made by the author. Translations from Fon were made by the author along with Constant and Giselle Legonou of Abomey. I also wish to thank Edna Bay, Robin Law and Patrick Manning for their various comments and criticism.

2 The place-markers of other Danhomè monarchs, however, take the form of women known as dadasi (wife-king), who live in seclusion within the palace. Not only is it very difficult to talk to these women, but their positions are seen to be more ritual than historiographical in importance.

3 In this text I conform with the orthography of Segurola, R. P. B., Dictionaire Fon-Français (Cotonou, 1963)Google Scholar with the following exceptions: tonal values are omitted, hard and soft d and open and closed o are not distinguished, and h is used instead of x to indicate a gutteral h. In the latter case I include the x form in parentheses when it first appears.

4 Law, Robin, ‘The heritage of Oduduwa: traditional history and political propagande among the Yoruba’, J. Afr. Hist., XIV (1973), 207–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘History and legitimacy: aspects of the use of the past in pre-colonial Dahomey’, History in Africa, XV (1988), 431–56.Google Scholar

5 On the importance of women in the context of early court history and art at ancient Ife (Nigeria), see Blier, Suzanne Preston, ‘Kings, crowns, and rights of succession: Obalufon arts and Ife and other Yoruba centers’, The Art Bulletin, LXVII (1985), 383–401CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Contested royalty and art at ancient Ife: reading scarification as sign’ (unpublished paper).

6 The considerable danger (and difficulty) which birth entails for the mother is important in this regard. On the importance of women in Danhomè generally see Bay, Edna G., ‘The royal women of Abomey’ (Ph.D. thesis, Boston University, 1977).Google Scholar

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10 As a member of a non-royal family, his knowledge of dynastic history also was not bound by the same filial obligations as the princes who served as guardians of court history.

11 Pierre, LéonDagba, Ghézowounmè-Djomalia, La collectivité familiale Yovogan Hounnon Dagba: de ses origines à nos jours (Ouidah, 1982), 32.Google Scholar

12 In the Abomey area their descendants are also referred to as Ananu.

13 Norris, Robert, Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee, King of Dahomy (London, 1789; reprinted 1968), xiii–xviGoogle Scholar; Dalzel, Archibald, The History of Dahomy (London, 1793Google Scholar; reprinted, with a new introduction by J. D. Page, 1967), 1–2; Pires, Vicente Ferreira, Viagem de Africa em o reino de Dahomé [1797], ed. de Lessa, Cladio Ribeiro (São Paolo, 1957)Google Scholar; Burton, R. F., A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome (London, 1864; reprinted 1966), 309Google Scholar and passim; Skertchly, J. A., Dahomey As It Is… (London, 1874), 10–13, 274–84Google Scholar; Le Herissé, Auguste, L'ancien royaume du Dahomey (Paris, 1911), 279–94Google Scholar; Herskovits, Melville J., Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom (2 vols.) (New York, 1938), I, 14–16, 165–76Google Scholar; Douglas, E., ‘Contribution à l'histoire du Moyen-Dahomey’, tome i, Etudes dahoméennes, XIX (1957), 77–89Google Scholar; Palau-Marti, Montserrat, Le roi-dieu au Bénin (Paris, 1964), 115Google Scholar; Glélé, Maurice Ahanhanzo, Le Danxome: du pouvoir Aja à la nation fon (Paris, 1974), 36–40, 85–6Google Scholar; Oké, Raymond, ‘Les siècles obscurs du royaume Aja du Danxome’, in de Medeiros, F. (ed.), Peuples du Golfe du Bénin (Paris, 1977), 47–66Google Scholar; Pazzi, Roberto, Introduction à l'histoire de l'aire culturelle Ajatado (Lomé, 1979), 147–54, 197–8Google Scholar; Law, , ‘History and legitimacy’, 437–9.Google Scholar

14 Law, , ‘History and iegitimacy’, 437.Google Scholar

15 Le Herissé, , Royaume, 275Google Scholar; Herskovits, , Dahomey, I, 166–9Google Scholar; Dunglas, , ‘Histoire’, 80, 81Google Scholar; Glélé, , Danxome, 26–37Google Scholar; Lombard, Jacques, ‘Contribution à l'histoire d'une ancienne société politique du Dahomey: la royauté d'Allada’, Bull. de l'I.F.A.N., XXIX (1967), 43–4Google Scholar; Cornevin, Robert, La République Populaire du Bénin: des origines dahomèennes à nos jours (Paris, 1981), 81–2.Google Scholar

16 Agbanon, , 01 23, 1986.Google Scholar The beginnings of Agbanon's account notes that: ‘Since there were no other women at that time, he [Agasu] began to sleep with his mother. The world belonged to them. It was from her [Aligbonu's] stomach that Ganyehesu and Dakodonu emerged.’ Also of interest here is the connection which is made between pottery and vodun, for pottery vessels are important deity sacra. See Savary, Claude, ‘Poteries rituelles et autres objets culturels en usage au Dahomey’, Musée et Institut d'Ethnographie, Geneva, Bulletin Annuel, XIII (1970), 3–57.Google Scholar Also see Blier, Suzanne Preston, ‘Vodun philosophical and artistic roots in West Africa’, in Don Cosentino, (ed.), The Sacred Arts of Vodou (Los Angeles, in press).Google Scholar On the meaning of vodun generally in this area, see Blier, , African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power (Chicago, in press).Google Scholar

17 For other versions of this myth see Quénum, Maximilien, Au pays des Fons: us et coutumes du Dahomey (Paris, 1938), 12Google Scholar; Herskovits, , Dahomey, i, 166–9.Google Scholar Both sources allude to the illegitimacy of the prince-ruler.

18 Le Herissé, , Royaume, 279Google Scholar, suggests that Dogbagri was the father of Ganyehesu and Dakodonu. Dunglas identifies the father as Do-Aklin: ‘Histoire’, 85. Maupoil may be referring to this same person when he identifies Huegbadja's sponsoring ancestor as a man named Dogbagli Genu: see Maupoil, Bernard, La géomancie à l'ancienne Côte des Esclaves (Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris, 1981), 382.Google Scholar Local sources also identify Dokpo Aglin as the father of Dakodonu and Ganyehesu: Zonatchia, April 21, 1986. According to Agbidinukun (April 19, 1986), Dokpo [Dokpo Aglin] died not in Adja, but in Zado-Djodigon, a town not far from Abomey where today the coronation throne is kept (see text below). Agbidinukun also suggests that Dokpo is Huegbadja's djoto or sponsoring ancestor. Based on findings elaborated later in this article, the identity of Do-Aklin (Dobagri, Dokpo) as the tohuio of Huegbadja was probably of recent date (i.e. eighteenth century or later).

19 Agbidinukun, , 04 19, 1986.Google Scholar

20 Ibid.

21 Le Herissé, , Royaume, 279.Google Scholar Le Herissé also notes (ibid. 107) that Aligbonu came from Wasa (Ouassa). To my knowledge, however, no one has sought to examine her history further.

22 Foà, Edouard, Le Dahomey (Paris, 1895), 3–5.Google Scholar

23 Maupoil, , Géomancie, 429.Google Scholar

24 Person, Yves, ‘Chronologie du royaume gun de Hogbonu (Porto Novo)’, Cah. Ét. Afr., XV (1975), 233–4.Google Scholar

25 Law, , ‘History and legitimacy’, 15Google Scholar, citing Archives Nationales, Paris: C6/25, mémoire of Pruneau and Guestard, 18 March 1750. Some scholars who have questioned the myth have gone on to suggest alternative histories of the kingdom's founding. N. L. Gayibor (in Pazzi, , Histoire, 47)Google Scholar citing Xwla (Hwla) oral tradition (from the area around Grand Popo on the southern Togo/Bénin border) notes that Huegbadja, Danhomè's founder, may be the son of a Xwla king, Awusa (see text below). Roberto Pazzi, an Italian scholar also working in Togo, suggests still another possibility (ibid. 154, 158, n. 28), that it was a dissident prince from Danhomè (Dame) who married the Adja princess, ‘emigrated and lived at a distance, finally to return to the country of [his] grandfathers…’

26 A. Akindélé and Aguessy, C., Contribution à l'étude de l'histoire de l'ancien royaume de Porto-Novo (I.F.A.N. Dakar, 1953).Google Scholar

27 It should be noted that the link between kings and leopards is very widespread in Africa, including at nearby Tado. Among others, see Palau-Marti, Roi-dieu. The early existence of a leopard cuit on the Abomey plateau is discussed by Maupoil, , Géomancie, 530–1Google Scholar: ‘Kpo-vodun [the leopard vodun] should not be confused with the royal leopard of Abomey. Before the arrival of the Aja, who took it as an emblem, the leopard was considered as a divinity by the Gedevi. Its cult is still celebrated today. It possesses the hunkpame where the novices are initiated, and, like all the vodun, a roko [iroko tree]. But no one should pronounce the name of kpo-vodun because only Agasu can have this title’. The existence of a pre-Agasu leopard god on the Abomey plateau was also alluded to by Burton, , Mission, 297Google Scholar, who noted that Agassu was ‘the old Makhi [Mahi, i.e. indigenous] fetish that ruled Agbome before Dako conquered it’. Robin Law, citing this passage, observes (‘History and legitimacy’, 15) that: ‘While this might possibly reflect merely confusion on Burton's part, it may also represent an authentic alternative (and perhaps earlier) tradition of Agasu's origins which has since disappeared from the tradition’.

28 Agbanon, , 01 23, 1986.Google Scholar

29 Victor Awesu, Jan. 4, 1986. On the significance of the tohuio in Danhomè art and royal identity see Blier, S. P., ‘King Glele of Danhomè: divination portraits of a Lion King and Man of Iron (Part I)’, African Arts, XXIII (1990), 42–53, 93–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘King Glele of Danhomè: dynasty and destiny’, African Arts, XXIV (1991), 44–55, 101–3.Google Scholar

30 Agbanon, , 02 24, 1986.Google Scholar

31 Pazzi, Histoire.

32 Indeed according to Kudodeti, Albert (11 19, 1985)Google Scholar, an elder at the Allada palace, Aligbonu's place is not at Allada at all but rather at Houegbo Agon – the town where the three brothers are said to have met to resolve their differences before splitting to found their respective kingdoms.

33 Agbanon, , 02 7 and 17, 1986.Google Scholar

34 Agbidinukun, , 04 19 and 05 3, 1986.Google Scholar

35 Hunsa, Agasusi, 05 17, 1986.Google Scholar

36 argues, Agbanon (02 25, 1985)Google Scholar that this forest was only a stopping point for Aligbonu on her travels from Wasa to Adja-Tado.

37 Ibid.

38 Hunpegande Assohoto, a member of the Aligbonu family, noted (Apr. 23, 1986) that ‘When my parents left Allada, they brought the vodun Aligbonu here’. Others, however, are adamant that she was an indigenous woman who, like other Wasa residents, was a member of the autochthonous Guedevi.

39 Adjaho, , 05 27, 1986.Google Scholar Agbidinukun also reaffirms this, noting that the family of Adonon at Wasa ‘was Guedevi. They were here before the time of Huegbadja. The name of Aligbonu's family lineage is Azuwe, not Huegbonu like the kings’: Agbidinukun, , 05 3, 1986.Google Scholar

40 Adjaho, , 06 18, 1986.Google Scholar

41 The etymological base of the word Aligbonu reaffirms this association of Aligbonu with the road to dynastic power (ali [road]; gbo [big]; non [mother; owner]), the words together meaning ‘mother of the long road’. Agbidinukun suggests (May 30, 1986) a variation of this: ‘Aligbonu means: it is on the great road that we passed to corne into life, it is our grandmother’. Adonon means ‘mother’ (non) of the ‘hearth’ (ado).

42 According to Agbidinukun, (05 3, 1986)Google Scholar, the tohuio Aligbonu, was given to Naye Adonon to guard because: ‘It is not just anyone who you will choose for this. It is someone you have confidence in … When [Huegbadja] married her, he gave her this vodun, saying “you will be ils mother”’.

43 Agbidinukun, , 05 30, 1986.Google Scholar

44 Hunsa, Agasusi, 05 17, 1986.Google Scholar The linking of Aligbonu with Adonon is also made clear in their names. Aligbonu is called variously Aligbo Wasanu (Aligbo from Wasa) and Naye Aligbonu Adonon: Agbidinukun, , 05 30, 1986.Google Scholar

45 In this way, Huegbadja's wife, Adonon, is also closely identified with Agasu, ‘the leopard’. According to Agbidinukun, (05 3, 1986)Google Scholar: ‘When they came to see Naye Adonon, and saw that she was a good woman, they said that she would be Agasu's partner, she would be ils mother’. Agbidinukun goes on to explain (May 30, 1986) that: ‘We made a temple and we put her next to the temple of Agasu’. Agasusi Hunsa, an Agasu priest at Cana-Zungo also emphasized (May 17, 1986) the importance of Naye Adonon with respect to Agasu: ‘It is Huegbadja who took Naye Adonon to take care of Agasu’. Agbidinukun noted in turn (May 3, 1986) that ‘When we were looking for a good woman to represent it, it is there that we took Naye Adonon’. It is interesting in this light that a number of people with whom I spoke confused Adonon's identity, often calling her the mother of Huegbadja, rather than the mother of his children.

46 Kujihun, , 04 23, 1986.Google Scholar

47 Known locally as an accomplished warrior and hunter, Huegbadja would have found ready employ here.

48 Adjaho, (05 27, 1986)Google Scholar and Agbidinukun, (05 30, 1986).Google Scholar

49 Adjaho, (06 18, 1986).Google Scholar

50 Ganyehesu, (11 27, 1985).Google Scholar That Agasu was a late creation is also suggested by Agbidinukun. He, however, attributes Agasu's inception to events at Hwegbo, the town outside of Allada where the three brothers were said to have split up, one going to Porto-Novo, one leaving for Abomey and the third remaining in Allada. According to Agbidinukun, ‘Some said we would split the inheritance; others said we would guard it. Thus when they arrived at Hwegbo they dug a hole and filled it with oil. Everyone gathered around the hole with the cloths and hats, and put all that in the hole. In this way they put their inheritance in the oil. After this they took the earth that had been removed from the hole and used it to close the hole. They said if someone returns to take that, all the things will already be ruined. It was at Hwegbo that one did that. It is from this act that Agasu was born. They said no one could go back to this thing. It is already closed. That is how one got the name Agasu [aga: above; su: closed]’ (Apr. 19, 1986). This bears a striking resemblance to local traditions of vodun altar construction, with its burial of cloth, liquid and other precious materials in the earth: see Blier, Suzanne Preston ‘Art and secret agency: concealment and revelation in artistic expression’, in Nooter, Mary (ed.), Secrecy: African Arts of Concealment and Ambiguity (New York, 1993).Google Scholar Central here is a link between religious shrine construction and historical reconstruction.

51 Agbanon, (01 27 and 02 25, 1986).Google Scholar Local etymologies such as this one are important, not only because they are associated as here with invented vodun, but also because they suggest something of how such terms, individuals and events are viewed locally.

52 Maupoil, , Géomancie, 65.Google Scholar

53 The ongoing confusion about whether Ganyehesu or Dakodonu was Huegbadja's father also suggests that this attribution is problematic. Interestingly, Agbidinukun, while insisting that Huegbadja is the son of Ganyehesu, notes that Huegbadja was already a young man of about 12 or 14 when his father and uncle migrated to the Abomey plateau from Adja-Tado, (04 19, 1986).Google Scholar

54 According to Adjaho, (05 27, 1986)Google Scholar, it was due in large measure to the help of Huegbadja that Dakodonu was able to rule. See text below.

55 Le Herissé seems to imply that this is the case (Royaume, 289)Google Scholar: in his words, ‘We consider Ouegbadja as the true founder of Dahomey’.

56 Adjaho, , 06 4, 1986.Google Scholar Interestingly, by placing the shrine of the royal tohuio, Agasu, in Hwawe near the homes of Dakodonu and Ganyehesu, one is also identifying the latter with the lineage of Huegbadja.

57 Since sait was traditionally prepared in this locale, the region also was called by some, Jegbaji (‘the place to load sait’): Adjaho, , 06 18, 1986.Google Scholar Ahanhanzo, a descendant of King Glele, confirmed the importance of Adjaji in the royal history: ‘it is from Adjaji that we left to go to Allada’ (Aug. 12, 1986).

58 Gayibor, in Pazzi, , Histoire, 47.Google Scholar

59 One needs to bear in mind that in linking Huegbadja with the Hwla in this way, the recounters of this history may be seeking to advance their own political identity vis-à-vis the kings of Danhomè. Enough supportive evidence exists in Abomey, however, to take a serious look at this account. If, as Gayibor asserts, Huegbadja is the son of Awusa, active c. 1700, this would suggest that the founding date for the Danhomè kingdom needs to be moved forward, and appears to be much closer to the 1688 date for the founding of Porto-Novo (Akindélé and Aguessy, , Porto-Novo, 67)Google Scholar than had been previously thought. Interestingly Porto-Novo royal origins are also traced to the area around Lake Hina (Aheme) (ibid. 26), so the possibility exists that Huegbadja and the founder of Porto-Novo are in some remote way related.

60 Adjaho, , 06 18, 1986.Google Scholar

61 Akindélé and Aguessy note, for example, that ‘According to local [Porto-Novo] history, the Dovinou … like all the Fon of lower Dahomey fix themselves to a distant epoque on an island in Lake Aheme … where they practiced fishing from which the surname Dovi (sons of the fish net) was given to them’. See Akindele, A. and Aguessy, C., ‘Données traditionnelles relatives aux Fon Dovinou de Savalou’, Bulletin de l'I.F.A.N., XVII (1955), 551.Google Scholar Dunglas refers as well to a Guedevi account about ‘the migration of the Agasouvi, who had abandoned the banks of Lake Hen (Aheme) with its fish, to conduct themselves to the Oua-oue [Hwawe] plateau. [The Guedevi] called [the Agasuvi] “the fish who abandoned water and came onto land”’: ‘Histoire’, 87. Dunglas notes in turn (ibid. 82) that ‘The first step in the migration of the Agasuvi brought them to the banks of Lake Hen (Lake Aheme) into which the Cufo river flowed … A number of years later, the Agasouvi were chased by war from the borders of Lake Aheme’.

62 That Huegbadja's name is an allusion to his origins is stressed by Le Herissé. As he explains it (Royaume, 13)Google Scholar, a certain Agbokanzo is said to have remarked unfavorably about Huegbadja that he was like a ‘fish that left the river to live on earth’, to which Huegbadja later responded that ‘the words of Agbokanzo touched him … [for he is] making an allusion to the migrations of our tribe’. According to Dunglas (‘Histoire’, 87), ‘Soon after this … [Huegbadja] killed his insulter … saying “The fish that escaped the net never returns”’.

63 Codjovi Etienne Adandé, ‘Les grandes teintures et les bas-reliefs du Musée d'Agbome’ (Mémoire de Maîtrise, Université Nationale du Benin, 1976–7), 107. Catherine Akalogun, a maker of history appliques in the Danhomè palace ofTers further insight into Huegbadja's name: ‘they mounted a plot against him, they knew he would go to the river that day. They wanted to push him in that thing. But a person told him and he escaped. A long time later, they saw him and said they had hoped to find him to go fishing, saying “this fish escaped the net.” It is because of this that he escaped to corne to Abomey. He left Adjaha. It is because of what the people did to him that he left that country’ (July 1, 1986). According to Adjaho (May 3, 1977), who gives an in-depth accounting of this episode in Huegbadja's life, the attempted drowning incident took place at Adjaha Zouboji. ‘They stayed there and Huegbadja [caused a problem] and they wanted to put him in the river and he fled from there and went to Tado’. Adjaho suggests that it was a member of the Huntondji family who saved Huegbadja by forewarning him of the plot to drown him. Reflecting this, the Huntondji smiths historically were treated in Abomey as ‘brothers’ of the kings, and had the right to key items of royal regalia. Similar traditions of an attempted drowning in Lake Aheme are sometimes told in connection with the migration of King Kokpon from Tado to Allada: Akindélé and Aguessy, , Porto-Novo, 25Google Scholar; Oké, ‘Siècles’, 63–4. The Gbaguidi family, which welcomed the ‘Agasuvi’ when they arrived on the Abomey plateau, is also said in some accounts to have migrated there from the Lake Aheme area: Dunglas, , ‘Histoire’, 84Google Scholar; see also Akindélé and Aguessy, , ‘Fon Dovinou’, 551.Google Scholar

64 The etymology of the word gives support to this idea. Tado (or rather Sado as it is more generally pronounced in the Fon area) means to crawl like an infant (sa: crawl; do:to do) (Agasunon, , 01 22, 1986).Google Scholar Oké confirms (‘Siècles’, 49) the link between the name Tado and the act of crawling (although he stresses the low walls of the Tado palace, and how one had to crawl by them).

65 Oké, , ‘Siècles’, 54–5.Google Scholar

66 Merlo and Vidaud note that ‘Around the fourteenth century the Houéda, who were originally from Porto Novo…began fishing in Lake Ahémé. Through marriage, the Houéda allied themselves with the royal family of Adja who exercised a sort of suzerainty over the fishermen…’: Merlo, Christian and Vidaud, Pierre, ‘Dangbé et le peuplement houéda’, in Medeiros (ed.), Peuples du Golfe du Bénin, 269.Google Scholar Thus the area of Lake Aheme appears to have been linked politically to Tado.

67 Law, ‘History and legitimacy’, 450.Google Scholar

68 Glele, , Danxomè, 101.Google Scholar The person who today sits on the throne of Dakodonu confirmed this (Nov. 17, 1985), as did Agbidinukun, (04 28, 1986)Google Scholar and Awesu, (01 4, 1986).Google Scholar Agbidinukun suggests (Apr. 19, 1986) that the vodun of the mother of Huegbadja still today rests in Dokon at the house of Awesu. While the second part of this woman's name, Dakposi, appears to mean ‘wife’ (si) of Dakpo (DakoDonu), the latter moniker most likely is a late addition intended to suggest that Adru was married to Dakodonu, and more importantly, that her son, Huegbadja, was the child of this man.

69 Interestingly, Agasu adepts speak a language identified as Hogbonu (or Gun, the language of Porto-Novo). These adepts in turn are called ‘Hogbonuto’ (people of Porto-Novo) (Agbanon, , 03 18, 1986Google Scholar; Adjaho, , 08 11, 1986).Google Scholar Hogbonu is the language spoken originally both by the Awesu of Dokon (the family of Huegbadja's mother) and the adepts of Bosikpon, the leopard god tied to this family.

70 Dagba, , Collectivité, 32.Google Scholar According to Dagba (ibid. 23), the Abomey plateau area around Dokon at this time was called Danzoumè ‘in [me] the forest [zu] of the snake [dan]’. Dokon itself signifies ‘near the hole’. The meaning of the term Danhomè in this light can be understood to signify not only ‘in the middle [belly] of Dan [the individual]’, but also ‘in the middle of Danzoumè, i.e. the forest of snakes’. Interesting in this regard, a serpent is the standard icon for Danhomè in the Abomey palace bas-reliefs.

71 The name Aho appears at some point to have become conflated with the Fon institution of kingship. Thus the Fon term for king is aho (axo). The king's wife is the ahosi (axosi), and the king's son is ahovi (axovi).

72 Awesu, Victor, however, maintains (01 4, 1986)Google Scholar that Huegbadja's father was Dakodonu.

73 Nondichao, , 11 6, 1985Google Scholar; Awesu, , 01 4, 1986.Google Scholar

74 See also Le Herissé, , Royaume, 289.Google Scholar

75 Still today the general term for assuming royal power in Danhomè, is that a person ‘buys’ the kingdom (ho/xo Danhomè). In like manner, when a king is forced from the throne, one says that he has become impoverished.

76 Adjaho, (06 18, 1986).Google Scholar According to Venance S. Quénum, Naye Sava, the mother of Dakodonu and Ganyehesu was originally from Zado-Agbogbohonou (in the region of Zogbodome). See Quénum, , Musée d'Agbome témoin du passé des rois Fon (Abomey, 1986), 20.Google Scholar Daho's spokesman, Zonatchia suggests that she and her husband Dogbaglin-Guinou gave birth to Ganyehesu and Dakodonou, (04 21, 1986).Google Scholar Interestingly Lombard points out (‘Histoire’, 47) that while Le Herissé asserts that Dakodonu is the son of Dogbagri, ‘the latter seems to be totally unknown at Allada’.

77 Ade, Kulo (07 14, 1986).Google Scholar

78 Da Kpasali, (06 17, 1986).Google Scholar Agbidinukun notes simply that ‘The children of Dakodonu today are called Hwawehosu [king of Hwawe]’ (May 30, 1986).

79 Person, , ‘Royaume’, 218.Google Scholar

80 The current place-holder of the early eighteenth-century Danhomè Queen Tassi Hangbe noted (May 1, 1986) in turn that during her youth she (her namesake) had been asked to sing at the court of the Allada king. As noted by Law (‘History and legitimacy’, 449)Google Scholar contemporary sources also make reference to tributary links between Danhomè and Allada.

81 Adjaho, , 05 27, 1986.Google Scholar

82 Adjaho, , 06 18, 1986.Google Scholar

83 Awesu, (01 9, 1986).Google Scholar Whereas some scholars today concur with the idea that there was an earlier Dame or Dauma kingdom on the Abomey plateau based on a reference by Leo Africanus in 1513, I was unable to find any independent collaboration of this in repeated questioning on this subject in the area. As indicated in note 70, however, the area appears once to have been known as Danzoumè, ‘in the forest of the serpent’. Dagba, (Collectivité, 23)Google Scholar who traces the early history of the Ahodomen (Awesu) family on the plateau appears to be following the lead of published sources in claiming an early Dauma state. Temples dedicated to past Awesu rulers indicate that this family came to the Abomey plateau only shortly before Huegbadja. For an excellent discussion on issues related to Dauma and Danhomè see Person, Yves, ‘Dauma et Danhomè’, J. Afr. Hist., XV (1974), 547–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

84 Awesu, Victor suggests (01 4, 1986)Google Scholar that it was thanks in good part to the aid of Ahodomen that Dakodonu ruled instead of Ganyehesu in Hwawe. Indeed, he maintains that it was Ahodomen, Huegbadja's maternal grandfather, who enthroned Dakodonu while Ganyehesu was traveling to Allada. This would indicate that Ahodomen had considerable political authority on the Abomey plateau in the pre-Huegbadja period.

85 Zado-Djodigon today is identified in many royal accounts as one of the ‘stopping points’ along the migration path from Tado to Abomey.

86 Djodi, (11 5, 1986).Google Scholar On the subject of thrones in Abomey see Adande, Etienne Codjovi, ‘Les sièges des rois d'Agbome et le siège Akan: analyse d'un contexte de civilisation à partir de la culture matérielle et artistique (1625–1890)’ (Thèse du Doctorat de 3ème Cycle, Université de Paris – I, 1984).Google Scholar

87 While it may be tempting to read Djodi, the displaced elder son of Dakodonu as semiotic equivalent to Ganyehesu, the displaced elder son of Dogbagri, the two relationships are quite distinct. In the case of Djodi, he was displaced by a foreign intruder (Huegbadja); with Ganyehesu, it was his younger brother who replaced him as ruler.

88 There is some evidence to suggest that Daho shares certain features of a sacred ‘bush king’. Who exactly the ‘bush king’ is (was), has been the subject of a fair amount of controversy, particularly in so far as no indigenous Fon term exactly represents this idea or office. Palau-Marti suggests (Roi-Dieu, 130, 157–8) that the Danhomè ‘bush king’ complements in key respects the Gun ‘King of the Night’ in Porto-Novo. In an important article on the subject, Edna Bay argues instead that the ‘bush king’ is an imaginary figure, who during the reigns of the nineteenth-century kings, Guezo and Glele, referred at once to their pre-enthronement princely identities and to the dethroned King Adandozan. See Edna G. Bay, ‘On the trail of the Bush King: a Dahomean lesson in the use of evidence’, History in Africa, VI (1979), 1–15. Although I believe that Bay is correct in her assertions, Daho shares certain features of this bush king ideation. Not only did he live in the ‘bush’ of Hwawe, but he also was thought to be in key respects a personification of the royal king of the bush, the leopard.

89 Finn Fuglestad's theory that Fon rulers did not integrale the indigenous cultures into the Danhomè governance or ritual structure thus needs to be reconsidered. See Finn Fuglestad, ‘Quelques réflexions sur l'histoire et les institutions de l'ancien royaume du Dahomey et de ses voisins’, Bulletin de l'I.F.A.N., XXXIX, sér B (1977), 493–517. I thank Edna Bay for bringing this source to my attention.

90 Maupoil notes (Géomancie, 156)Google Scholar in this regard that: ‘The king … could not salute the Agasunon, the great priest of Agasu, the Leopard, and was careful not to go to him. His “prestige” and his pride forbade him from prostrating himself’. Interesting in this regard is Dunglas' assertion that the king ‘purchased’ Danhomè from the Agassunon at the time of his installation: Dunglas, ‘Histoire’, i, 90. In addition to the above, Maupoil notes (Géomancie, 158)Google Scholar, that the enthronement of the royal diviner, Gedegbe, took place in front of this great Agasu priest at his temple in Hwawe Gbenu. Skertchly, who visited the Agasunon's palace (Dahomey, 150)Google Scholar describes it as surrounded by a long wickerwork fence, the uprights of which were sprouting out in vigorous shoots. As he explains, this fence ‘enclosed the Bwemeh or residence of the priest of Agasun, who is the palladium of Dahomey and one of the most powerful of the gods in the native pantheon. This priest is the head of all the metropolitan clergy, and the Agasuno are the cardinals of the Dahoman religion’.

91 Law, Robin, ‘“My head belongs to the king”: on the political and ritual significance of decapitation in pre-colonial Dahomey’, J. Afr. Hist., XXX (1989), 408Google Scholar, n. 65.

92 Glele, , Danxome, 84.Google Scholar

93 Law, , ‘History and legitimacy’, 14Google Scholar; citing Pires, Viagem de Africa, 37–40.Google Scholar

94 Agbidinukun, notes (05 23, 1986)Google Scholar that during the reign of Tegbesu, a temple was built at Alladaho (a town near Cana) for Adjahuto. This temple was called ‘Allada Xwen’ the name of one of Allada's founding deities.

95 Agbidinukun, , 06 13, 1986.Google Scholar

96 Ibid. Some maintain that Tassi Hangbe served only as regent, others that, although a ruler, she was added to the official list of sovereigns somewhat later.

97 The revival of the identity of Ganyehesu and Dakodonu also fits with Tegbesu's revival of Ajahuto at Allada recorded by Lombard, ‘Histoire’, 53. In Norris's 1789 account, which is largely a history of the reign of Tegbesu (d. 1774) there already is a conflation of Huegbadja and Dakodonu. According to Norris, , Memoirs, XIVGoogle Scholar, it was Dakodonu (not Huegbadja or Akaba) who killed Da (Dan) and built a palace on his stomach in Abomey, thereby giving a name to the new kingdom, Danhomè.