The 12 Kings of Dáxomé

Gangnihessou, or Ganye Hessou, is the first of the tradional "twelve kings of Dáxomé." Dáxomé was an West Afrikan kingdom situated in what is now Benin (called so since 1975). According to the stories Gangnihessou came from a dynasty that in the 16th century had come, from Tado on the river Moro, a place that now lies in Togo, to Allada, and there became kings of Great Ardra. He was one of four brothers. One of them was king of Great Ardra, and after his death his territories were divided over his three brothers. This is how, besides Great Ardra and Little Ardra, Dáxomé came into existence, even though that it originally was no bigger than the Abomey-plateau. If one were to follow the stories as strict as possible, then the number of brothers points to Gangnihessou actually being the brother who, as king of Great Ardra, was king over all three lands. There are indeed also stories that name him in that function. In these, Dogbagrigenu is the brother that gets Dáxomé, and Dakodonou is the son of Dogbagrigenu.

Tado (formerly Ezame) is a village in south east Togo, near the border with what is now Benin. Tradition states that Tado was the birthplace of the Aja people at some point in the 12th or 13th century. Today the Aja populate the south part of Togo and Benin. It is also the reputed birthplace of Gangnihessou, the first king of Dáxomé, in the 16th century. Today Tado is a centre of pilgrimage for Aja people from across the region, who visit the village each August to pray for their ancestral spirits.

Dakodonou was the second King of Dáxomé. He ruled from 1620 to 1645. In traditional Abomey stories, Dakodonou overthrew his brother, the previous King Gangnihessou, when the ruler was absent from the capital on a tour of the kingdom. Dakodonou is portrayed as a brutal and violent man. His symbols were an indigo jar (a reference to his murder of a certain indigo planter named Donou and whose name he appended to his own original name, 'Dako'), a tinder box, and a war club. Before dying, Dakodonou named his nephew, Aho Houegbadja, as his successor.

Aho Houegbadja was the third King of Dáxomé. He succeeded his uncle, Dakodonou, and ruled from 1645 to 1685. Houegbadja was the first of the dynasty to set up the kingdom in Abomey proper: he founded the city by building his palace (named "Agbome"—“in the midst of the ramparts”) near the area of Guedevi, a few kilometers to the northwest of Bohicon. He was a wise ruler, respected by the people. He enacted laws, named ministers and developed the bureaucracy, religious reformations, and political culture that would characterize Dáxomé. Houegbadja's symbols were a fish (houe), fish trap (adja), and war club hoe (kpota). Houegbadja was succeeded by his son, Houessou Akaba.

Houessou Akaba was the fourth King of Dáxomé. He succeeded his father, Aho Houegbadja, and ruled from 1685 to 1704. Akaba's symbols were the warthog and a saber. According to legend, Akaba was sent by his father to ask one of the hostile neighbors, named Dan, for a piece of land. If he had refused, he could have been punished, but he was clever enough not to refuse. Akaba later asked Dan for more land,which Dan gave grudgingly, planning to kill Akaba by ruse. He dug a deep hole and lined it with spikes on a road Akaba normally took. Akaba's dogs, leading his way, fell into the hole instead of their master. Akaba knew that Dan was behind the murder attempt. Furious, he asked Dan for yet another piece of land. Dan replied sarcastically "you can build your house on my belly" (i.e., "over my dead body"). Akaba killed Dan in anger. He then proceeded to pose the cornerstone of the palace he intended to build upon Dan's disemboweled body. It is from the palace "Dan Homeh" that the military empire of Dáxomé drew its name.

Akaba had to build his own palace because of a particular custom of the Abome royal family. At the death of each of the kings of Abome, his palace became a funeral temple for the worship of the departed royal ancestor. The burial chamber became the location of food and drink offerings by the descendants to a small bronze asen, a metal pole topped with a small circular alter for receiving the offerings. According to Fon tradition, the asen (royal staff and staff for bokonons or high priests) originated in Allada and was brought to Abome before the 1600s.

Houessou Akaba's reign was characterized by war and military expansion. His enemies, the Nago (Western Yoruba) kings, attacked Abome and burned the town. But the warriors of Abomey ultimately defeated the Nago armies and the kingdom extended to include the banks of the Oueme River. Akaba failed, however, to capture Porto-Novo. Akaba died of smallpox in 1708. Because his only son, Agbo Sassa, was only 10, Akaba was succeeded by his brother, Dossou Agadja.

From 1704-08 Regent Princess Tassi Hangbe ruled Daxome. Though she does not appear in the official king's lists, it is generally agreed that she ruled after her brother Akaba (1685-1704) and was succeeded by another brother, Agaja, who became one of Abomey's most important rulers. Tassi Hangbe was a precursor to the female office of Kpojito who were often EQUAL with their male counterparts. They were not wives to the king but they were important rulers themselves. The term kpojito literally means "the one whoe helped the leopard".

Dossou Agadja was the fifth King of Dáxomé. He succeeded Houessou Akaba, and ruled from 1708 to 1732. Akaba's only son, Agbo Sassa, was only ten years old when Akaba died, so as Akaba's brother, Agadja took the throne to become the fifth king. He refused to let Agbo Sassa reclaim the throne when he came of age and forced him into exile. Agadja's reign was characterized by continual warfare. The Yorùbá soldiers of the kingdom of Oyo defeated the army of Abomey; Agadja parlayed peace terms including the payment of tribute. For the next hundred years, the Kingdom of Abomey paid the King of Oyo an annual tribute in young men and women destined for slavery or death in ceremonies, as well as cloth, guns, animals and pearls.

The kingdom of Abome grew during Agadja's reign, however; it conquered Allada in 1724, and in 1727 conquered the kingdom of Savi, including its major city, Ouidah. Agadja's victory over Ouidah came in part as a result of his use of a corps of women shock-troopers, called Dáxomé Amazons by the Europeans after the women warriors of Greek myth, in his army. This is incorrect since the word amazon means “a woman with one breat”. They cut off one of their breasts to better shoot their bows and arros! The real term for the Dahomean warrior women was abosi. The abosi became a dynastic tradition. When Abome conquered Savi and Ouidah, it gained direct access to the sea and took over the lucrative slave trade with the Europeans. As a result, Agadja's symbol is a European caravel boat. Agadja was succeeded by Tegbessou.

Tegbessou was the sixth King of Dáxomé. He succeeded Agadja, and ruled from 1732 to 1774. Tegbessou's reign was characterized by internal intrigues and a failed foreign policy; he killed many coup-plotters and political enemies, refused to pay tribute to the Yorubas, and lost many battles in the punitive raids that followed. His main symbol is a buffalo wearing a tunic. His other symbols are the blunderbuss, a weapon he gave his warriors--the first time in Dáxomé that the royal army had ready access to firearms-- and a door decorated with three noseless heads, a reference to his victory over a rebellious tributary people, the Zou, whose corpses he mutilated. Tegbessou was succeeded by Kpengla.

Kpengla was the seventh King of Dáxomé. He succeeded Tegbessou, and ruled from 1774 to 1789. Kpengla's reign increased the size of the kingdom. He killed the chief of the Popo people, Agbamou, thus extending the empire into what is currently Togo. He destroyed the villages of Ekpe and Badagry (in what is now Nigeria), which were interfering with Dahome's regional monopoly on the slave trade. His main symbol is the akpan bird, a trade gun (flintlocks became the standard issue to the Dahomean army during his reign), and a Dahomean abosi striking her head against a tree (a reference to a humorous war story stemming from one of his military campaigns). Kpengla was succeeded by Agonglo.

Agonglo was the eighth King of Dáxomé. He succeeded his father, Kpengla, and ruled from 1789 to 1797. Agonglo made several reforms which pleased his subjects: taxes were lowered, and a greater distribution of gifts was made during the annual customs. He reformed the shape of the asen, bringing the innovation of having the offering surface supported by ribs rather than a metal cone, typical of the earlier Allada style altars. After the period of aggressive military expansion of his father, Agonglo consolidated the rule of the dynasty. Despite this, he was successful in the few battles he engaged in and his kingdom grew. His symbol is the pineapple. Agonglo’s shame in history came when he was the first of the Dahomean kings to marry a European--one of his wives was Sophie, a Dutch metisse. Agonglo was succeeded by his eldest son, Adandozan.

Adandozan was a King of Dáxomé, technically the ninth, though he is not counted as one of the twelve kings. His name has largely been erased from the history of Abome (the capital of Dáxomé), and to this day is generally not spoken out loud in the city. He became king when, in 1797, the previous King of Dáxomé, Agonglo, died, leaving the throne to his eldest son. Adandozan's symbols were a baboon with a swollen stomach, full mouth, and ear of corn in hand (an unflattering reference to his enemy, the King of Oyo), and a large parasol ('the king overshadows his enemies'). These symbols are not included in Abomey appliques, for the same reasons that Adandozan is not included in Abomey's history.

Adandozan is portrayed as an incompetent warrior and general, and as a betrayer of the royal family: he is said to have sold his brother's, Gakpe, mother into slavery. Gakpe, who had previously feigned idiocy to avoid attracting his brother's attention, fled into exile near Kana. Adandozan is portrayed as hopelessly mad, struggling foolishly with the European powers. He refused to pay Francisco de Souza, a Brazilian merchant and trader who had become a major middle-man in the Ouidah slave market, for services rendered, imprisoned and tortured de Souza, and then attempted to have his own ministers sell the slaves directly. In the traditional story, Gakpe, secretly coming back from exile, helped de Souza escape. In return, de Souza helped Gakpe marshall a military force and take the throne with the assistance of the terrified council of ministers. Gakpe then put Adandozan in prison.

This traditional portrayal may be quite biased and exaggerated though. Adandozan may have been the object of a propagandistic rewriting of history after he lost the throne, turned into a monster by his successor as a means of excusing the coup d'état and legitimizing the new regime. All stories agree that Adandozan tried to force more favorable terms of trade with the Europeans involved in the export of slaves, and seriously undermined the power of the extended royal family and Vodun cult practitioners at court through administrative reforms. It may be that these policies themselves provoked Adandozan's powerful opponents to support a coup against him. In order to justify the coup, Gakpe may then have been obliged to have his griots (oral historians) tell of the monstrous and mad Adandozan.

Ghezo was the ninth King of Dáxomé (now Benin), considered one of the greatest of the twelve historical kings. He ruled from 1818 to 1858. His name before ascending to the throne was Gakpe. Ghezo's symbols are two birds on a tree, a buffalo, and a clay jar sieve with holes in it held by two hands, a symbol of unity. Ghezo is said to have used the sieve as a metaphor for the kind of unity needed for the country to defeat its enemies and overcome its problems; i.e., it takes everyone's hand to block the sieve's holes and hold water. The pierced clay jar upheld by multiple hands has become a national symbol in Benin --a large portrayal of it is the backdrop of the speaker's podium in Benin's National Assembly. Ghezo ascended to the throne after he overthrew his brother, Adandozan, in a coup d'état. The traditional stories state that Adandozan was a cruel ruler, but these may have been invented by Ghezo's historians to justify the coup.

Throughout his reign, Ghezo waged a military campaign every year during the dry season. His prisoners-of-war were sold into slavery, thus fattening the royal treasury, increasing the annual budget, and making war a very efficient means of raising revenues. Because of his strengthened armies and budget, Ghezo stopped the Oyo tribute once and for all. He formalized his army, gave his 4,000 abosi female warriors uniforms, required soldiers to drill with guns and sabres regularly, and was able to repulse Oyo's attack when it came. Ghezo was also seen as an extremely shrewd administrator. Because of his slave revenues, he could afford to lower taxes, thus stimulating the agricultural and mercantile economy: agriculture expanded, as did trade in a variety of goods with France. He instituted new judicial procedures, and was considered to be a just judge of his subjects. He was much loved, and his sudden death in a battle against the Yorubas was considered a tragedy. Ghezo was succeeded by Glele.

Badohou, who took the throne name Glele, is considered (if Adandozan is not counted) to be the tenth King of Dáxomé (now Benin). He succeeded his father, Ghezo, 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. Glele also signed treaties with the French, who had previously acquired a concession in Porto-Novo from its king. The French were successful in negotiating with Glele and receiving a grant for a customs and commerce concession in Cotonou during his reign. Glele resisted English diplomatic overtures, however, distrusting their manners and noting that they were much more activist in their opposition to the slave trade: though revolutionary France itself had outlawed slavery at the end of the 1700s it allowed the trade to continue elsewhere; Britain outlawed slavery in the U.K. and in its overseas possessions in 1812, and had its navy make raids against slavers along the West African coast starting in 1840. Glele's symbols are the lion and the ritual knife of the adepts of Gu (Vodun of fire, iron, war, and cutting edges).

Glele, despite the formal end of the slave trade and its interdiction by the Europeans and New World 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 victims) in ceremonies. Near the end of Glele's reign, relations with France deteriorated due to Cotonou's growing commercial influence and differences of interpretation between Dáxomé and France regarding the extent and terms of the Cotonou concession grant. Glele, already on his death bed, had his son Prince Kondo take charge of negotiations with the French. Glele died on December 29, 1889, to be succeeded by Kondo, who took the name Behanzin.

Behanzin (d. December 1906, in Blida, Algeria) is considered (if Adandozan is not counted) eleventh King of Dáxomé (now Benin). Upon taking the throne, he changed his name from Kondo. He succeeded his father, Glele, and ruled from 1889 to 1894. Behanzin was Abomey's last independent ruler established through traditional power structures, and considered to be a great ruler. His symbols are the shark, the egg (a rebus of his name), and a captive hanging from a flagpole (a reference to a boastful and rebellious Nago practitioner of harmful magic from Ketou whom the king hanged from a flagpole as punishment for his pride). But, his most famous symbol is the smoking pipe, seen on the picture to the right. This is because he claimed that there wasn't a minute in his life, even when he was a baby, that he was not smoking.

Behazin was seen by his people as intelligent and courageous. He saw that the Europeans were gradually encroaching on his kingdom, and as a result attempted a foreign policy of isolating the Europeans and rebuffing them. As price just before Glele's death, Behanzin declined to meet French envoy Jean Bayol, claiming conflicts in his schedule due to ritual and ceremonial obligations. As a result, Bayol returned to Cotonou to prepare to go to war against Behanzin, named king upon Glele's death. Seeing the preparations, the Dahomeans attacked Bayol's forces outside Cotonou in 1890; the French army stood fast due to superior weaponry and a strategically advantageous position. Eventually Behanzin's forces were forced to withdraw. Behanzin returned to Abomey, Bayol to France for a time.

The peace lasted two years, during which time the French continued to occupy Cotonou. Both sides continued to buy arms in preparation for another battle. In 1892, the soldiers of Abomey attacked villages near Grand Popo and Porto-Novo in an effort to reassert the older boundaries of Dáxomé. This was seen as an act of war by the French, who claimed interests in both areas. Bayol, by now named Colonial Governor by the French, declared war on Behanzin. The French war machine justified the aggression by characterizing the Dahomeans as savages in need of civilizing, and pointing to what it called the "human sacrifice" of the annual customs and at a king's death, and to the continued practice of slavery, as evidence of this savagery.

Some of this propaganda still exists today: in the Musee de l'Homme in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, there is a large print, again illustrating the alleged savagery of the Dahomeans, of a battle in the war against Dáxomé where a Dáxoméan abosi killed a French officer by ripping out his throat with her sharpened teeth. The story is somewhat more complex, however, since the traditional accounts of the event handed down in Dáxomé have the abosi as a trusted wife of Behanzin who had sworn to avenge members of the royal family who had been executed by Behanzin for treachery after divulging battle plans in return for bribes from French agents. Further, the French officer at issue was allegedly the head of French military intelligence who committed the 'savage' act of corrupting family members to betray their own --an unthinkable evil in Dahomean society; the abosi was reduced to using her teeth after her ammunition ran out at the battle's peak.

Similarly, the usual European allegations of Dahomean savagery do not take into account the role of the annual customs in Dahomean society, the deepness of traditional belief in the spirit world, the complex social organization seen in the court bureaucracy and policy making process, and the fact that at many of the very points where blood flowed most freely in Dahomean history, it was also flowing freely in Europe, through wars, civil wars, and revolutions. Through superior extraordinary intelligence gathering, advanced weaponry, subversion by some members of the royal family who had been corrupted by bribes, and a campaign of psychological warfare and European savagery that included cutting down most of the sacred trees in the Oueme and Zou, and an unexpected attack strategy, the French succeeded in defeating Dáxomé, the last of the traditional African kingdoms to succumb to European colonization. Instead of attacking Abomey directly by marching straight north from Calavi just north of Cotonou, French General Alfred Dodds attacked from Porto-Novo, moving up the Oueme valley until he was within striking distance of Abomey, via Cove and Bohicon.

The French were victorious, and in 1894, Behanzin surrendered his person to Dodds, without signing any instrument of national surrender or treaty. he lived out the remainder of his life in exile in Martinique and Algeria. After his death, his remains were returned to Abomey. Behzanzin was succeeded by Agoli-agbo, his distant relative and one-time Army Chief of Staff, the only potential ruler which the French were willing to instate.

Agoli-agbo is considered to have been the twelfth, and last, King of Dáxomé. He took the throne after the previous king, Behanzin, went into exile after a failed war with France. He was in power from 1894 to 1900. The exile of Behanzin did not legalize the French colonization. The French general Dodds offered the throne to every one of the immediate royal family in return for a signature on a treaty establishing a French protectorate over the Kingdom; all refused. Finally, Behanzin's Army Chief of Staff (and distant relative) Prince Agoli-agbo was appointed to the throne, as a 'traditional chief' rather than head of state of a sovereign nation, by the French when he agreed to sign the instrument of surrender. He 'reigned' for only six years, assisted by a French Viceroy. The French prepared for direct administration, which they achieved on February 12, 1900. Agoli-agbo went into exile in Gabon, and the River Save. He returned to live in Abomey as a private citizen in 1918. Agoli-agbo's symbols are a leg kicking a rock, a bow (a symbol of the return to traditional weapons under the new rules established by the colonial administrators), and a broom.