The Royal Palace of Dahomey: Symbol of A Transforming Nation The Royal Palace of Dahomey: Symbol of A Transforming Nation

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Fall 2014
The Royal Palace of Dahomey: symbol of a transforming nation

Lynne Ann Ellsworth Larsen
University of Iowa
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Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons
Copyright © 2014 Lynne Ann Ellsworth Larsen
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2234
Recommended Citation
Larsen, Lynne Ann Ellsworth. "The Royal Palace of Dahomey: symbol of a transforming nation." PhD
(Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2014.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.do1xmn88
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd

Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons
THE ROYAL PALACE OF DAHOMEY:
SYMBOL OF A TRANSFORMING NATION
by
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree in Art History
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
December 2014
Thesis Supervisor: Professor Christopher D. Roy

Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
_______________________
PH.D. THESIS
_______________
This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of
has been approved by the Examining Committee

for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy
degree in Art History at the December 2014 graduation.
Thesis Committee: ___________________________________

Christopher D. Roy, Thesis Supervisor
___________________________________
Barbara B. Mooney
___________________________________
Craig Adcock
___________________________________
Robert Rorex
___________________________________
Lyombe Eko
To Delbert and Mary Lou Ellsworth, my parents,
for instilling in me a love of life and learning.
And to Brian, my friend and husband,
for his unfailing love and support.
ii
ABSTRACT
The Royal Palace of Dahomey, which stands in varied states of decay and restoration in
Abomey, Benin, has been subject to change and manipulation throughout its history (c.
1645-present). This dissertation focuses on its transformations during the French colonial
and post-colonial periods and investigates how the palace functions as a site for religious
ceremonies, a center for political struggle, and a symbol of non-European identity. It
documents what physical transformations the palace complex underwent in relation to its
changing roles, explores the ethics of external political forces, and investigates what
influence the palace and royal history have had on contemporary identity and domestic
architecture.
iii
PUBLIC ABSTRACT
The Kingdom of Dahomey (ca.1625-1892), located in West Africa, was renown in the
nineteenth century for its military might and economic power. Each king of Dahomey
enlarged the kingdom’s royal palace until it ultimately covered more than 108 acres,
housed several thousand people, and was surrounded by a wall over two miles long. This
palace complex, located in the pre-colonial capital, Abomey, served as both the cultural
and physical center of the city, as well as a legitimizing force of the monarch’s power
throughout the kingdom. This dissertation examines the palace’s relationship to the
national, cultural, and religious identity of colonial Dahomey and post-colonial Benin. It
investigates the palace as a center for political struggle, as a symbol of non-European
identity, as a museum and cultural center, and as a site for religious ceremonies. It both
documents what physical transformations the palace complex has undergone in relation
to its changing roles, and investigates what influence the palace and royal history have
had on the local identity and domestic architecture.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1
CHAPTER
I. THE PRE-COLONIAL PALACE ..................................................................10
The Palace’s Plan, Fabric and Function .........................................................11

The Palace’s Pre-colonial Evolution: The origins of the kingdom.................21
The Founding of the Palace in Abomey: Huegbadja, Akaba, and
Hangbe ............................................................................................................24
Palace Architecture in Claiming Power: King Agadja ...................................35
Reestablishing the Palace and Capital: Kings Tegbesu, Kpengla and
Agonglo ..........................................................................................................45
Reshaping the Palace and Succession: Adandozan ........................................58
Architecture of Power and Reception: The Palaces of Guezo and Glele .......63
II. THE COLONIAL PERIOD: THE PALACE BURNED, RESTORED,

AND TRANSFORMED .................................................................................77
Franco-Dahomean Conflict: Leading up to Colonization ..............................78

The Last Kings of the Dynasty........................................................................82
French Colonial Government and the Survival of the Kingdom’s
Culture .............................................................................................................85
Transforming the Palace into a Museum ........................................................91
The Civilizing Mission....................................................................................96
The Museum in its Colonial Context ............................................................105
Methods of Museum Display ........................................................................110
III. INDEPENDENCE AND RESTORATION: THE PALACE AND

NATIONAL IDENTITY ..............................................................................118
Independence: Reclaiming the Palace in the Post-Colonial Moment ...........119

Assessing the Physical State of Palace and the Modernization of
Materials .......................................................................................................124
Leading up to the Palace’s Official Partnership with UNESCO ..................133
Cooperative Projects in the Museum ............................................................139
Restoration Projects Outside of the Museum ...............................................143
The Museum as a Post-colonial Entity .........................................................150
IV. ROYAL ARCHITECTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF ABOMEY ...............160
The Royal Road, the Agbodo and the City Wall ..........................................161
The City Plan ................................................................................................164
The Crowned Princes’ Palaces .....................................................................166
Restoration of the Private Palaces ................................................................174
Royal Influence and Domestic Architecture in Abomey .............................180
V. RELIGION, ROYAL HISTORY, AND ARCHITECTURAL SPACE .......196
v
Religious Purposes of the Pre-colonial Palace: Funerary Architecture
and the Grand and Annual Customs .............................................................198
Tohosu and Nesuwhe ....................................................................................205
The History and Political Influence of Tohosu .............................................206
The Dadasi ....................................................................................................217
The Gandaxi..................................................................................................221
VI. BEYOND THE PALACE: ROYAL DAHOMEY AND POST-

COLONIAL BENIN ....................................................................................239
Behanzin as a Post-colonial Symbol ............................................................241

Royal History in Local and National Politics ...............................................246
The Persistence and Dissemination of Pre-colonial Art Forms and
Themes ..........................................................................................................251
Conclusion ....................................................................................................255
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................313
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Plan of the Palace Complex, from Giovanna Antongini and Tito Giovanni
Spini’s Les Palais Royaux d’Abomey, 1995. ..........................................................258
2. Hounwa, or covered entrance, of king Huegbadja (r. 1645-1685). Author’s

photo, 2011. ............................................................................................................258
3. Kpodoji, or first courtyard, of King Glele (r. 1858-1889). Author’s photo,

2011. .......................................................................................................................259
4. Logodo, second entrance, of King Glele (r. 1858-1889). Author’s photo,

2011.. ......................................................................................................................259
5. Ajalala of King Guezo (r. 1818-1858). Author’s photo, 2011.. ............................260

6. Honga, or third courtyard, of King Huegbadja (r. 1645-1685). Author’s
photo, 2011.. ...........................................................................................................260
7. Figure 7: Tomb of King Agonglo (r. 1790-1797). Author’s photo, 2013. .............261
8. Photograph showing King Guezo’s palace with its wide-eaved, thatched roof.
Photographed by E. G. Waterlot, 1911. ..................................................................261
9. Exterior wall of the Akaba’s palace, northwest corner, Royal Palaces of

Dahomey. Author’s photo, 2011............................................................................262
10. The Gun Custom. From J.A. Skertchly’s Dahomey As It Is showing the palm
rib divider across the courtyard space.....................................................................262
11. Tomb of King Glele’s Queen Mother. Author’s photo, 2011. ..............................263
12. Ruins of Akaba’s two storied building. Author’s photo, 2011. .............................263
13. Adandozan’s hounwa currently adorned with Agonglo’s symbols. .......................264
14. Plan of the palaces of Guezo and Glele from Paul Mercier and J. Lombard’s
Guide du Musée d’Abomey, 1959. .........................................................................264
15. Guezo’s zinkpoho, treasury or throne room. Author’s photo, 2011. .....................265
16. Guezo’s simbo, or storied entrance hall, as viewed from the interior.
Author’s photo, 2011. .............................................................................................265
17. Guezo’s djeho, or soul house. Author’s photo, 2011.............................................266
18. Glele’s adejeho, or house of courage. Author’s photo, 2011. ...............................266
19. Amazon Warriors. Photographed by Edouard Foà, c. 1890. .................................267
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20. Henri Meyer, “The French Flag Entering Abomey” showing smoke from the
burning palace and city in the background, published in Le Petit Journal,
December 10, 1892. ................................................................................................267
21. “Proclamation of the new king of Dahomey,” published in Le Petit Journal

on February 19, 1894. .............................................................................................268
22. Plan of the Royal Palace of Dahomey from Em. G. Waterlot’s Les bas-reliefs
des bâtiments royaux d'Abomey, published in 1926. .............................................269
23. Victor Ballot’s residence, built in 1901. Author’s photo, 2011. ............................270
24. Colonial administration building situated in the palace. Author’s photo, 2011. ...270
25. Illustration published in the Petit Parisien on March 16, 1890. .............................271
26. Entrance to the Dahomey Village at the Columbian Exposition, 1893,

Chicago. ..................................................................................................................272
27. Dahomey exhibit at the 1900 World’s Fair, Paris. .................................................272
28. Sculptures of Glele and Behanzin as lion and shark respectively, Sossa
Adede. .....................................................................................................................273
29. Museum display published in Eva Meyerowitz’s article “The Museum in the
Royal Palaces at Abomey, Dahomey,” 1944. .........................................................273
30. Museum display published in Eva Meyerowitz’s article “The Museum in the
Royal Palaces at Abomey, Dahomey,” 1944. .........................................................274
31. Photograph of Guezo’s zinkpoho, or throne room, from the museum guide by
Th. Constant-Ernest d’Oliveira in the 1970s. .........................................................274
32. Photograph of Guezo’s logodo, or second entrance, from the museum guide
by Th. Constant-Ernest d’Oliveira in the 1970s. ....................................................275
33. Tomb of King Huegbadja (r. 1645-1685). Author’s photo, 2011..........................275

34. One of the bas-reliefs from Glele’s ajalala stabilized and preserved through
the joint efforts of Benin government and the Getty Conservation Institute. .........276
35. Plan from J. Crozet’s “Dahomey: Etude de la restauration et de la mise en

valeur des palais royaux d’Abomey,” 1968. ...........................................................277
36. Roofed interior walls of Behanzin’s palace. Author’s photo, 2011.......................278
37. Plan of Behanzin’s Palace as published in The restoration of King Gbehanzin

Palace, edited by Junzo Kawada. ...........................................................................278
38. An exhibit in Behanzin’s Palace. Author’s photo, 2011........................................279

39. Thatched roof of Huegbadja’s logodo. Author’s photo, 2011. ...............................279
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40. On the right side of the photo are the djeho in Huegbadja’s ajalalahennu
covered in kplakpla instead of thatch. This photo also shows the
commencement of the Ganmevo ceremony with the asen still shrouded in
fabric. Photo by Thierry Joffroy, 2013. .................................................................280
41. The hounwa shared by kings Agadja, Tegbessou, Kpengla, and Agonglo.
Author’s photo, 2011. .............................................................................................281
42. Akaba’s ajalala. Author’s photo, 2011. ................................................................281
43. Agoli-agbo’s ajalala. Author’s photo, 2013. .........................................................282
44. The gift shop and bar currently located in Glele’s kpododji. Author’s photo,
2011. .......................................................................................................................282
45. Abomey city wall and moat as seen from the city’s exterior. Published in
Frederick E. Forbes’s Dahomey and the Dahomans, 1856. ...................................283
46. Plan of Abomey and Palace. Published in Edna G. Bay’s Wives of the
Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey, 1998. ........283
47. Cathedrale Saint Pierre Paul, Abomey. Author’s photo, 2013. .............................284
48. The two hounwa in Glele’s private palace. Author’s photos, 2008 and 2013. ......285
49. King Agonglo’s private palace ajalala built on a cement base. Author’s
photo, 2011. ............................................................................................................286
50. Public toilets in King Agonglo’s private palace. Author’s photo, 2011. ...............286
51. Artisan workshops in King Agonglo’s private palace. Author’s photo, 2011. .......287
52. Gazebo-like structure in King Agonglo’s private palace. Author’s photo,

2011. .......................................................................................................................287
53. Weaver’s workshop in King Guezo’s palace at Agbangnizoun. Author’s

photo, 2013. ............................................................................................................288
54. Arolando with a display of his work in King Kpengla’s private palace.
Author’s photo, 2013. .............................................................................................288
55. King Kengla’s private palace hounwa as it appeared in 2008. Author’s photo,
2008. .......................................................................................................................289
56. King Kpengla’s private palace hounwa as it appeared in 2011. Author’s

photo, 2011. ............................................................................................................289
57. The hounwa in King Tegbessou’s private palace. Author’s photo, 2013. .............290
58. The temporary structure used as Agadja’s ajalala for the 2012-13 Gandaxi.
Author’s photo, 2013. .............................................................................................290
59. Hounwa of the the Tokoudagba Collectivity. Author’s photo, 2011.....................291
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60. Ajalala of at the Kpelu Collectivity. Author’s photo, 2011...................................291
61. Djeho in the Toffa collectivity. Author’s photo, 2013. .........................................292
62. Bas-reliefs adorning King Glele’s ajalala. Photographed by Eva Meyerowitz,

1937. .......................................................................................................................292
63. Bas-reliefs by Eusebe Adjamale on the Collectivity Sossa Dede showing the
dynastic list of pre-colonial kings. Author’s photo, 2011......................................293
64. Portrait of the dah in the collectivity Mehou Tomandaho by Lucien Klo.
Author’s photo, 2011. .............................................................................................293
65. Relief sculpture of Dah Ahossin and King Guezo by Lucien Klo. Author’s
photo, 2011. ............................................................................................................294
66. The ajalala of the Metchonoussi Collectivity, the image of the katakle is
partially blocked by the artist, Lucien Klo. Author’s photo, 2013. .......................294
67. Relief sculpture of King Behanzin by Eusebe Adjamale in the collectivity

Zewa-Nudayi. Author’s photo, 2011. ....................................................................295
68. King Behanzin as published on the cover of Le Petit Journal, 23 April 1892. ......295
69. Interior of Agonglo’s tomb in his private palace showing the bed and place
for libations. Author’s photo, 2011.........................................................................296
70. The Zomandonou temple, Abomey. Author’s photo, 2008. ...................................296
71. The Kpelu temple, Abomey. Author’s photo, 2011. .............................................297
72. Dah Mivede in priestly attire. Author’s photo, 2013. .............................................297
73. The façade and back of a tohosu temple of a collectivity in Abomey showing
red and black circles and dots. ................................................................................298
74. Tohosu temple in the Tokoudagba Collectivity, reliefs remade by Damien

Tokoudagba. Author’s photo, 2013. ......................................................................299
75. Adjahounto altar. Photo published in Joffroy’s Palais Royaux d’Abomey: Les
Dadasi du quartier Dossoémé, 2013. .....................................................................299
76. Plan of the Dossoémé published in Joffroy’s Palais Royaux d’Abomey: Les
Dadasi du quartier Dossoémé, 2013. .....................................................................300
77. Interior of the Dossoémé. Author’s photo, 2011. ...................................................300
78. The playing of the kpalingan before Glele’s hounwa at the central palace.
Author’s photo, 2012. .............................................................................................301
79 Women bringing food into the ajalala of Guezo’s private palace before the
start of the Ganmevo ceremony. Author’s photo, 2013.........................................301
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80. The seating positions for the start of the Ganmevo ceremony in Glele’s
private palace ajalalahennu. Author’s photo, 2013. ...............................................302
81. The attoh built for the Gandaxi with its white flag raised. Author’s photo,
2013. .......................................................................................................................302
82. The Alitagbo ceremony performed at the Zomandonou temple, Abomey.

Author’s photo, 2013. .............................................................................................303
83. Tohosu initiates performing dances in the forecourt of the Zomandonou

temple during the Alitagbo ceremony. Author’s photo, 2012. ..............................303
84. The asen of the collectivities laid before the Zomandonou temple. Author’s
photo, 2012. ............................................................................................................304
85. Procession of the asen to the Didonou Spring. Author’s photo, 2012....................304
86. The playing of the zenli during the Gandaxi. Author’s photo, 2013. ....................305
87. Women lined up in Glele’s ajalala at the start of the Golito ceremony.
Author’s photo, 2013. .............................................................................................305
88. Procession of the kings’ hammocks during the Gandaxi ceremony. Author’s
photo, 2013. ............................................................................................................306
89. Procession of the dadasi during the Gandaxi. Author’s photo, 2013. ....................306
90. The Procession of King Agoli-agbo Dedjalani in his hammock as he is

transported from Agoli-agbo’s palace to Tegbesu’s private palace. ......................307
91. The crowd gathered to witness the procession of “the woman with 41
paignes” and the deity Soglabada. Author’s photo, 2013. ......................................307
92. Statue of King Behanzin, Place Goho, Abomey, erected 1979. Author’s
photo, 2013. ............................................................................................................308
93. Statue of Kwame Nkrumah at his mausoleum and memorial park, Accra,
Ghana. .....................................................................................................................308
94. UN, l’Union fait la Nation, has adopted as their logo the royal Dahomean
symbol of jar with many holes. ...............................................................................309
95. One of many relief sculptures displaying the Dahomean kings’ symbols on the
fence surrounding Place Goho. Author’s photo, 2013 ..........................................309
96. Crest of Abomey, Eduoard Vudombo. Author’s photo, 2011. ................................310
97. Dynastic list on the façade of the hotel Togauh, Artist Eusebe Adjamale.
Author’s photo, 2013. .............................................................................................311
98. The in the ajalala of the collectivity Agbalou and Ahoponou, bas-reliefs by
Eusebe Adjamale ....................................................................................................311
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99. Yves Kpede relief sculptures of Amazons and the Golito ceremony at Chez
Monique. Author’s photo, 2011. ............................................................................312
100. Molimé Gamelé Gladis, Adoxo, 2009. Author’s photo, 2011. ..............................312
xii
INTRODUCTION
When examined closely, architecture can function as a historical document. Not
only can it reveal the priorities of those who built it, it can give us insight into the
agendas of those who have used it since its construction. This dissertation, which focuses
on the Royal Palace of Dahomey, seat of the pre-colonial West African kingdom located
in Abomey, Benin, examines architecture’s relationship to the religious, cultural, and
national identity of colonial Dahomey (1892-1960) and post-colonial Benin (1960-
present). It documents the palace’s physical transformations in relation to its changing
roles throughout these periods, and investigates the current influence of the palace and
royal history on contemporary religious practices and on local domestic architecture.
Throughout its history, the palace functioned simultaneously as a religious and
political center; the Kings of Dahomey were considered deities, and the architecture
associated with them was sacred. My research explicates the religious roles of the palace
and examines other religious architecture relevant to the royal history. The palace, as a
tool of political manipulation by the French colonial government and as a symbol of non-
European identity after independence, also manifests the complex ethical issues of
foreign imposed rule. The Royal Palace of Dahomey, throughout its pre-colonial,
colonial, and post-colonial periods has been influenced by and been influential on the
political climate, religious practices, and cultural identity of the people of Abomey.
The first part of this dissertation takes a chronological, narrative approach to the
palace’s formation and transformations. Initially, establishes a clear understanding of the
plan, construction, religious function, and history of the pre-colonial palace complex.
After which it traces the palace’s changes, transformations, and restorations throughout
the colonial and post-colonial periods in regards to its physical form and significance,
1
grappling with issues of religious identity and the ethics of imposed political rule. The
latter half of the dissertation addresses the implications of those transformations and
discusses the religious roles of the palace in the lives of contemporary Abomeans. I
discuss royal architecture in the context of Abomey, royal architecture and religious
worship, and conclude with a discussion of how pre-colonial history affects Abomean
post-colonial identity and architecture.
Chapter 1: “The Pre-colonial Palace” examines the plan, construction, and
function of the palace complex before the arrival of the French Army in 1892. It moves
beyond previous scholarship to observe more closely the how the political context of
individual kings affected the palace plan and ornamentation. Although this chapter is not
intended to be a complete accounting the palace complex’s erection, it establishes a clear
understanding of the materials, plan, and history as the groundwork for later chapters
which describe how the palace transformed both physically and functionally in its
colonial and post-colonial periods.
Chapter 2: “The Colonial Period: the Palace Burned, Restored, and Transformed”
takes a chronological, narrative approach to the evolution of the palace complex
beginning with the arrival of the French army in 1892. It examines the initial burning of
the palace by King Behanzin, the erection of colonial buildings within the palace, the
restoration efforts by Dahomean and colonial officials, and the palace’s transformation
into The Historic Museum of Abomey. This chapter situates these changes in the context
of French colonial philosophies and discusses the ethics of the French colonial perception
of Dahomey as demonstrated through their press and public expositions. In short, it uses
2
the palace architecture to demonstrate the complex struggles for political and cultural
power which took place under the imposition of French colonial rule.
After achieving independence from France, the palace continued to play
important religious and cultural functions. The Historic Museum of Abomey persisted,
but its purpose shifted from a colonial administrative project to a source of pride in the
rich cultural history that could be claimed as distinctly Dahomean. Chapter 3:
“Independence and Restoration: The Palace and National Identity” explores these issues
and traces the various palatial restoration efforts and museum maintenance from 1960 to
the present. It situates the palace in its post-colonial, political context and examines what
preservation and restoration mean from different cultural perspectives in conjunction with
the various restoration efforts undertaken by foreign entities.
In addition to the main palace complex, historic royal monuments pervade
Abomey. The city was surrounded by a wall and moat, and private palaces, or “crowned
prince’s palaces,” were built for the designated heirs to the throne. Districts were
organized around these private palaces thus creating distinctive city quarters
corresponding to that of the monarchs who ruled at the center of it. Chapter 4: “Royal
Architecture in the Context of Abomey” investigates the function of the palace and these
other monuments in shaping Abomey’s layout in order deduce their role in contemporary
Benin. This chapter discusses how these distinctive city quarters have maintained ties to
their pre-colonial kings as well as what roles the crowned prince’s palaces, the city moat,
and the wall played during the colonial and post-colonial periods. It also examines the
nature of domestic compounds and their rapport with the palace historically and
presently. It discusses the architectural parallels which exist between the palace and the
3
domestic compounds in terms of their architectural plan, ornamentation, and system of
government.
Chapter 5: “Religion, Royal History, and Architectural Space” explains the sacred
nature of the roles of the palace and of other religious structures commissioned by the
pre-colonial kings. It explicates the offering of libations which occurs every five days at
the palace tombs, the large annual ceremonies held for the pre-colonial kings, and the
ceremony known as Gandaxi which was traditionally held every seven years. These
ceremonies manifest the importance of the royal architecture and royal history in the
religious lives and identity of contemporary Abomeans. In addition, this chapter
examines the role of other temples related to royal history, many of which are associated
with tohosu, the physically deformed, and thus spiritually empowered, deceased members
of the royal family.
Chapter 6: “Beyond the Palace: Royal Dahomey and Post-colonial Benin”
considers the influence of pre-colonial history in contemporary Benin. Bas-relief
sculpture with subject matter alluding to the kings are likewise included on the town’s
market façade, in hotel courtyards, and in restaurants thus affirming the importance of
pre-colonial history and identity in post-colonial Abomey. This chapter situates
contemporary literature, art, and exhibitions pertaining to the royal history of Dahomey in
the political rhetoric of post-colonial Africa. It contrasts the movements of Negritude and
Pan-Africanisism with the post-colonial identity in present day Benin which largely
focuses on the past.
In order to examine these issues in full, I conducted field research in Benin,
briefly in 2008, for three months in the summer of 2011, and for nine months as a
4
Fulbright Fellow from November 2012 to August 2013. In addition, I undertook
research in France. In Paris and Grenoble I conducted interviews and examined
documents, photographs, and films from archives at the Museé du quai-Branly, the Albert
Kahn Museum, and the Center for the Research and Application of Earth Architecture
(CRA-Terre).
During my field research trips to Benin I investigated how the domestic
architecture of contemporary Abomey alludes to and draws from Dahomey’s pre-colonial
palace for spiritual reinforcement. I also attended religious ceremonies held at the palace
for the pre-colonial Dahomean kings and conducted interviews with local religious
leaders, scholars, and historians.
The Gandaxi, a four month long ceremony held for the posthumous kings, was
performed during my residency in Abomey: from late November 2012 to mid-March
2013. While the Gandaxi was traditionally held every three to seven years, leadership
disputes and lack of resources have caused a thirty-two year hiatus since the last one.
The revival of this ceremony was accompanied by an increase in restoration efforts to
palaces and other religious structures and the reinstallation of religious leaders whose
positions had been left unfilled. I examined how this ceremony functioned in
contemporary Abomey to meet spiritual needs, revive memory and unite the community,
adding a new dimension to my understanding of the religious role of kings and royal
history in contemporary Abomean architecture and identity.
I would like to acknowledge the support of people and institutions that have
facilitated this research. Generous financial support toward my travel and writing came
from the Project for the Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa (University of Iowa),
5
the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, the Frederick Douglass Institute of African and
African-American Studies at the University of Rochester, the Marcus Bach Fellowship,
and the T. Anne Cleary International Dissertation Research Fellowship. I would like to
my thank professors at the University of Iowa, especially my advisor Dr. Christopher D.
Roy for his professional and scholarly support. Outside of my family, his mentoring,
encouragement, and belief in my potential as a scholar have aided my success the most. I
would also like to thank Dr. Barbara B. Mooney whose teaching, scholarship and
conversations have helped shape my understanding of architecture and its potential to
embody historic and cultural values. Navigating field research in West Africa comes
with its own set of challenges. I am grateful to the many friends and scholars who
supported me in Benin among them: my research assistant Constant Legonou, historian
Bachalou Nondichau, historian Gabin Djimasse, museum conservator Urbaine Hadanou,
and Zomandonou priest Dah Mivede.
I am deeply indebted to scholars of Abomean history, anthropology and art who
have paved the way for this research, especially Edna G. Bay, Suzanne Preston Blier,
Robin Law, and Melville and Frances Herskovits. Scholarship on the kingdom of
Dahomey has tended to focus on its contribution to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Edna
G. Bay and Suzanne Preston Blier, however, have made strides in both the art historical
research of Dahomey and in the study of Vodun. Bay’s Wives of the Leopard: Gender,
Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey, though primarily historical,
emphasizes the role of the palace in that history. Her more recent book, Asen, Ancestors,
and Vodun: Tracing Change in African Art, published in 2008, describes the socio-
economic shifts that took place under colonization and includes invaluable information
6
on the practices of royal Vodun worship. As an architectural historian, Suzanne Preston
Blier's’ several articles on Dahomey as well as her chapter on the kingdom in Royal Arts
of Africa: The Majesty of Form provide information on palace decoration and on the city
plan. Her 1995 book African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power explains the local,
popular Vodun practices and art’s purpose in those practices.
In order to gain an understanding of the pre-colonial palace, its roles and its
appearance, I have relied in part on the accounts of European visitors to the kingdom.
Doing this, however, took into account varying personal agendas, biases, and purposes
for their excursions to Abomey. Among these accounts are explorers, a slave trader,
missionaries, and abolitionists.
For further scholarship on colonial Dahomey I have studied colonial documents
and anthropological research. Anthropologists Melville and Frances Herskovits discuss
customs of royal life in their book Dahomey, an Ancient West African Kingdom of 1938.
Their later 1958 Dahomean Narrative: A Cross-Cultural Analysis looks closely at
religious practices.
Restoration publications, such as the one produced by the Getty Foundation on
the restoration of palatial bas-reliefs or the UNESCO document published in conjunction
with Behanzin’s palace restoration, provide valuable insights into the funders and
motives of those involved with the restoration projects.
Despite my field research and the excellent scholarship of others, making
conclusions about the palace’s history has been challenging. Due to its ephemeral
building materials, restoration has been as much a part of the palace’s existence as its
construction and duration have been. In addition to sorting through inconsistent oral
7
histories about its past, the pre-colonial and colonial accounts of European visitors are
problematic. These come laden with cultural and personal biases and agendas. As a
writer, I unavoidably approach the palace and its context towing my own perspectives.
While I attempt to make my agendas transparent, no doubt there are underlying cultural,
religious, and economic biases which shape my view and understanding of the kingdom’s
past and Abomey’s present.
In addition, the subjects of architectural transformation and post-colonial identity
are constantly in flux. During my various field research excursions, in 2008, 2011, and
2012-13, I saw substantial changes in the palace architecture, and know there are plans
for further change and restoration. My assessments, then, should be understood as an
analysis of specific examples of the general process, and that conclusions made could
easily vary with time, as do people, as does architecture.
For the benefit of the reader, I have attempted to provide a brief, though
consequently problematic, narrative of the history of the palace, while making the
conflicting information from scholars and oral sources as transparent as possible in the
footnotes.
History tends to be kept and retold to serve the needs of the present. This has been
true throughout the history of the Royal Palace of Dahomey. This dissertation
exemplifies how architecture can be manipulated and transformed according to the
agendas of the government or the religious and cultural needs of the populace.
Specifically, it demonstrates how architecture can function to shape and be shaped by
colonial, post-colonial, and religious forces. It thereby makes evident the larger
implications of architecture and its interaction with human society – as vehicles for
8
political domination, as symbols of celebrated cultural identity, and as centers for
religious worship.
9
CHAPTER I: THE PRE-COLONIAL PALACE
The Royal Palace of Abomey, seat of the pre-colonial West African kingdom of
Dahomey stands in varied states of decay and restoration in the present-day Republic of
Benin. Throughout its pre-colonial lifetime (c. 1650-1892), the palace expanded until it
ultimately covered more than 108 acres, housed several thousand people, and was
surrounded by a wall approximately two and a half miles long.1 This palace complex,
located in the pre-colonial capital, Abomey, served as both the cultural and physical
center of the city, as well as a legitimizing force of the monarch’s power throughout the
kingdom.
However, the palace’s pre-colonial history is not only one of power, pomp, and
wealth. It is inescapably intertwined with the history of its monarchs: their triumphs and
downfalls. The palace serves as an historical document, through the colorful bas-reliefs
which record king’s strengths, war victories and achievements, but also through its
physical structures and spatial arrangements. As an evolving earthen complex, it is a
document with deletions, alterations, and amendments. Throughout its history, the palace
functioned and functions to support the needs of those in power.
This chapter will examine the plan, construction, political function, and history of
the palace complex before the late nineteenth century onset of French colonization.
While not intended to be a complete accounting of the palace’s erection, it will examine
the materials, plan, and pre-colonial historical context as groundwork for the following
chapters which describe the palace’s transformations both physically and functionally in
its colonial and post-colonial periods. The ephemeral nature of the pre-colonial building
1 Edna Bay, Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of
Dahomey (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1998), 9.
10
materials, namely earthen walls and thatched roofs, make it difficult to come to concrete
conclusions about the former appearance and purposes of particular structures. In order
to understand the palace as a whole, I will first investigate its fabric, construction, and
general plan, after which I will situate the palace construction within the reigns of the
individual kings.
The Palace’s Plan, Fabric and Function
By the end of the nineteenth century the palace covered forty-four hectares (see
figure 1). Each king expanded the palace, usually by adding his own palace to the larger
complex, as it was his mandate to enlarge the borders of the kingdom.2 Each palace had
a distinct name, sometimes indicating its placement or distinguishing feature: King
Huegbadja’s palace, Kpatissa, means “under the kpatin tree,” while Glele’s palace,
Ouehondji, means “the palace of glass,” referring to the European windows he ordered
and installed in it.3 Once a king’s palace was built, it became the center of political rule,
while the palaces of his predecessors functioned as important religious and ceremonial
centers for the performance of rites on behalf of the deceased monarchs. Each king
2 Suzanne Preston Blier, The Royal Arts of Africa: The Majesty of Form (New York:
Harry N. Abrams, 1998), 103.
3 The names of the palaces with their corresponding rulers are as follows: Kpatissa,
under the kpatin tree, belonged to King Huegbadja (r. mid-seventeenth century – circa
1685); Amayome, a place of many leaves (or lots of plants) belonged to Akaba (r. circa
1685-1708); Atakibaya, in reference to the king Ataki who was brought to Abomey after
Agadja’s army conquered his people, belonged to King Agadja (r. 1716-1741);
Lisehounzon, the private palace of King Tegbessou (r. 1741-1774) means the lise tree is
authorized by the vodun; Hessa, the private palace of King Kpengla(1774-1789) means
under the hetin tree; Huegbo, the private palace of King Agonglo (r. 1789-1797) means
big house; Simbodji, under the storied building, belonged to King Guezo (r. 1818-1858);
Ouehondji, the palace of glass, for King Glele (r. 1858-1889) who ordered from England
and had installed in his ajalala glass windows; Dosoeme, the tenth (or final) wall,
belonged to King Behanzin (r. 1889-1894).
11
generally built his palace adjacent to his predecessor's in a chronological arc from
northwest to southeast.
By constructing a new palace within the larger complex, each king validated his
rule. With the exception of King Akaba (reigned c.1685-1708), whose palace is adjacent
to his predecessor, but isolated as a free-standing structure, the kings’ palaces were
eventually enclosed within in a large unifying wall, but retaining their own distinct
entrances. The addition of each palace thus simultaneously functioned as a visual and
spatial assertion of a new, innovative reign which would expand the kingdom's borders,
as well as of a continuation of an established line of authority, one that would be
recognized and bolstered by the spirits of the king’s predecessors and would strengthen
the regions already acquired. Within the palace complex, doors connected the various
kings' palaces likewise functioning as a spatial and symbolic generational links.4 The old
and new, the traditional and the innovative were thus intertwined as evident through the
architecture of the palace complex.
The individual palaces followed a consistent, basic plan: a succession of three
courtyards with varying degrees of accessibility. Courtyards were as important spatially
within the palace as the elevated architectural structures around them. One entered the
palace through the hounwa or initial covered entry way (fig. 2). This was a semi-public
space which eventually included identifying bas-relief sculptures displaying the kings’
symbols. Through the hounwa one entered the first, most accessible, courtyard which
4 In addition to the various exterior entrances and the doors connecting the various
internal sections of the palace, the palaces also contained tonli, or secret exits which the
king used as a means of escape when under attack, or as an inconspicuous route out for a
variety of purposes. (Francesca Piqué and Leslie H. Rainer, Palace Sculptures of
Abomey: History Told on Walls (Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute and the J.
Paul Getty Museum, 1999), 37-38.
12
was called the kpodoji (fig. 3). While the buildings surrounding this first courtyard
varied from king to king, generally it included the legedexo, where guards resided, and
the tasinonxo, a residence for those women in charge of ancestral cults.5
If permitted to visit the king, one would continue through the logodo where the
royal council met and which was the covered entrance to the second courtyard, the
ajalalahennu (fig. 4 and 5).6 In this courtyard stood arguably the most important and
visually striking of the palace buildings, the ajalala, (hall of many openings) - the great
reception hall, where the king would receive visitors and preside for ceremonies for both
the dead and the living. The emblems and stories displayed in the ajalala’s colorful bas-
relief sculptures recorded the kings’ feats, included symbols of religious significance, and
provided a visual display of his royal symbols. After a king’s death, his djeho or “soul
house” would be built in this courtyard as a place where his spirit could participate in
ceremonies held in his behalf.
The third courtyard called the honga, by far the largest, most private, most
alterable and least preserved area of the palaces, consisted of the living quarters of a
king’s family, slaves, and eunuchs (fig. 6). Here the sleeping and daily domestic
activities took place. This three courtyard layout was refined over the generations. The
recurrent cycles of deterioration and restoration due to the ephemeral nature of the
palace’s fabric (of earth, thatch, and wood) allowed earlier palaces eventually to evolve
in decorative media and possibly in plan arrangement to conform more closely to the later
5 Berenice Geoffroy-Schneiter, “Un royaume dans le royaume” in Artistes d'Abomey:

dialogue sur un royaume africain (Paris: Beaux Arts/TTM, 2009),19-20. Blier, Royal
Arts of Africa, 36-37.
6 Geoffroy-Schneiter, 20.
13
palaces. Despite variations each palace within the Royal Palace of Dahomey contained
certain architectural structures essential to its palatial nature: the hounwa (or covered
entry way), the ajalala (or reception hall), and the adoxo (or tomb). A king’s adoxo and
djeho, or “soul house,” were added after his death when they became important
ceremonially (fig. 7).
While the majority of the buildings in the palace complex were rectilinear in plan,
some structures, such as various tombs and djeho, tended to be circular in plan. King
Guezo’s swearing house, as described in J. Alfred Skertchly’s nineteenth century
account, was a small, circular structure with two entrances. Inside, thirteen steps
ascended to a rostrum where the king could swear victory over enemies. The conical roof
of this structure was ritually reconstructed before setting out on any war.7
The rectilinear structures were more abundant and larger than the circular and
served a range of purposes. These buildings were often elongated and divided lengthwise
by a wall. For the most significant of these, such as the ajalala, the portion facing the
courtyard was verandah-like; square, clay or wooden pillars or larger wall panels
decorated with bas-reliefs supported the roofs. The inclusion of various floor plans
within the palace complex indicates the influence of foreign and indigenous architecture.8
Scholars have suggested that the circular plan stemmed from Chadian architecture, and
7 In Skertchly’s explanation of the process he states, “Before starting on any great war
palaver the king has this swearing house unroofed and daubed with bois de vache.” (J.
Alfred Skertchly, Dahomey As It Is: being a Narrative of Eight Months’ Residence in that
Country with a Full Account of the Notorious Annual Customs, and the Social and
Religious Institutions of the Ffons (London: Chapman and Hall, 1874), 164) Though this
is the only mention I found of it, there is no reason not to assume that cow dung was used
in the roof thatching of other palace buildings.
8 Blier, Royal Arts of Africa, 104.
14
that the rectilinear form was influenced by European traders since the fifteenth century.9
While this may in part be true, the kingdom’s architecture was certainly also influenced
by the Aja people, ancestors of the Dahomean kings, as well as the Yoruba, with whom
the Dahomeans had regular contact, and, perhaps most influential, the Guedevy, residents
of the Abomean plateau when the Dahomean kings arrived.10
Trees, in addition to court and architectural space, played a significant part in the
palace complex’s plan. Skertchly mentions a cotton tree (either bombax buonopense or
bombax costatum) enclosed within a low wall, under which King Guezo had his court
convened and which he held sacred. His son preserved the tree and christened it Bwekon-
hun, which means the living, or ever, happy cotton tree.11 When a new king built his
palace, a lise tree (which bear red fruit) was planted in front of the new entrance building.
These were placed literally to increase the strength and permanence of the hounwa by
protecting it from the elements, and symbolically increase the strength and longevity of
9 Jacques Gbenou, “La patrimoine architectural traditionnel en Republique Populaire du

Benin » Séminaire national; reflection sur la situation des musées en République
Populaire du Bénin (1984), 93.
10 Beninois Art Historian Joseph Adande explains, “It is hard to say how far the Yoruba
model influenced Abomey. We should, however, not be surprised that they did, since the
Agasuvi had set out from a Tado plateau which was in all likelihood urbanized. They
could have got there from Yoruba country, where historians like Akinjogbin trace back
the history of an urban civilization at least 2,000 yars old. The agasuvi are thus supposed
to have already come in contact with the ways of organizing the space of towns not
unlike those of the Yoruba world before they left Tado and they could have reproduced
them quite easily” (Joseph C. E. Adande, “Court Arts in West Africa: Finished forms of
expression of urban life in pre-colonial Cities,” in Museums & Urban culture in West
Africa (West Africa Museum Program with the International African Institute, Oxford,
2002), 49-50.)
11 Skertchly, 163.
15
those dwelling within.12 The altar to Ayizan, the Vodun guardian of peace is often found
adjacent to the lise tree. It is around both this altar and the tree that royal processions
often pass upon exiting or before entering an individual palace.
In pre-colonial Abomey, the palace buildings were constructed of Abomey’s red
earth which was mixed with water and, at least in the later buildings, with palm fiber and
palm oil to increase its permanence.13 Walls built in puddled courses, were thicker at the
bottom for increased stability and thinner as the walls rose. According to nineteenth
century British traveler Richard Burton, the number of these courses was determined by
rank in society. “The palace and the city gates are allowed five [courses]; chiefs have four
tall or five short, and all others three, or as the King directs.”14 If what Burton relates
was true, the architecture of Abomey, at least in the nineteenth century, demonstrated
through height the social and political hierarchies of the kingdom. Not only would the
status of an individual be outwardly apparent, but also the king’s power in his ability to
regulate the city’s architecture generally. With the exception of three, multi-storied
buildings found in the palaces of Akaba, Agadja, and Guezo, the palace buildings were
one story in plan.15 The walls of the structures were plastered and polished after which
12 Blier, Royal Arts of Africa, 103. However, according to historian Bachalou Nondichau,
it was forbidden to plant them inside a residential or palace space. Bachalou Nondichau
(traditional historian), in discussion with author, March 1, 2013, Abomey Benin.
13 Blier, The Royal Arts of Africa, 102.
14 Richard F. Burton, A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome with Notices of the So

Called “Amazons,” the Grand Custums, the Yearly Customs, the Human Sacrifices, the
Present State of the Slave Trade, and The Negro’s Place in Nature (London: Tinsley
Brothers, 1864), vol. 1, 217.
15 Burton implies that Kana likewise had a two story building, thirty to forty feet high
that was no longer extant by the time of his visit (Burton, 217).
16
they were coated with a layer of palm oil which acted as protection against the heavy
downpours of the rainy seasons.
Floors tended to be raised from the ground level, and the roofs (as can be seen in a
photograph by E. G. Waterlot, a French official who visited the palace in 1911,) were
impressive, wide, steeply pitched, thatched roofs supported by wooden beams (fig. 8).16
John Duncan, who visited the kingdom of Dahomey in 1845-46 describes the roofs as
being tall enough for two stories, though most palace buildings were one story in plan,
and extending as low as four feet off the ground.17 Burton reports that bamboo supported
the thick grass between the wooden beams.18 Today, many of the thatched roofs have
been replaced by corrugated steel.
The fabric of the palace was not necessarily distinct from non-royal constructions.
Though bamboo or wooden structures were used in the swamp and coastal or forest
regions respectively, earthen structures were among the most common Dahomean
building materials, and certainly the most common in Abomey.19 The palace, however,
was easily distinguishable from non-royal buildings by the quality, up-keep, height, and
grandeur of its construction.
It is difficult to determine exactly who was responsible for the construction and
maintenance of the palace architecture at any given period of time. Skertchly refers to
16 Piqué, 40.
17 John Duncan, Travels in Western Africa in 1845 & 1846 Comprising a Journey from
Whydah, Through the Kingdom of Dahomey, to Adofoodia, in the Interior, vol. I
(London: Frank Cass & Co., 1968), 242.
18 Burton, 218.
19 The Kingdom of Dahomey and the French Settlements on the Gulf of Benin, (London:
Waterlow and Sons Limited, 1893), 62.
17
designated soldiers known as “soldier builders” as being responsible for construction of
the palace buildings.20 Other scholars have suggested that the yearly repairs of roof
thatching belonged to people residing in outlying villages21 while slaves and officials
took part in both the construction and annual repairs to the buildings.22
The palace served multiple functions. Initially Dahomean palaces were
constructed as places of defense and royal residence. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries these places protected the monarch and his court against attacks from outside
enemies, or potential rivals from within the kingdom. Successive kings settled their kin
and other loyal families around the palace as an additional safeguard.23 The massive,
thick mud wall whose elevation reached over twenty feet in height surrounded the palace
complex and acted as a means of defense (fig. 9).24 By the end of the nineteenth century
the perimeter of this wall extended approximately two and a half miles.
Access into the royal palace was highly restricted. Robert B. Edgerton explains,
“Royal palaces helped to symbolize the king’s separateness and his greatness. No one
could enter any of his palaces without his invitation, and except for eunuchs, no man did
so after sunset.”25 Not only the king’s security, but also his sacredness was protected by
20 Skertchly, 164.
22J. Cameron Monroe, “Continuity, Revolution or Evolution on the Slave Coast of West
Africa: Royal Architecture and Political Order in Precolonial Dahomey,” Journal of
African History 48 (2007): 362.
23 Piqué, 35.
24 Robert B. Edgerton, Warrior Women: The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of
War (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2000), 72.
25 Edgerton, 72.
18
such regulations. He was never seen eating or performing menial tasks by the outside
population. In the nineteenth century, when Richard Burton met with King Glele,
together they drank toasts, but each time the glass was raised, two of Glele’s wives raised
a fabric barrier to conceal the king’s drinking.26 Other sources note a row of palm
branches which divided the ajalalahennu and acted as a barrier to keep the visitor from
approaching the king and his wives (fig. 10).27 In order to relay a message from the palm
branch boundary to the king, the visitor required the assistance of a spokesperson.28 The
palace thus, as a means of physical and psychological separation from the common
population, obscured the king’s human weaknesses and defended his spiritual status.
The palace, which evolved to maintain a female interior / male exterior
dichotomy, also separated the king’s wives from the outside population. Over the course
of the dynasty, the polygamous rulers developed a female court to parallel the male royal
ministers and a female military corps, the Amazons, analogous to the male army. 29
Except for eunuchs, the king was the only man permitted into the third, residential
courtyard. A market was added to the northwest corner of the palace for the use of the
royal women. Very early in the kingdom’s establishment, women played central roles in
its politics and history. Architecturally, they have left their traces of their significance
through tombs (fig. 11). Besides the kings, the only other tombs in the palace belong to
women: several kpodjito, or queen mothers, as well as the collective tombs of wives who
26 Alan Scholefield, The Dark Kingdoms: The Impact of White civilization on Three
Great African Monarchies (New York: William Morrow, 1975), 82.
27 Bay, Wives, 11.
28 Ibid., 11.
19
sacrificed themselves at the death of a king to accompany him into the world of the
ancestors.30
Sexual control over his wives was something that a king kept careful watch over
even when they had occasion to leave the palace walls. This the king achieved through
laws, which forbade anyone looking at these women. Touching one of the royal wives
was grounds for execution.31 When leaving the palace, for whatever reason, each wife
was accompanied by three or four female servants. Decades after the fall of the kingdom,
one such former servant, a Yoruba woman, explained in an interview, “If one of the
king’s wives was going out two female servants would go before and two behind. The
two in front would shout, so no one would see them on the way, A fe su sijaa me dagbe!
A king’s wife is coming!” She explained that one of the servants used a hand gong as
additional warning.32 Upon hearing the call or gong, all would have to leave the area. In
his nineteenth century travel account, John Duncan describes his experience, “The
moment this bell is heard all persons, whether male or female, turn their backs, but the
males must retire to a certain distance. In passing through the town this is one of the
most intolerable nuisances.”33 This legal procedure had visual implications, not by what
was seen, but by what was forbidden to be seen. The same women, who sat and stood
30 Curiously the tombs of the self-sacrificed wives of Agonglo, Guezo, and Glele which
today stand beautifully restored, are not present on Waterlot’s plan published in 1926.
This raises the question as to whether or not these tombs existed pre-colonially or not.
31 Richard F. Burton, “The Present State of Dahome,” Transactions of the Ethnological
Society of London 5, no. 3 (July 1932): 405.
32 Peter Morton-Williams, “A Yoruba Woman Remembers Servitude in a Palace of

Dahomey, in the Reigns of Kings Glele and Behanzin,” Africa 63, no. 1 (1993): 106.
33 Melville J. Herskovits and Fances S. Herskovits, Dahomey, an Ancient West African
Kingdom (New York: J. J. Augustin, 1938), 35.
20
with the king in the court to receive audience, were not to be viewed by outsiders without
his presence to guard them. In this way, the king was able to maintain spatial protection
of his wives legally to compensate for what lacked architecturally.
In function, the pre-colonial palace eventually became more than a defensible
royal residence and the seat of government; it became a site of state functions and
ceremonies, a place for outsiders to solicit royal audience and for the king to execute
justice.34 It also became a symbol of royal power and a visual justification for the king’s
authority. The palace complex, as Edgerton so succinctly puts it became, “a city within a
city.”35 The vast area it covered, and abundant number of people it housed made it its
own metropolis within the larger Abomey. While the palace complex has obviously been
shaped by the political and religious history of the kingdom, it has also helped to preserve
and create historical narratives.
The Palace’s Pre-colonial Evolution: The origins of the kingdom
The palace’s pre-colonial history was dynamic, with periods of abandonment,
destruction and restoration, as well as transformation according to the needs of the
various monarchs. While this attests to the living nature of the palace architecture, it does
complicate the process of piecing together what is historically accurate. Such accuracy is
further obscured by inconsistent oral sources, legends, and racially biased foreign
accounts. The narrative constructed here briefly compiles what has been and is being
related about the royal past among the people of Abomey and examines the architectural
34 Piqué, 35.
35 Edgerton, 72.
21
evidence which supports or denies these histories. Throughout its history, themes of
power, gender and foreign influence remain consistent to the palace’s essential nature.
Oral tradition traces the origins of the Dahomean dynasty to the Aja people who
resided in Tado near the Mono River on the Togolese side of the present-day Togo/Benin
border. Aligbonon, a princess of Tado joined herself with a panther she encountered in
the forest and from him gave birth to three sons and a daughter.36 Agasu, the panther,
became the tohwhiyo, or supernatural ancestor of the Dahomean royal line and his human
offspring were known for their exceptional power and ferocity. 37 After one of his sons,
by the name of Adjahouto, attempted to usurp power from the Tado king, they were
exiled.38
Adjahouto led his family, the agasuvi, or children of Agasu, east to Allada,
present day Benin, where he established himself king over the contemporary residents.39
Though the accounts vary, there seems to have been a dispute between brothers over
36 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, March 1, 2013,

Abomey.
37The details of the story vary depending on the account. Paul Mercier and J. Lombard
provide the name of the princess, but say that she gave birth to three sons (Paul Mercier
and J. Lombard, Guide du Musée d’Abomey (Études Dahoméennes IFAN, République du
Dahomey, 1959), 6.) Another source (Site des Palais royaux d’Abomey: Plan de
conservation de gestion et de mise en valeur 2007-2011), 6) claims that there were four
children that resulted from this panther princess union: a daughter and the three sons.
This is confirmed by historian Nondichau. (Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in
discussion with author, March 1, 2013, Abomey). Edna Bay and William Argyle both
claim that Agasu descended from the Aligbonon, the princess of Tado, and a leopard
(instead of a panther). It was then his offspring that constituted the agasuvi (William J.
Argyle, The Fon of Dahomey: A History and Ethonography of the Old Kingdom (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1966), 4; Bay, Wives, 48).
38 Argyle, 4.
39 Argyle, 4. Akinjogbin estimates that these events took place “towards the end of the
sixteenth century, probably about 1575.” (I.A. Akinjogbin, Dahomey and its Neighbours
1708-1818 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), 11).
22
royal succession following the death of Adjahouto’s successor, which resulted in further
division and migration.40 In the end, three kingdoms were reportedly formed by the
agasuvi.41 In addition to the already established kingdom of Allada, one brother,
Agbanlin travelled east and became ruler over Ajaché, around present day Porto-Novo,
while Dogbagri42 travelled north and settled in Wawe, a few miles east of Abomey.43 It
is from Dogbagri’s line that the Dahomean dynasty sprang. While the individual
kingdoms focused on their internal developments, Allada remained an important
ancestral site.
Although Abomean oral sources insist on this historical narrative, the migration
before Wawe may very well be myth. According to Edna Bay, Allada and Porto Novo
have founding dates that diverge by a century, and neither claims Agasu as their founding
ancestor.44 In contrast, the contemporary population of Abomey reveres Allada as an
ancestral site to the point that they only use it by name when referring to someone’s
death. In conversation about travel between cities, they call Allada Adanhounsa,
meaning under the Adanhoun tree: “I’m travelling to Adanhounsa”, or “he’s gone to
Adanhounsa.” To say “he’s gone to Allada” means that he has died, or in other words,
returned to the land of the ancestors.
40Adjahouto’s successor was named Kokpon ( Nathan S. Senkomago, The First French
Protectorate in Portonovo, 1863-64. [Nairobi, Kenya]: Kenyatta University College,
Dept. of History, 1979, 2.)
41 Akinjogbin says that the succession dispute arose after two generations of rule in
Allada leaving Te-Agbalin to rule in Allada, Dogbari to head north ( Akinjogbin, 22).
42 Also written Dogbagli or Dogbagrignu.
43 Site des Palais royaux d’Abomey, 6. Argyle speculates that this split occured around
1610 and says that Dogbagri initially settled in Kana (Argyle 6).
44 Bay, Wives, 48.
23
Wawe functioned as the center for the reign of the next two rulers, both
Dogbagri’s sons, Gangyéhèsou and Dakodonou. Dogbagri settled his entourage and
established alliances with neighboring peoples through the bestowal of gifts.45 When he
died there was another dispute over succession. While Gangyehessou initially won, after
a decade or so in power, Dakodonu usurped the throne and reigned until the mid-
seventeenth century.46 While these two are the first on the Dahomean dynastic list, they
are not considered kings, but rather chiefs. It is not until Gangyéhèsou’s son, Aho, later
Huegbadja, that the reign of kings began.47
According to both the existing architectural evidence and the descendants of
Dakodonu and Gangyehessou, elements essential to palace architecture were in place in
the Wawe residences of these rulers. Their homes included a hounwa or covered
entrance, and ajalala, or reception hall, and at their deaths, adoxo, or tombs where their
spirits could be honored. However, the Wawe palaces do not appear to have followed the
same succession of courtyards developed, perhaps by Hegbadja, in Abomey.
The Founding of the Palace in Abomey: Huegbadja, Akaba, and Hangbe
Gangyéhèsou’s son, Aho, who later received the name Huegbadja apparently
demonstrated considerable leadership qualities early in his life, and at the death of
45 Argyle, 6.
46 Dako is said to have killed the local king, Akpahe, thus legitimizing the Agasuvi’s
right to rule in the territory. (Argyle, 52). At the time of Dako donu’s death the “agasuvi
were in possession of an area of about five miles’ radius from the point where they had
first settled.” (Argyle, 8)
47 The reason that Huegbadja and his successors were considered kings while
Dakodonou and Gangyehessou were not is debatable. It may have been as simple as the
size of the territory they ruled, the power of the kingdom they overtook, or the moment of
geographic shift. Bay, however, suggests that it may have to do with ancestry. (Bay,
Wives, 73).
24
Dakodonou, he became the successor to the throne and established a geographic shift to
Abomey. 48 He reigned from the mid-seventeenth century to the 1680s and is generally
considered the first official king; he was not only Dakodonou’s successor, but usurped
the power of the ruler of Abomey, Dan. He actively enlarged the borders kingdom,
established military practices and instituted “remarkable political organization.”49
When Huegbadja settled in Abomey, he built his compound, later palace, across
the road and to the southeast of Dan’s palace, thus in the heart of Abomey’s
administrative center.50 The oft repeated, abbreviated version of this episode in royal
history goes like this: When Huegbadja arrived in Abomey, he had been granted some
land by the local Guedevy ruler, Dan, but was ambitious in his expansion.51 When he
48 According to Nondichau, Dakodonu, Huegbadja’s uncle, had usurped the throne when
Gangyehessou had gone to Allada to take care of rites at his father’s death. Huegbadja
felt he had taken the throne unjustly and manifest this disapproval through impolite
behavior toward Dako insomuch as he felt that he couldn’t continue at Wawe. (Bachalou
Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, March 1, 2013, Abomey).
Site des Palais royaux d’Abomey, 7. This source suggests that Huegbadja had felt as if
his uncle, Dakodonou had unjustly usurped power which led him to settle away from
Wawe and in Abomey.
49 Giovanna Antongini and Tito Giovanni Spini eds., Beinin Royal Palace of Abomey:
Classification File (Document) (November 1995), 4. Argyle suggests that under him,
firearms were first introduced, as well as the military “practice of surprise night attacks
followed by pillaging and burning” (Argyle 10).
50 This is in the city’s present-day Hountondji quarter.
51 Again, the details of this story vary according to the account; some report Huegbadja
or Akaba as the story’s Dahomean hero, but others determine it was Dakodonu. Forbes
and Bay both claim that it was Dakodonu (Frederick E. Forbes, Dahomey and the
Dahomans: Being The Journals of Two Missions to the King of Dahomey, and Residence
at his Capital, in the Years 1849 and 1850 (in two Volumes) (London: Longman, Brown,
Green and Longmans, 1851), vol. 2, 87; Bay, Wives, 50.) If this was the case, then
Dakodonu must have initially made the move to Abomey. Monroe, who calls the
Huegbadja’s palace the Agrigonmy Palace, suggests that Dakodonou “initiated the main
royal palace at Abomey on the grounds of King Dan . . . later reoccupied by King
Akaba.” (J. Cameron Monroe “In the Belly of Dan: Space, History, and Power in
Precolonial Dahomey” Current Anthropology 52 no. 6 (December 2011): 776).
25
repeatedly petitioned Dan for yet more land, Dan responded in exasperation that if he
allowed it, soon Huegbadja would be building on Dan's stomach. Huegbadja found this
as good a casus belli as any and responded by killing Dan, and then, as Forbes so
graphically relates it, "placing [his] mangled remains under the foundation of the palace
built in commemoration.”52 Dahomey’s etymology is thus often explained: in (me) the
stomach (xo or ho) of Dan, or Danhome, later Dahomey.53 Bay, however points out that
it could have just as easily stemmed from the word for palace, honme, with Danhonme
meaning Dan’s Palace.54 In either case, the palace was an important identifier of the
kingdom and its origins.
Although this “mangled remains” version of the history is widely known and told
there is another, more diplomatic account of Huegbadja’s rise to power in Abomey as
related to me by historian Nondichau.55 In his youth, Huegbadja felt that his uncle,
Dakodonou, had usurped the throne unjustly during Gangyehessou’s absence to Allada to
conduct ancestral rites at their father’s death. Huegbadja manifested this disapproval
through rude behavior toward Dakodonou to the point that Huegbadja felt that he could
52 Forbes, vol. 2, 87. Forbes says Dan was a Fahie king and that it was Dakodonu who
killed him and built his palace on his entrails.
53 Bay, Wives, 50. Akinjogbin suggests that there was a previous unrelated kingdom in
the area called Dauma and may be where Dahomey got its name, not necessarily the in
Dan’s belly tradition (Akinjogbin 23) Monroe, who calls the Huegbadja’s palace the
Agrigonmy Palace, suggests that Dakodonou “initiated the main royal palace at Abomey
on the grounds of King Dan . . . later reoccupied by king Akaba” (Monroe, “In the Belly
of Dan,” 776).
54 Bay, Wives, 50. This would also explain Monroe’s use of the palace title “Agrigonmy
Palace” as Dan was sometimes called Agrim. Then Agrigonmy would have been a
variation of Agrimhonme (Monroe, “In the Belly of Dan,” 776; Bay, Wives, 50). This
doesn’t, however, explain why Monroe uses the term when referring to Huegbadja’s
palace instead of Akaba’s.
55 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author with author,
March 1, 2013, Abomey.
26
not in good conscience continue his residence in Wawe.56 He arrived in Abomey as a
foreigner, but his neighbors quickly recognized his charisma and achievements in
hunting. Dan invited Huegbadja to his palace, but before accepting, Huegbadja consulted
the Fa, or diviner, who warned of danger. He said this visit would cost Huegbadja his life
unless he took two dogs with him. These he was to follow. Upon his arrival at Dan’s
palace, Huegbadja sent the dogs in front of him, and they fell into a trap – a covered hole
– prepared by Dan for Huegbadja. Huegbadja found Dan alone, and in revenge killed
and buried him. When his children returned, they abandoned the palace in fear.
Huegbadja claimed the palace and subsequently the kingdom. 57
Having achieved kingship, Huegbadja did not move into the palace of Dan, but
rather aggrandized his own concession into a palace.58 Just as it is difficult to piece
together an accurate account of the history of Huegbadja’s rise to kingship, it is difficult
to determine which portions of the palace Huegbadja built during his lifetime, which
were added by successors and what was fabricated by post-colonial restoration efforts.
Essential to all Dahomean palaces, Huegbadja’s includes, and probably included pre-
colonially, a hounwa, ajalala, and tomb. His palace is likewise arranged with the
succession of three, increasingly inaccessible, courtyards. His kpododji, or initial
courtyard includes a tasinonho for the women responsible for ancestral cults, which may
56 Ibid.
57 There is some indication that Huegbadja took the throne initially in accordance with
the Guedevy tradition, first on a temporary basis, as part of a chief system that had a
yearly rotation. In that year, however, he place certain people into positions of power and
bestowed gifts on his ministers who then supported him in his retention of the throne.
(Ibid.). This may have been the beginning of the structuring of the Dahomean court.
58 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), In discussion with author, June 12, 2013,
Abomey, Benin.
27
have been added by his successors for the performance of ceremonies, as well as a
building set aside for the ministers of the king. As bas-relief decoration was not
introduced to palace architecture until the eighteenth century, Huegbadja’s walls were
likely void of ornamentation.
The establishment of Huegbadja’s palace and his claiming of Dan’s functioned as
architectural manifestations of establishment of the Dahomean dynasty among the
Guedevy. Even before Huegbadja was made king he had been conquering neighboring
villages, and by the end of his life had added approximately eighteen additional towns
and villages to the Dahomean kingdom.59 Eventually, the Agassouvi and Guedevy began
to intermarry and formed the Fon ethnic group.
Upon Huegbadja’s death, kingship was bestowed upon his eldest son, Akaba
(reigned c.1685-1708). Unlike the palaces of his successors, Akaba’s is detatched from,
though still adjacent to, the rest of the palace complex. Rather than merging a new palace
to his father’s, he reoccupied the palace and land claimed through Huegbadja’s
confrontation with Dan. In this way, Akaba used architecture to proclaim a right to rule
and thus ensure a peaceful transfer of power.60 Through it, he could remind his subjects
of both Huegbadja’s rise to kingship, and demonstrate his own power as the occupier of
this vast, spiritually significant (as it Dan’s burial place) space.
59 Akinjogbin, 37. Argyle claims that Huegbadja also asserted power over individual kin
groups by declaring “the kings of Dahomey were henceforward to be the ‘heirs’ of their
subjects. Whenever the head of a kin group died, his property had to be sent to the king,
who subsequently returned most of it to the person who succeeded the deceased.” Argyle,
11.
60 If, as some historians claim, Akaba is in fact the one that killed Dan, his occupation of
this space would have demonstrated an immediate shift in power to the line of Dahomean
kings, and solidified the assertions of power made by Huegbadja.
28
One can only speculate what modifications Akaba made to the architecture as he
occupied this space as king. It is possible that time and weather eroded Dan’s buildings
during the thirty plus years of Huegbadja’s reign, leaving Akaba with a clean slate to
rebuild according to the needs of a Dahomean king. However, it is more likely that
Huegbadja presented Akaba with Dan’s palace immediately after Dan’s death, thus
maintaining occupancy of the palace and the power associated with its past. If this was
the case, Huegbadja, in the aggrandizement of his own palace, may have patterned his
palace after Dan’s, thus conforming to the local expectations of royal architecture.
Probably, Akaba used the spaces but modified their purposes to suit his own.
In occupying and modifying the palace, Dan’s memory was not completely
erased. To Akaba’s credit, he acknowledged Dan in two architectural gestures of respect.
Akaba’s palace has two hounwa, one on the southern wall near the eastern corner
belonging to Dan which Akaba preserved but did not use. It is said to remain closed
except for ceremonial purposes.61 Akaba had his own hounwa built in the middle of the
eastern wall opening into his kpododji which contains a tasinonho and the ruins of an
impressive two story building added by his successor after Akaba’s death. The second
courtyard, or ajalalahennu, to the south of the kpododji, hugged the exterior wall and
included a large, imposing, ajalala built on a mound of elevated earth. The placement
and arrangement of the ajalalahennu, set between the two hounwa, suggest that it may
have served the same function for Dan who would have entered this space from the south
instead of from the north.
61 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, February 20,

2013.
29
The second architectural acknowledgment of Dan’s reign, added either by Akaba
or one of his successors, was a djeho for Dan’s spirit built in the corner of this courtyard.
Although it is smaller and somewhat set back from the other djeho in Akaba’s palace, and
though the name of Dan is never mentioned in religious services, this structure grants the
spirit of Dan rights to participation in the ancestral feasts and ceremonies. While Akaba
certainly occupied and modified this architectural space as an assertion of power and a
replacement of the old regime with a new one, he was also building on the power of Dan
to legitimize his own rule. Akaba, occupied a space that was already recognized by the
population as a legitimate governing center, while modifying it to make it his own,
distinct from Dan’s and Huegbadja’s.
Akaba’s ability to simultaneously pull from the past and look to the future was
exhibited not only through architecture, but also through his administration. In the
expansionist tradition, Akaba continued to enlarge the kingdom’s borders to encompass
the forty towns and villages across the Abomean plateau.62 Monroe explains that
although the kingdom had grown substantially under Akaba, he and other monarchs of
this period, depended heavily on the “elites originating from within conquered towns to
administer their territories” in a kind of indirect rule system.63 Akaba’s ability to gain
allegiance from newly conquered peoples may have been a result of his participation in
62 This was not accomplished without resistance and casualties. The Oueme attacked
Dahomey soon after Akaba’s ascension to the throne diminishing the Dahomean army
substantially. Among the earliest towns and villages conquered were those to the south
and southeast of Abomey. These, Akinjogbin suggests, were chosen as they capitalized
on the region that the Allada kingdom would have raided for their slave commerce. He
also suggests that there is evidence that these towns were conquered in an attempt to stop
the spread of slave trading (Akinjogbin, 38).
63 Monroe, “Continuity,” 355.
30
the growing slave trade, which incidentally also allowed him to replenish his army and
make contact with European slave-traders. 64
The trans-Atlantic slave trade had a profound impact on the economy, politics,
and population of the Dahomean kingdom then and for generations thereafter. According
to historian Patrick Manning, throughout the next two centuries “roughly two million
slaves were exported from the Bight of Benin, comprising one fifth of the total Atlantic
slave trade.”65 The majority of these were supplied by Dahomey beginning in the 1670s,
in the latter years of the reign of Huegbadja, and were exported at anywhere from 7,000
to 15,000 slaves annually.66 Akaba’s willingness to engage in the slave trade, though an
offense to human rights, put him in position to receive the benefits of international
commerce. By the end of his life, Akaba had proven a stark military leader and king.
The kingdom had grown geographically, in population, and in confidence.67
Scholars and historians have differing and sometimes conflicting accounts of the
historical events which took place during the interim between Akaba’s and Agadja’s
reigns. Though Akaba’s twin sister, Hangbe, likely ruled for three years (probably 1708-
1711), issues of gender roles, familial hierarchies and fluctuating histories all contribute
to the discrepancies in understanding her historical role. Three centuries of evolving
cultural contexts make it equally difficult to make conclusions today about the kingdom
then. Interestingly, she is absent from pre-twentieth century published sources as if she
64 Akinjogbin, 38.
65 Patrick Manning, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey, 1640-1960

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 9.
66 Manning, 9.
67 Akinjogbin, 38.
31
was not included in the oral history at all.68 In contrast, however, some contemporary
historians paint her as a full-fledged monarch; as the forgotten queen, the Hatshepsut of
Dahomey.
Most likely, the historical Hangbe reigned as a regent, and though her time in
power was short, she made important developments to the kingdom. 69 Architectural
evidence supports the conclusion that Hangbe served as regent. She, as Akaba’s twin,
had all things in common with him, so almost certainly used his palace as her
administrative center. She, however, is neither buried as a monarch within this palace,
nor was she exiled when unseated.70 Her compound is adjacent to the palace complex
and her descendants continue to participate in the Annual Ceremonies by means of the
tohosu rites.71 She was therefore neither given the honor nor considered a threat that a
monarch would have. The narratives associated with her, whether historically accurate or
not, reveal important aspects about the nature of the palace and its part in the transfer of
royal power.
According Dah Vudombo, Akaba’s descendant and steward of his tombs, Akaba
did not suffer death, but “disappeared into nature.” The Fa, or diviner, designated the
building of two commemorative tombs within his palace space as a result.72 In another
68 Bay, Wives, 54.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 Arnaud Codjo Zohou, De l'oralité: essai. Histoires de Tasi Hangbé: récits, entretiens.
Hangbé, reine oubliée: film documentaire (Roissy-en-Brie: Cultures croisées, 2003), 46.
The cult of Tohossou is described in detail in chapter 5.
72 The tomb that currently receives more attention is in the northern corner of Akaba’s
palace. This tomb marks one of the last places Akaba was seen. (Dah Vodumbo, in
discussion with author, August 8, 2011, Abomey).
32
account, he died in battle against the Oueme army.73 In this version, his twin sister,
Hangbe, reportedly pregnant at the time, dressed as a soldier and took up where her
brother left off in the battle front.74 As the oldest daughter of Huegbadja, she held the
title of Nan Daho, high princess or female head of the household, and had the right and
duty to serve as regent until the heir of the unexpectedly deceased king Akaba could take
the throne.75 She also made tremendous strides in the realm of women’s rights. Believing
that women could contribute to society outside of their usual domestic tasks, she
instituted a commission of women responsible for the upkeep of Abomey and a
committee to teach traditionally male occupations such as farming, pottery, cobbling and
73 Another account claims he died from poison. (Bay, Wives, 55).
74 Zohou 42-43. Abomean historian Gabin Djimasse recounts that Hangbe, in order to
avoid giving birth on the battle field, aborted her baby by one of the great Baobab trees
still in existence by Akaba’s palace today. Djimasse attributes this act to the courage and
sacrifice Hangbe made during her rule. (Zohou 51). Already we have major historical
inconsistencies. Akaba, as it is told ascended the throne at an advanced age, which is
how he got his symbol of the chameleon which historian Nondichau explains the name
“kaba . . . kaba . . . kaba. . . kaba . .’ evokes the slowness of the chameleon” and just as
the chameleon climbs slowly, so too Akaba had a slow climb to the throne. (Zohou 36).
If we are to believe that Akaba was old upon his ascension, and then reigned for a
number of years, surely his twin sister would have been beyond child rearing years. Or,
more likely, since Agaja, the brother just younger than Hangbe and Akaba reigned for 34
years, Akaba was not as old as the history recounts.
75 Bay, Wives, 55. Several scholars who claim Hangbe reigned as queen, do so on the
grounds of her status as twin to Akaba. Akinjogbin with Le Herisse suggest that Akaba
and Hangbe, as twins, had been joint heirs to the throne, citing the Dahomean tradition
that twins have everything in common, in this case the kingdom. If this were the case,
then Hangbe was essentially a joint monarch, but was “content to remain in the
background” until Akaba’s death when she took the throne as queen. The implication
here is that the kingdom would have been divided by the heirs of both Akaba and Hangbe
(Akinjogbin, 60). Bay, however, asserts that the cultural understanding of twinning had
evolved, and that scholars have superimposed the present cultural understanding of
twinning on the history unjustly. (Bay, Wives, 56).
33
basketry to women.76 Her courage on the battle field is often cited as influence for the
establishment of a female corps of soldiers eventually known as the Amazons.77
Hangbe’s story provides insight into the gendered nature of the palace as Agadja,
Hangbe’s younger brother, capitalized on it to overthrow Hangbe and usurp the regency.
He, suspicious of his sister and ambitious for power, hid himself one evening to observe
and follow Hangbe’s nightly procession into the palace interior. He discreetly joined the
entourage as they passed through the first and second courtyards and into the third. At
Hangbe’s door, her servants unrolled a bundle of fabric which they had been carrying and
in which her husband had been hiding, and delivered him to his wife. Agadja, who had
again concealed himself during the procession’s exit, knocked on the door and, using a
woman’s voice and feigning deathly illness, petitioned for help. When Hangbe opened
the door, Agadja entered and accused her of profaning the palace by allowing her
husband, a man who is not the King, to reside in its innermost portion. 78 He declared
such desecration of the palace as grounds for coup and took upon himself the title of
regent. If this story is indeed historically accurate, the fall of Hangbe occurred because
she did not respect or maintain the palace’s gendered dichotomy. This indicates that the
palace’s gendered nature was not only established but also held in such esteem to be the
impetus for a shift in power. If it is an embellishment of history, it at least provides
indication of the importance of the gendered space of later generations.
76 This information was recounted by Bachalou Nondichau (Zohou, 44).
77 Zohou, 43. The establishment of the Amazon army is highly disputed among scholars.
Some claim their institution took place as late as King Glele. Others claim that Hangbe,
as protection formed a band of guards to protect her person which eventually became the
Amazons.
78 The story does not account for the ironic presence of Agaja in the innermost court.
34
Palace Architecture in Claiming Power: King Agadja
During Agadja’s two to three decade reign he took Huegbadja’s expansionist
creed to heart and extended the kingdom’s borders down to the coast thus putting the
Dahomean kings in direct contact with European traders. He exhibited great ambition
and ingenuity throughout his reign. Agadja’s reign dates are sometimes published as
lengthy as from 1708-1741, but these ignore the three year interim of Hangbé’s regency,
followed by a period as regent himself. In actuality, he probably did not take the throne
until 1716.79 His rise to kingship, though difficult to decipher, likely begins as regent for
Akaba’s heir Agbosassa.
A crowned prince’s right to the throne was not secure until their enthronement
ceremony took place. Agbosassa’s candicacy was supported by Akaba and Hangbe, but
that did not guarantee his rule. The historical narrative of Agbosassa’s aspiring to
kingship demonstrates the importance of the palace as a ceremonial and authorizing
center. When he came of age, Agbo- sassa went to his uncle requesting a transfer of
power to which Agadja agreed and made preparations for the enthronization.
At the alleged coronation, Agadja presented Agbosassa with two bowls of broth,
one sweet, made with honey, and the other bitter, made with aloma leaves. Agbosassa
tried the bitter and set it aside, but the sweet he finished. Agadja explained that just as
the porridge was sweet so too is the power that comes with ruling the kingdom. He then
openly refused before the court and population to relinquish the throne to his nephew. 80
79 Bay, Wives, 49.
80 Bachalou Nondichau and Gabin Djimasse both have their historical narratives of this
event recorded in Zohou, 39-40, and 53-54. In Gabin Djimasse’s version, Agbo-Sassa
was told to drink the bitter broth, as he related it to the difficult task of management of
the kingdom.
35
The ceremony turned out to be, not a transfer of power from Agadja to Agbosassa, but
rather a public advancement of Agadja’s status from regent to king. Instead of
relinquishing power he increased it. Agbosassa whether in offence of out of fear moved
to Mahi country in the north where he and his descendants lived until their return to
Abomey in the twentieth century.81
Assuming that Agadja spent his time as regent ruling from Akaba’s palace, in the
initial years of his kingship he would have focused efforts on building his own palace in
Abomey adjacent and to the east of Huegbadja’s palace. While there is the possibility
that Agadja’s palace was, at the time of its construction, a free-standing structure making
all three palaces separate but within close proximity of each other,82 oral tradition asserts
that Agadja extended his exterior wall to join his and Huegbadja’s palaces into a single
compound.83 This would have isolated the palace used by Dan, Akaba, and Hangbe.
While Akaba’s palace was inconveniently separated from Huegbadja’s by a major
intersection, Agadja’s deliberate choice to connect his palace with Huegbadja’s, became
an architectural assertion of his claim to the throne.
Agadja’s name prior to his becoming king was Dosu, a name traditionally given
to the child born after a set of twins. This implies, as Edna Bay points out, that Akaba,
Hangbe, and Agadja, shared a common mother.84 One of Agadja’s symbols, the Green
81 Bay, Wives, 54-55. There may have been an armed rebellion lead by Agbosassa to
assert his right to reign. Nineteenth century visitor, Richard Burton mentions Agbo-sassa
(abosasa) as stirring up a war (Bay, Wives, 54). This would explain his exile.
82 The same way palaces in royal Cana were constructed.

2013, Abomey.
84 Bay, Wives, 54.
36
Tree, signifies “no one throws into fire, a green tree which is still standing,” helped
justify his reign by implying that Huegbadja’s line was still capable of producing an
heir.85 By extending the outer wall and excluding the palace where his siblings had
governed, Agadja used architecture to proclaim himself a direct descendant and
legitimate heir of Huegbadja. Agadja’s descendants, perhaps at his request, used the
palace architecture to further solidify Agadja’s link to Huegbadja after his death by
constructing his tomb adjacent to his father’s.
Agadja made important developments in Abomey’s city planning (discussed in
Chapter 4), as well as in the ornamentation of the palace. After seeing the decorative
wall paintings of the Zodji family, who resided in the present day Legou quarter of
Abomey, he commissioned them to decorate the palace walls. 86 Whether or not it was
initially so, the decorations evolved into bas-relief sculptures set into the hounwa, or
entrance building, and ajalala, or reception hall. In conjunction with decorating his own
walls, he honored his predecessors by commissioning ornamentation for their palaces as
well. These initial palatial ornamentations, whether in relief or painted, were primarily
decorative; it was not until the reign of king Agonglo (1789-1797), that the reliefs took
on a more communicative purpose.
Agadja’s uses of the palace architecture to gain and maintain his kingship
demonstrate both his hunger for power and his ingenuity. While his predecessors all
enlarged the borders of the kingdom during their reign, Agadja’s rate of land acquisitions
85 Akinjogbin, 61. Even if Hangbe was queen, as a woman in a patrilineal society, her
sons could not claim the throne (Ibid., 61).
86 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 1 March, 2013,
Abomey.
37
was unprecedented. At the start of his reign, Dahomey was comparable to, or perhaps
smaller than, the kingdoms of Allada and Ouidah.87 According to historian Isaac
Adeagbo Akinjogbin, the kingdoms borders encompassed “at most between forty-two
and sixty-two towns and villages” covering the Abomey plateau.88 Through military
expansionism, he incredibly doubled the landmass of the kingdom between the years
1724 and 1727.89 As part of his military tactics, he set up a military training program to
prepare potential soldiers for the physical strain of battle, as well as a network of spies to
investigate the defense and military potential of places of probable attack and to report
such findings to the king.90
Aside from the obligation of each king to increase the borders of the kingdom,
Agadja was motivated by the economic incentives of securing a route to the coast,
providing access to the port and increasing trade with foreigners.91 The slave market,
which was booming at the Ouidah port during this period, provided both a justification
for his expansion, and fueled his warring economy. 92 Europeans found it advantageous to
their slave trading purposes to have minimal political conflict and disunity among the
87 Akinjogbin, 62.
88 Ibid.
89 Bay, Wives, 56. There is no historic record which recounts the details of land
conquering between 1708 and 1724, but we do know that he continued the fight against
the Oueme and must have expanded southwards (Akinjogbin, 63).
90 A. Le Herrisse, L’Ancien Royaume du Dahomey: Mœurs, religion, histoire, (Paris: E.
Larose, 1911), 64-65, and Akinjogbin, 63. Le Herisse explains that these spies came in
the guise of merchants denouncing their kingdom and swearing friendship with the
intention to deceive. They then learned how many warriors a country had, where the
people lived and the best routes that they could report back to Agadja.
91 Bay, Wives, 57.
92 Bay, Wives, 5; and Argyle, 15.
38
local kingdoms and for that reason they initially welcomed Dahomey’s growth as a
potential unifier.93 However, this accelerated rate of expansion posed its difficulties for
the kingdom and palace alike.
While the kingdom’s borders expanded, they did so primarily to the south, leaving
Abomey, the Kingdom’s capital, on its periphery. Though Abomey was never discarded
as the capital, Agadja did physically abandon it for a period for the purpose of acquiring
and securing new lands. This meant that there was no king in residence at the Royal
Palace of Dahomey for a substantial portion of Agadja’s reign.
After having conquered its bordering villages, Agadja invaded Allada in 1724
under the guise of aiding a local “claimant to the throne.”94 After three days of battle,
Agadja, much in the same way he had with Agbosassa, disregarded the throne’s claimant
and took the seat himself.95 Having claimed Allada, Agadja, still looking southward,
requested from the king of Ouidah permission to trade directly with Europeans.96 When
Ouidah’s King Houffon refused, the Dahomean army attacked and in the end, Agadja
was able to take Ouidah despite being heavily outnumbered.97 Le Herisse explains this
93 Akinjogbin, 66.
94 Akinjogbin, 65; Argyle, 18; and Bay, Wives, 58.
95 Bay, Wives, 58, Akinjogbin argues in his book that Dahomey through this act and
others broke down the traditional Aja system. This was a process of increased power but
break down of traditional codes (Akinjogbin 39).
96 Bay, Wives, 58.
97 The Dahomean army initially attacked the Savi people and burned the north of Ouidah
(Bay, Wives, 58 and Akinjogbin, 92). Bay notes that Ouidahs forces have been said to
have been forty thousand strong, while the Dahoman army was a mere three thousand.
She notes that in the fall of the Ouidah kingdom, the Dahomeans were able to kill “five
thousand persons and [take] ten thousand to eleven thousand prisoner” (Bay, Wives, 58).
Akinjogbin also notes that Agaja’s ability to take Allada and Ouidah as easily as he did
may have also had to do with the breakdown of power locally – by means of disputing
local chiefs and a decrease in the kings’ authorities. (Akinjogbin, 66).
39
victory as a combination of factors: by this point Dahomey would have secured a
reputation for ruthless fighting, Agadja petitioned Nan Gézé, his daughter and wife of
King Houffon, to soak the Savi’s gunpowder supply rendering their cannons useless, and
Agadja openly remained in Allada for religious ceremonies thus making this attack
without him unexpected.98 Though far from his Abomey palace, Agadja capitalized on
the exclusive and religious natures of the Allada and Ouidah palaces to increase his
power.
This reckless rate of conquering was naturally accompanied by serious instability.
In an attempt to secure in his new territories, Agadja turned to palace construction,
erecting as many as nine palaces throughout the kingdom during his reign.99 These would
have provided the newly conquered lands with a tangible manifestation of Dahomean
rule. Despite this, some peoples refused to recognize Agadja as their king. Ouemeans
and Alladans petitioned for aid from the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo, reputed to be one of
the strongest empires of West Africa at the time, located in the west of present-day
Nigeria.100 Oyo had voiced some claim to Allada as a tributary to its empire since the
1680s came quickly to its defense.101 From 1726 until the end of Agadja’s life, Oyo
inflicted upon him tribute and military attacks in both Allada and Abomey.102 Between
98 Le Herisse, .
99 Monroe, Continuity, 357.
100 Bay, Wives, 58; and Akinjogbin, 81.
101 Akinjogbin, 81.
102 For a good summary of the events for this period of Dahomean history, see
Akinjogbin, 81-90.
40
the years 1726 and 1730 alone, Abomey was burned four times and Agadja’s wealth and
resources were greatly diminished.103
In addition to the external attacks, there were internal difficulties. King Houffon,
for example, took advantage of Dahomey’s instability to return to Ouidah as king in
1729.104 Agadja looked for backing among the European traders but found such support
wavering.105 Eventually a Portuguese official by the name of Bazilio, at Agadja’s
request, helped arrange a peace agreement between Oyo and Dahomey. As part of that
agreement, Agadja moved to Allada where he reigned over all of the Ouidah kingdom
and a considerable part of Alladah, but was not to return to Abomey.106 In the end,
Agadja’s residency in Allada not only helped to avoid further confrontation with Oyo, to
secure the kingdom in the south, and to move into more substantial living arrangements
(hiding in the bush while negotiating with Oyo was presumably inconvenient). For the
final thirteen years of Agadja’s life (until 1740), Allada functioned as his home.107
Dahomey became subject to Oyo, forced to pay an annual tribute in order to maintain the
peace.
Agadja having drained his resources, and ruling in foreign territory over peoples
who had yet to prove their loyalty, tried to increase and maintain his power and wealth in
Allada. He consolidated the ports to control trade more closely and announced a
103 Akinjogbin, 90.
104 Ibid., 87.
105 Ibid., 84-85, 88.
106 Ibid.’ 91. The agreement was validated by the “exchange of royal marriages, with
Agaja sending his daughter the Alafin Ojigi for a wife and Ojigi returning the
complement” (Akinjogbin, 92).
107 Ibid., 89.
41
monopoly on certain goods such as firearms and slaves.108 Agadja installed officers at the
ports to help regulate the transactions that took place there.109
Architecture played interesting roles in this reign of rampant change. In the
Agadja’s initial battle against Allada, for example, he attacked the architectural symbols
of power. After the king of Allada had been killed, the Allada palace was burned and the
houses of powerful chiefs were attacked.110 While attacks on significant architectural
places of power would have functioned as a clear communication to the local population
of an overthrow and transfer of power, the burning of the Allada palace was especially
significant. As recounted above, Allada is considered by Abomeans the ancient capital of
the Agassuvi, and a common ancestral home for the kingdoms of Porto-Novo, Allada and
Dahomey. Historian Akinjogbin, who traces the overthrow of the traditional Aja system
by the Dahomean kings, marks this as a cutting of ancestral ties.111 I would contend,
however, that Agadja sought, not to denounce the former center of ancestral power, but to
usurp it for Dahomey. Agadja capitalized on the ancestral significance of Allada by
remaining there for religious ceremonies while his army attacked the Savi in Ouidah. He
also eventually built a vast palace of his own in Allada, distinct from the palace of the
108 Akinjogbin, 94. In addition to firearms and gun-powder, the king monopolized gold,
“white hats with gold or silver ribbons and corals of certain description.” The list of the
royal monopolized goods could change according to the king’s will (Akinjogbin, 103).
109 Ibid.,, 102. This initially caused some problem. European officers who attended the
annual customs in Allada expressed their unhappiness with the over-zealous officers who
“were causing injury to trade.” As a result, Agadja withdrew them and created the post
of Yovogan, chief of the white men, and appointed a man named Tegan to occupy this
post” (Akinjogbin, 103). The Yovogan used “trading boys” also employed by the king.
110 Ibid., 65. Akinjogbin suggests that the houses of influential chiefs may have
functioned as bases for Alladan troops.
111 Akinjogbin, 66.
42
Allada dynasty, in the Dogodo quarter behind the present-day market. Substantial traces
reportedly could still be found until the last decade when they were removed for
commercial construction. The importance of ancestral homes surfaces in Oyo’s later
demand that Agadja not return to Abomey – the seat of his most immediate ancestral
hotspot.
Only a month after Oyo initially burned Abomey, in April of 1726, Agadja lead a
restoration effort of the capital.112 Just as he attacked significant architecture to conquer,
conversely he preserved architecture to uphold power. What he could not, at that point,
foresee were the three forthcoming Oyo attacks. Presumably during the initial 1726
restoration efforts, and no doubt as a result of the exposure to forts and other European
constructions near the coastal trading ports, Agadja decided to construct a two-story
building within his palace structure. However, just as he had done with palace
ornamentation, Agadja could not deviate from the traditions in palace construction
without considering the palaces of his predecessors. Monroe suggests that the palaces of
Huegbadja and Akaba were designed to “commemorate their individual achievements.”
But as the ancestral power of the palace took hold, each king, in order to legitimize his
own reign would “make a clear statement about royal continuity” through the
“appropriation and renovation of the palace of one’s predecessor.”113 A royal dictum was
established: what a king does for his palace, must also be done for his predecessors. And
so Agadja consulted the Fa, or diviner, and was instructed to build a multi-story building
112 Akinjogbin, 82.
113 Monroe, “In the Belly of Dan,” 777.
43
in Akaba’s palace in addition to his own.114 It is possible that he intended to add such a
structure to the palace of Huegbadja as well, but was prevented by political unrest.
While Agadja’s two story building was reportedly impressive, nothing of it
remains. In Akaba’s palace, the one exterior wall extant, if original, reveals something
about multi-story constructions in the pre-colonial kingdom (fig. 12). The walls of this
building, like the other palace buildings, were constructed in large courses approximately
a foot and a half high, with the first course being almost twice as high. On the interior, at
the top of the fourth course are evenly spaced rectangular notches for the supporting
beams of the second story floor. Traces of interior walls indicate that there were multiple
rooms on the ground floor. The ground floor contains three small (one course high) and
one medium (two course high) windows, while large windows were included in the
second story. Such second story voids would have helped relieve the load of the walls’
height.
Under Agadja, the Dahomean kingdom easily tripled in size in a profoundly short
amount of time, and then diminished in power until its sovereignty was checked by Oyo
who viewed it as its tributary. 115 Although Agadja’s ambitions left the kingdom in a
precarious position, he is remembered with fondness and is lauded for his achievements,
not only today, but in the history that shortly followed. Akinjogbin praises his
2013, Abomey.
115 In addition, his trading policies proved unfair to the Europeans involved, eventually
losing him the monopoly on slave trading (Akinjogbin, 107). Agadja was so upset about
this he blamed and consequently arrested Bazilio for six months.
44
innovation116 and lauds him as “the most minutely described and most admired of all the
eighteenth-century Dahom[e]an kings.”117 In regards to palatial architecture, Agadja
demonstrated a combination of innovation and respect for tradition. He incorporated new
ornamentation and multi-storied buildings, while acknowledging his predecessors and
setting a precedent of palatial continuity. He exploited the religious and gendered nature
of the Abomean and Alladan palaces in his rise to power and military expansion
respectively. Agadja poured new significance into the city of Allada for the Dahomeans
and constructed satellite palaces as an architectural manifestation of his expanding rule.
During the reign of the next three kings, the kingdom would benefit from Agadja’s
ambition, and the palace in Abomey would again be established as its administrative
center.
Reestablishing the Palace and Capital: Kings Tegbesu, Kpengla and Agonglo
It would take nearly a century for Dahomey to achieve independence from Oyo,
and be free of their annual tributes. Besides inflicting economic hardship, Oyo
influenced the kingdom culturally. According to the Dahomean-Oyo peace agreement,
which Agadja made under the mediation of Portuguese official Bazilio, one of Agadja’s
sons had to be taken hostage to the Oyo palace. This son, then named Avissu, succeeded
his father as King Tegbesu (r. 1741-1774).118 During the decade Tegbesu spent in the
Oyo court he learned their court customs and administrative policies which not only
116 He mentions that Agadja was “interested in reading and writing” and learned a great
deal from foreigners, from gun firing, to leather box making, to reading and writing
(which he worked on with Bulfinche Lambe) (Akinjogbin, 108).
117 Akinjogbin, 62.
118Ibid., 92.
45
helped him with later diplomatic interactions, but also affected his court and palace
architecture.119
Although Akinjogbin claims Tegbesu returned to Abomey around August of
1743, two years after becoming king, architectural evidence suggests that he lived there
years before his enthronement. He built a vast “crowned prince’s palace” in the
Adandokpodji quarter of Abomey.120 This discrepancy can be reconciled if we concede
that he lived in Abomey between his time as hostage in the Oyo court and his
enthronization presumably in Allada. Having already established residency in Abomey,
Tegbesu felt the need to return, and was willing to offer Oyo substantial gifts in order to
buy the rights to do so.121
Aware of the damage caused repeated attacks on Abomey under Agadja’s reign,
Tegbesu focused his efforts on rebuilding and securing the capital as the center of rule for
the kingdom.122 This was both a duty and an opportunity. By rebuilding the capital and
occupying the royal palace, Tegbesu solidified his place in the dynastic succession, with
the right to call on support from his deified predecessors. Simultaneously, he shed
himself from the immediate discouragements of Agadja’s last decade, and established a
fresh administrative start. This move functioned as a psychological increase of the
kingdom. Though the Oyo continued to see Dahomey as a dependent tributary, the
Dahomeans found themselves with an established royal capital of their own from which
119 Akinjogbin, 110-111.
120 This palace will be discussed in Chapter 4.
121 Akinjogbin, 118. This demonstrates that Tegbessou, even early in his reign was able
to make strides with the Oyo not in the capacity of Agadja.
122 Akinjogbin, 118.
46
they could look southwards at the lands conquered under Agadja which now stretched to
the sea.
However, Tegbesu seems not to have used Abomey as his primary ruling
headquarters. He divided his time between Abomey and the historic city of Cana, located
less than ten miles southeast of Abomey.123 Perhaps because Abomey was under
reconstruction, or perhaps in a diplomatic effort to be more accessible to Oyo (as Cana
was the Oyo ambassador’s collection point for their annual tribute), or perhaps on Oyo’s
orders, Tegbesu built a ruling palace in Cana and seems to have used it as his primary
center for rule. Abomey remained the site for the Annual Customs, and Tegbesu likely
had wives in permanent residence there responsible for the upkeep of the palace and the
regular libations to the ancestors. Tegbesu was neither the first nor the last of the kings to
build in Cana, his successors, down until and including King Guezo, had individual, free-
standing, palaces built in this city. Interestingly, it is with the decline of Oyo, that
Abomey rose and Cana declined as the administrative center.124 While an analysis of the
palaces of Cana is beyond the scope of this dissertation, it should be acknowledged, that
the importance of Cana during this period very likely accounts for the architectural
overlap in the Abomean palaces of Tegbesu, Kpengla and Agonglo all of whom situate
themselves within Agadja’s palace.
Unfortunately, Tegbesu’s reign, as legacy of Agadja’s, was marked with foreign
and internal conflicts as well as by economic instability.125 In order to curb external
123 Bay, Wives, 117-118.
124 Ibid.
125 The Oyo invaded numerous times between 1740 and 1748 on grounds historians have
not been able to determine. (Akinjogbin, 111). Moving back to Abomey set Tegbessou in
47
political unrest, in 1748 Tegbesu engaged in extensive negotiations with Oyo.126 This
may be when Oyo established the exorbitant annual tribute of “forty -one men, forty-one
young women, forty-one guns, [and] four hundred bags of cowries.”127 This was paid
every November for the next seven decades and in return, Dahomey could call on Oyo to
defend them from foreign invaders.128 In regard to internal conflict, Tegbesu worked to
appease Little Popo through a series of peace treaties, but periodic raids continued. He
had more success with old Ouidah where in 1769 he installed a king of his choice.129 In
doing this, Tegbesu demonstrated sensitivity to Ouidah’s history and agency. The new
king was given the title “Agbangla” the name of a revered Ouidah king who ruled a
century earlier, and Ouidans were invited to function under their own king but as
Dahomean citizens.130
the midst of old enemies. Conflicts between Dahomey and the the Mahi and Oeme were
rekindled.(Argyle, 21 and Akinjogbin, 132). The kingdoms of Ouidah and Little Popo
were, as always, dissatisfied to be under Dahomean rule and attacked on occasion.
Dahomey suffered six attacks from these kingdoms between 1752 and 1763. Some of
these efforts to gain independence from Dahomey proved successful, but only
temporarily. (Akinjogbin, 138). Coastal conflicts, as well as the rise of Porto Novo as a
slaving port, contributed to Dahomey’s financial instability (Akinjogbin, 139, 146). As
Agadja had drained the treasury, Tegbessou borrowed money and goods from the
European traders. Monopoly laws that Agadja had established were broken by
Eruopeans and Dahomeans alike. And dissatisfied Europeans, like Bazilio, supported
others, such as Ouidah, against Dahomey. (Akinjogbin, 113).
126 Akinjogbin, 123. Again, Tegbessou’s knowledge of the customs and manners of the
Oyo would have certainly been advantageous to this process.
127 Akinjogbin,123.
128 Oyo maintained sovereignty of Dahomey, and as such defended them from foreign
invaders. Oyo once made good on this by defending them against the twenty-thousand
Ashanti soldiers who attacked in 1764 (Akinjogbin, 124). They also could call on
Dahomean soldiers to fight for their causes (Akinjogbin, 124-125). While the treaty
seemed to be largely a blow to Dahomey, it meant that Dahomey could function without
constant attacks or fear of them from Oyo.
130 Ibid., 152.
48
With peace generally established, Tegbesu focused on replenishing the treasury
and facilitating economic stability for the kingdom. He tried to restore the royal
monopoly on slave trading, resurrected some of Agadja’s laws, and encouraged the
upkeep of European trading forts.131 Slave trading was not only viewed as an economic
exchange, but also served the political functions of establishing relations with European
powers and demonstrating Dahomean power and organization.132 By the middle of the
eighteenth century, slave trading proved an economically profitable endeavor, peaking in
the late 1760s.133 However, by nature of its human cargo, it also increased the nation’s
instability. Dahomey saw a decrease in population and an increase of distrust and disdain
from its neighbors.134
Tegbesu reorganized Dahomey’s internal court system. Undoubtedly in
consequence of his time as hostage in the Oyo palace, he used Ilari messengers, also used
by the Yoruba kingdoms, including Oyo. Recognized by their distinctive “half-head”
hair-styles, these messengers travelled throughout the kingdom delivering messages and
monitoring the kingdom’s welfare. They would have been especially helpful given the
large size of Dahomey.135 Very probably the idea of a court costume was implemented
under the reign of Tegbesu consisting of a sleeveless upper garment and pants of ones
131 Akinjogbin, 127-128.
132 Ibid., 133, 134.
133 Ibid., 136. Akinjogbin claims that by 1767, the organization and affluence enjoyed
by Dahomeans had reached a peak which Tegbessou’s precessessors “would have to
struggle from then on to maintain” (Akinjogbin, 140).
134 Ibid., 132-3.
135 Ibid., 118. In addition he called a Prime Minister (Migan or Temigan), an officer
next in rank in charge of economic issues (the Mehu), an Amy General (Agau) and others
(Akinjogbin 118).
49
choosing. This upper garment resembled the military dress of the period.136 Sandals and
transport by hammock were reserved for the king.137
The establishment of the gender-balanced court began with the reign of Tegbesu
and by the mid-nineteenth century had evolved into an organized arrangement of parallel
offices.138 Male court ministers had female counterparts who held corresponding titles
ending with non, meaning “mother of” or “one responsible for.”139 Thus, in title the
feminine positions, through this maternal designation, were granted a slight privilege
over the male, just as spatially they were granted access to the privileged palace interior.
Royal women functioned not only as mothers over their executive counterparts, but some
were assigned other maternal responsibilities.
Every foreigner who entered the palace had an ahosi assigned to act as his
“mother.”140 This woman saw to the stranger’s needs and surveyed his actions.
According to Burton, the “English mother” expected presents from her protégés. He
continues, “Some resident merchants have two “mothers,” one given by the late, the other
136 Akinjogbin,137.
137 Ibid., 137. He may have also changed a tattooing tradition. According to Argyle,
kings crowned in Allada would have their faces tattooed and would have remained within
the confines of the palace. Tegbessou honored the custom but sidestepped the duty by
having a proxy tattooed with the royal symbols who lived isolated in the Allada palace
thereafter. Argyle notes that this modification of the tradition would have freed him
significantly from the religious constraints of his predecessors (Argyle, 31). This is a
perfect example of how Tegbessou, as king, was able to honor tradition while
simultaneously demonstrating innovation.
138 Bay, Wives, 239. The establishment of this organization reflects the importance of
Tegbesu’s mother Hwanjile whose magic aided her son in overcoming opposition to the
throne. Bay, Wives, 88. Hwanjile is spelled by Blier, Naya Wandjele
139 Ibid., 240. Richard F. Burton, A Mission to Gelele, vol. 1, 405.
140 Edgerton, 53.
50
by the present king. Royalty itself is not exempt: there are “mothers” for all the
deceased rulers.”141
Both male and female officers wore robes with distinct appliquéd patches sewn
onto them.142 Richard Burton in his report to the Ethnological Society of London
explained, “With regard to the position of women, it must be remembered that the king
has two courts, masculine and feminine. The former never enters the inner palace, the
latter never quits it except on public occasions.”143 Thus, these gender divisions had
spatial manifestations. Female court officials remained in the inner palace while the male
officials remained outside, thus creating an interior/exterior dichotomy that fell along
gender lines.
The planting of lise trees in front of the palace hounwa, described above, likely
began with Tegbesu. According to one account, Tegbesu initially protested his captivity
as hostage in the Oyo court by refusing to sleep indoors. Instead he rested under a lise
tree. Upon establishing himself as king in Abomey, he planted a lise tree in front of his
palace hounwa to show gratitude for the protection it and the ancestors provided while
abroad. In the spirit of generational continuity, Tegbesu planted a tree in front of the
palaces of each of his predecessors before his own, and declared that his successors
141 Burton, “The Present State of Dahome,” 405.
143 Burton absurdly proclaimed that the institution of this gender balanced court came
about due to the physical appearance of the Dahomean women. He remarks, “The origin
of this exceptional organisation is, I believe, the masculine physique of the women
enabling them to compete with the men in bodily strength, nerve, and endurance” Burton,
“The Present State of Dahome,” 405.
51
should do the same for their palaces.144 Interestingly, an earlier story may serve to
explain Tegbesu’s decision to occupy the palace of his father. According to this
narrative, the first lise tree took root in front of Agadja’s hounwa when Agadja planted
his cane in the ground saying “it is here I will put my first child” referring to Tegbesu
who at that point was living in the Oyo court.145 It is possible that Tegbesu, in honor and
fulfillment of his father’s prophecy supplanted the cane with the tree and took up
residence in his royal palace. The notion that Tegbesu initiated the planting of lise trees
in front of the palace hounwa is further supported by the name of his private palace,
found in the Adandokpodji quarter of Abomey. This palace, called Lisehounzon, refers
to the religious authorization of the planting of the lise tree.
The clear-cut explanation that scholars often give when describing the Royal
Palace of Dahomey: that each monarch built his own palace within the larger whole starts
to become a little muddied at this point in history. While, until the onset of colonization,
each fulfilled the royal dictum to enlarge the palace, the kings Tegbesu (r. 1740-1774),
Kpengla (r. 1774-1789), and Agonglo (r. 1789-1797) all apparently shared the first two
courtyards of Agadja’s palace. However, each modified the palace: extending the outer
wall, enlarging the ajalala, adapting the hounwa, and adding the djeho of his immediate
144 Suzanne Preston Blier, African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1995), 427. Interestingly, there is some discrepancy in the
origin of placing these trees in front of the palace hounwas.
145 Blier, African Vodun, 427. Yet another story about lese trees pre-dates both of these.
Related to me by Bachalou Nondichau, this legend suggests that Akaba had such a tree
already during his reign, and serves to explain why Akaba’s tree does not bear fruit.
Supposedly, Akaba came out of the palace to rest in the shade of his lise tree. While
resting, fruit fell on his head. He cursed the tree saying that though the tree would live a
long life, it would not bear any fruit – and such has been the case. (Bachalou Nondichau
(traditional historian), in discussion with author, February 20, 2013, Abomey).
52
predecessor.146 Consequently, this ajalala, though no longer extant, was reportedly the
largest of the pre-colonial complex. By the end of Agonglo’s reign, the hounwa is said to
have had four separate openings, one for each of the kings who used it.147 Evidence
indicates that the third, most private, residential courtyard, the honga, was not shared, but
that each king had his own. Though only vague traces of this interior space remains, I
surmise that these generally evolved with the outer wall to the south of Agadja’s
kpododji, or first courtyard, and help explain the wall’s extension with each king and its
irregular shape. The placement of the tombs further elucidates the location of each
honga: Agadja’s to the west between his and Huegbadja’s outer courtyards, Tegbesu’s
likely directly to the south of the kpododji, probably until the change in the wall shape,
Kpengla’s still further south until the wall turns northwest, and Agonglo’s northwest of
Kpengla’s. In all probability, Agonglo extended the wall to the northwest building in
what is now the outer wall of Guezo’s kpododji.
By occupying and elaborating upon the palace of Agadja, these three kings
demonstrated through architecture their endeavors to uphold and advance the kingdom,
even if Agadja had bequeathed it to them in a politically precarious state. Aware of the
kingdom’s history of bumpy successions, and having had to vie for the throne himself,
Tegbesu wanted to make certain that his designated heir would replace him after his
death. In 1751 he declared his oldest son, who was to become King Kpengla, probably
146 This palace also includes a djeho for Agadja’s mother and for Guezo, built much
later. (Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, March 1,
2013, Abomey).
147 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, March 1, 2013,
Abomey.
53
sixteen at the time, his successor to the throne.148 Though the choice seemed widely
accepted, in 1754, Tegbesu investigated how smoothly the succession would occur by
feigning his own death, and laying low for a period of probably half a year. During that
time, no one challenged Kpengla’s succession, thus satisfying Tegbesu who came out of
hiding and continued to rule until his death.149
While Tegbesu had endeavored to strengthen the kingdom’s economy and provide
organization, he failed to bolster the army. As a consequence, Kpengla’s slave raids, sent
out fairly regularly often failed, and soon vulnerability lead to a resurgence of attacks by
the kingdom of Old Ouidah.150 The financial hardship incurred by the lack of success in
securing slave cargo and failure to entice European ships away from Porto-Novo to the
Ouidah port, was compounded by other external factors: the famine of 1780, and Oyo’s
demand for an increase of their annual tribute.151 Fortunately for the kingdom of
Dahomey, things began to look more positive around 1781. The American Revolutionary
war had come to an end, thus freeing up British ships and interest. 152 In addition, Oyo
began to decline as a power.153
149 Akinjogbin, 117. The date of Tegbessou’s false death was June 20, 1754. Some
sources recount Kpengla as the brother and not the son of Tegbessou, but Akinjogbin
uses as evidence the writings of the European Guestard to prove that he was his son
(Akinjogbin, 153-154).
150 Ibid., 148, 155.
151 Ibid., 160, 161, 162.
152 British ships began to port at Whydah in October of that year (Akinjogbin, 163).
153 Akinjogbin, 164. Kpengla increased his raiding to supply for the new market, but
success was unexceptional. He took a strong administrative stance, however, that proved
more fruitful. He sent orders (i.e. threats) to the leaders who occupied the Porto-Novo
trade, the king of Ajase Ipo and Sessu of Badagry, demanding that trade that trade be
moved to Ouidah (Akinjogbin, 170). That Kpengla was able to make such a bold
54
On April 13, 1789 Kpengla, at the age of approximately fifty-four, died of
smallpox.154 King Agonglo’s succession proved less tidy than Kpengla’s had been. An
apparent dissatisfaction with the Tegbesu line had begun to grow among the population,
to the point that there were four claimants to the throne, including a descendant of Agadja
who was neither a brother nor son of Kpengla and therefore not a member of the ruling
lineage.155 Perhaps Agonglo’s decision to occupy the palace of Agadja, Tegbesu, and
Kpengla was influenced by this bumpy succession. He utilized the architecture of his
ancestors to demonstrate his right to the throne.
With the support of the court ministers, the Migan and Meu, Agonglo won the
throne, but unfortunately also inherited an economic slump which had lasted two decades
and had affected each layer Dahomean economic strata.156 Oyo was likewise
experiencing hardships, and peoples under their jurisdiction began to mutiny or
disobey.157 While conditions for independence were ripe, Agonglo failed to assert it.
While his failure to act was due to Dahomey’s own economic instability it further
validated the growing discontent for Tegbesu’s line among the population. They saw
Tegbesu and his descendants as sympathetic towards, or at least prone to placate Oyo.158
proposition is another indication that Oyo had weakened. His request was basically
granted. According to Akinjogbin, in January of 1783 “all the ships which had moored in
Porto Novo . . . left there and came to Whydah harbor.” Akinjogbin, 171.
155 Ibid., 178-9 He was known as Fruku, or Don Jeronimo.
156 Ibid., 175.
157 Ibid.
158 Ibid., 111.
55
Despite his hardships, Agonglo had a lasting impact on the architectural practices
of the kingdom. He continued to expand this shared palace space and transformed the
purpose of the bas-reliefs from ornamental to representational and therefore
communicative.159 Eventually, representational bas-reliefs were applied to Agonglo’s
predecessors’ spaces. The application of such reliefs designated spaces of kings through
emblems of their symbols and through pictures alluding to specific achievements,
histories, and legends associated with each king. This made the kings’ histories more
accessible to the general public, and increased the documentary status of the palace as
something able to be read by those outside the royal household. As by the end of
Agonglo’s reign, his hounwa had served a total of four monarchs, it is tempting to
speculate that each of the four portals therein was decorated with its corresponding king’s
symbol. If such was the case, the sharing of this architecture may have been the impetus
for communicative bas-reliefs.
Agonglo’s understanding of the architecture seems to have been different from his
predecessors. He honored the Migan, who had supported his succession, with personal
visits to his house.160 The role of the palace as separating the king from others had
spiritual as well as physical aspects. Angonglo’s willingness to meet with this minister
outside of the privileged space of the palace, while an honor to the minister, may have
played a part in Agonglo’s reproach and eventual demise. His disregard for the
separation that the palace generally made apparent Agonglo’s humanity and fallibility.
159 Antongini, 9.
56
His fallibility seems to have become increasingly apparent to Agonglo’s subjects.
The persistently dire economic conditions were no doubt the cause of political instability
which led to Agonglo’s murder, but religion seems to have been the guise. Lisbon’s
Queen Maria sent priests to Angonglo to convert him to Catholicism, and apparently
threatened to withhold trading arms if he refused.161 He met with these Portuguese
priests on April 23, 1797. Although Agonglo was never baptized into the Catholic faith,
his apparent welcome and willingness to follow the instructions of these priests and
therefore potentially upend the religious practices of the State, made the court extremely
nervous.162 When the priests returned for a second visit, they were turned away, being
told that Agonglo was ill with smallpox. Approximately one week after the initial visit of
the priests, On May 1, 1797 Agonglo was shot by Nan Hwanjile, and his second son
Ariconu was enthroned under the name Adandozan.163 This murder is rarely discussed in
the oral history of Abomey.164
Agonglo’s assassination makes evident the power afforded royal women due to
the gendered nature of the palace space. The palace’s female interior meant that women
had access to the king, and to knowledge of the king’s activities beyond those who were
not able to access the privileged interior. This was empowering to the women, who
could, in this case, determine the end of the king’s reign.
162 Ibid.
163 Ibid. 186.
164 Ibid., 199.
57
Reshaping the Palace and Succession: Adandozan
While Agonglo may have been unpopular in his day, his predecessor, Adandozan
(r. 1797-1818), was so despised he was eventually removed from the dynastic list. He
inherited increasingly dire economic conditions and the growing displeasure with
Tegbesu’s line. His reputation today, as a merciless tyrant, has likely been distorted and
perpetuated by the royal family who disapproved of his political policies and
personality.165 While some of his policies were arguably innovative and forward
thinking, they were ill presented and misunderstood.166 In response to the European
abolitionists, Adandozan encouraged agricultural production in favor of slave trading.167
While he sanctioned the use of slaves locally to increase production, he is remembered as
being anti-slavery, and thus when the Anglo-Portuguese treaty was signed in 1810
permitting slave trading at the Ouidah port, and a spurt of economic growth ensued,
Adandozan was discredited.168 Adandozan damaged his reputation further by failing,
perhaps due to lack of military success, to fulfill his religious obligations of making
sacrifices to his father Agonglo.169
165 Robin Law sites two reports from 1823 and 1825 which claim that his “cruelty was
so great that it was considered a disgrace to the state” and that while drunk he “induldged
in the most wanton cruilties” respectiviely. Robin Law, “The Politics of Commercial
Transition: Factional Conflict in Dahomey in the Context of the Ending of the Atlantic
Slave Trade,” Journal of African History 38 (1997): 218.
166 He also invited the Portuguese to send materials and gunsmiths to Dahomey so that
he could set up his own ammunition factory. The Portuguese however, dealing with
issues of their own, did not respond to that request (Akijogbin, 89).
167 Ibid., 193.
168 Akinjogbin, 194. He was also under the same obligation as his immediate
predecessors to pay the annual tribute to Oyo – which also didn’t help his economic
situation, or his popularity among his subjects.
169 Law, 218.
58
In addition to his blunders on the economic and political fronts, Adandozan
apparently had character flaws that led to his deposition. Suzanne Blier describes him as
“an alcoholic . . . too incapacitated to rule effectively.”170 Argyle relates his tendency to
play practical jokes on persons of status including princes and ministers.171 Dissatisfied
officials encouraged the discontent among the subjects until Adandozan’s overthrow
came about.172 The actual deposition took place in 1818, when during a ceremony the
ministers informed him that the ancestors Huegbadja and Agadja rejected him as king.173
Guezo (r. 1818-1858) succeeded him and in contrast is remembered as charismatic,
progressive and politically powerful. What is never acknowledged is Guezo’s
indebtedness to Adandozan architecturally.
The familial relationship between these two monarchs is difficult to untangle.
Some sources claim that they were bothers or half-brothers, and some go as far to say that
Adandozan acted as regent for Guezo until he could take the throne. While this
explanation would conveniently gloss over Adandozan’s messy reign and rationalize his
ousting, it fails to acknowledge that Adandozan himself had a regent.174 Akinjogbin
suggests that they were from different lines. Guezo, a descendant of Agadja but not of
170 Suzanne Preston Blier, “The Museé Historique in Abomey: Art, Politics, and the
Creation of an African Museum” Arte in Africa 2 (1991): 153. Argyle, 35; and Law, 218.
171 Argyle, 35.
172 Akinjogbin mentions the names of Tometin and Madogungun, two princes “who took
the leading part in planning [Adandozan’s] overthrow.” Akinjogbin, 186.
174 He was not yet of age at the time of Agonglo’s death and thus had regents ruling on
his behalf as late as 1804. (Bay, Wives, 86) It is possible lack of maturity contributed to
his problems.
59
Tegbesu, finally freed Dahomey from the ruling line on which they had blamed so much
economic hardship and discontent.175
After his enthronement, Guezo did not feel the need to “dispose” of Adandozan
the way that other kings had with their contesters.176 Blier insinuates that there was an
understanding between the two and explains that Adandozan continued to live in the
palace “free to indulge in his alcoholic binges” while Guezo governed the kingdom.177
This mutually beneficial arrangement, however, was upset when Guezo chose his son,
Glele, and not one of Adandozan’s descendants as vidaho, crowned prince. In response,
Adandozan, or his descendants, set fire “to the state treasury houses . . . apparently
burning much of the royal art – including the thrones.”178 Oral traditions diverge on the
measure of Adandozan’s punishment. Though all agree that his descendants were
banished from the kingdom, some say that Adandozan remained in Abomey, and even
that he resided in the palace of Huegbadja.179
Guezo ‘s banishment of Adandozan’s line explains his lack of descendants in
Abomey, and consequently the unsympathetic history the royal family has perpetuated
176 The fact that Richard Burton heard that Adandozan was still alive after Guezo’s
death, evinces a peaceful transfer of power (Akinjogbin, 200). Adandozan, by contrast is
said to have “disposed” of those involved with the death of Agonglo. He had a prince
named Dogan and Nan Huanjile buried alive while others were sold into slavery
(Akinjogbin, 186). While this may have contributed to his reputation as a despot, it was
no more extreme than Tegbessou who had his older brother and claimant to the throne
“sewn up in a hammock and drowned in the sea” and his brother’s supporters sold into
slavery or killed (Akinjogbin, 109,116).
177 Blier, Museé, 153.
178 Ibid. 153.
179 Ibid., 153. Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author,
March 1, 2013, Abomey). I find it, therefore plausible that it was the descendants,
independent of Adandozan, who initiated the destruction of the treasury.
60
there.180 The control of Adandozan’s history is further aided by the manipulation of what
little physical architectural evidence he left. Under Adandozan’s rule, there may very
well have been a drop in architectural production within and outside of Abomey.
Anthropologist and Archeologist J. Cameron Monroe suggests that in conjunction with
the decline of slave trade profits, Adandozan may not have had the financial and political
means to convince laborers to build for him.181 He claims that there is no evidence that
he began construction on a palace for himself either in Abomey or Cana. Upon closer
inspection and with the help of local historians, however, it becomes evident that in
Abomey Adandozan built a substantial palace to the south of Angonglo’s honga.182
Adandozan’s hounwa currently located between Glele’s hounwa and Guezo’s two-storied
entrance hall is adorned in bas-relief with Agonglo’s kingly symbols (fig. 13). In short,
he built the palace that was later usurped by, and is now recognized as Guezo’s with the
hounwa that is currently attributed to Agonglo. Moreover, while Adandozan may have
lacked will and/or finances to build additional palaces, it is also possible that his
architectural endeavors were razed or claimed by his successors in their efforts to remove
him from the historical cannon and promote their own rule.183 Guezo has been credited
with a suspicious abundance of architectural achievements.
180 Bachalou Nondichau explains that some descendants returned after a period from
exiles in Togo and Ghana, but changed their names. (Bachalou Nondichau (traditional
historian), in discussion with author, March 1, 2013, Abomey).
182 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, July 26, 2011,
Abomey.
183 Nondichau explains that at least the private palace of Adandozan, which was in
Azassa, was razed after his deposition. (Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in
discussion with author, March 1, 2013, Abomey).
61
An examination of the palace space shared by Adandozan and Guezo, provides
some insight into their histories. Paul Mercier’s plan of this space, published in 1959,
clearly delineates two areas historically called zinkpoho, or throne room/treasury (fig.
14). The larger of the two is located in the kpododji with access almost immediately
inside Guezo’s two storied entrance hall. Oral sources explain that, the second zinkpoho,
built along the back wall of the ajalalahennu and perpendicular to the ajalala was
initiated as an interior and therefore more secure alternative to the earlier treasury.184
This latter throne room/treasury was almost certainly built to replace the former after
Adandozan burned it (fig. 15). It is less than half the size than its former counterpart, no
doubt due to the loss of items destroyed in the fire. Guezo probably razed the former
zinkpoho to enlarge his kpododji, but traces of the wall and a difference in floor level
remain to this day.
While there is no way to know for certain, architectural evidence indicates that
Adandozan resided, perhaps from his deposition until his death, in Huegbadja’s palace.
Though not openly discussed in contemporary Abomey, Adandozan has a djeho
dedicated to his spirit in Huegbadja’s ajalalahennu, and, while not mentioned by name,
has had sacrifices performed on his behalf during the grand periodic royal ceremony
known as the Gandaxi.185 However, it is difficult to reconcile the palace’s gendered
history with the notion that Adandozan continued to live in the palace after his
deposition. According to tradition, it was impermissible to have two men/kings reside in
the palace interior.
Abomey.
185 Ibid.
62
If, as this evidence suggests, Adandozan was not banished but resided in
Huegbadja’s palace, the justification for this unprecedented arrangement was likely lost
in efforts to strike him from the royal history. It is possible that Adandozan’s unseating
was not complete, and that some political contract between him and Guezo justified
palace sharing, or that some extenuating spiritual circumstance allowed for this
peculiarity. While we have yet to discover the reason/s or details of this arrangement, it
conveniently leaves the royal family with no portion of the palace dedicated solely to
Adandozan. The spaces in which he resided are remembered as Guezo’s, Huegbadja’s,
and even, in the case of his hounwa, Agonglo’s. The lack of architectural legacy makes it
easy for the members of the royal family to erase him from the memory of the kingdom’s
history.
Architecture of Power and Reception: The Palaces of Guezo and Glele
The reigns of the nineteenth century kings Guezo (r. 1818-1858) and Glele
(r.1858-1889) are remembered as a golden age of Dahomean history. The increase in
stability after the deposition of Adandozan facilitated economic growth and diplomatic
relations with foreigners. A replenishing of the treasury and stable financial conditions
resulted in an increase in the number of wives at court. While exact numbers are difficult
to gage, somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 ahosi, wives or followers of the king, as
well as slaves, royal daughters, and female descendants of past kings resided in the
Abomey palace. 186 These ahosi included the corps of Amazon warriors, which became
more regimented and notorious during this period. Kings chose wives from every
186 Edna Bay, “Servitude and Worldly Success in the Palace of Dahomey,” In Women
and Slavery in Africa, ed. Clair C. Robertson and Martin A Klein, (Madison: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 341.
63
lineage, and thus used their wives not only to display their economic, sexual, and military
power, but also as a symbolic gesture of their political power over the various peoples of
the kingdom.
The spatial arrangements of Guezo’s and Glele’s first two palace courtyards
indicate greater organization that, as Monroe concludes in his analysis to the Dahomean
palaces at Cana, coincided with the rise of kingly control over an increasingly complex
royal court.187 In Abomey, this manifests itself in an almost axial plan of the succession
of courtyards. The relative prosperity and stability also generated more frequent visits
from foreigners to Dahomey’s interior, Abomey. Consequently there is a greater
abundance of nineteenth century published records which provide details about the palace
and court during this period. The architecture of Guezo and Glele indicate this upswing
in positive international relations through the integration of foreign forms and
ornamentation.
Guezo is remembered for promoting a renewal of the kingdom. Among his early
acts as king, one that helped secure his initially precarious sovereignty, he freed the
Dahomeans from the exorbitant annual tribute paid to Oyo then defeated the armies sent
against him.188 Having thus asserted Dahomey’s independence, he expanded the
kingdom’s borders by conquering large portions of Mahi country.189 Guezo is said to
have revived policies of agriculture, hunting, and potable water instituted by Hangbe.190
187 Monroe, “Continuity,” 371. In contrast to the more axial palaces of Abomey, for the
Cana palaces, this manifests itself in divisive, labyrinthine spatial arrangements.
188Akinjogbin, 111. Argyle, 38.
189 Argyle, 39.
190 Zohou, 43
64
He brought greater organization to the court and the kingdom by delegating
responsibilities to his ministers, and organizing the country by provinces led by
governors.191
However, under Guezo international trade shifted. The British had abolished slave
trading in 1807, and despite continued illegal trade, the slave market was on the wane.192
During the 1830s, palm oil became Dahomey’s new export to France and England, in the
following decade about equaled the slave export in revenue, after which palm products
dominated.193 Guezo even made efforts to enforce the quality control of his palm oil
market to encourage continued trade.194 This shift in export was met with resistance from
the ministers and priests of Dahomey, who 1) saw the need to procure slaves in order to
fulfill their religious obligations of human sacrifices to the ancestors and 2) interpreted
the shift away from a warring economy as an undermining of Dahomean identity which
had traditionally been “a warring state, with a deep-seated military ethos.”195 Both kings
Guezo and Glele responded to British abolitionists that putting an end to the human
sacrifices at the Annual Customs would mean an uprising from their subjects.196 The
nineteenth-century kings had a difficult balance to maintain. They had to convince
European powers of progress on the abolition of the slave trade and the suppression of
191 Herschelle S. Challenor, “French Speaking West Africa’s Dahomeyan Strangers in

Colonization and Decolonization” (PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 1970), 34-5.
192 Senkomago, 4.
193 Manning, 13.
194 Challenor, 34.
195 Law, 215.
196 Law, 219.
65
human sacrifices in order to avoid naval blockades and encourage trade, while satisfying
the religious and cultural demands of the people of Abomey.197 In short, the rise in
foreign presence and influence in the Dahomean court during the reigns of Guezo and
Glele simultaneously bolstered their wealth and prestige and planted the seeds of the
kingdom’s eventual downfall.
Guezo was also a prolific builder, constructing multiple satellite palaces and
restoring the temple of Agasu in Wawe.198 His architectural achievements manifest his
policies and his sweeping charisma. However, despite his lengthy four decades in power,
he chose to remain in the palace of Adandozan rather than build his own. While this
may have been an attempt by Guezo to erase the most recent past, it may also indicate a
contractual agreement between Guezo and Adandozan with implications of a somehow
shared reign. Nevertheless, Guezo was able to find ways of revamping the space to meet
his needs and to demonstrate his own innovation, power and ingenuity, sometimes with
outside help.
Guezo’s friend and ally Felix Francisco de Souza, a mulatto Brazillian slave
trader played a significant role in the kingdom’s politics and the architecture alike. He
was a successful businessman and administrator at Ouidah’s Portuguese fort.199 Among
Adandozan’s economic debts were large sums owed to de Souza which, when de Souza
demanded payment, Adandozan refused and put him in prison temporarily.200 De Souza,
197 The British maintained two naval blockades in 1851-52 and 1876-77 (Law, 219).
198 In addition to Cana his satellite palaces can be found in various villages such as
Tindji and Agbanizoun.
200 De Souza, after his imprisonment, moved to Little Popo for safety until 1818.
(Akinjogbin, 198).
66
eager for stable economic conditions and irritated with his imprisonment aided Guezo in
his ascension to the throne by supplying financial assistance and encouraging him to
secure popular support.201 In return, Guezo made de Souza his foremost trading agent in
Ouidah.202 Later Guezo would credit de Souza with his rise to kingship and would, at de
Souza’s death, provide him with a royal burial.203
De Souza provided the plan for his two-story entry hall, or simbo, arguably the
most distinctive section of Guezo’s palace (fig. 16).204 For all practical purposes, this
building functioned as Guezo’s hounwa, and became a way to further distinguish his
reign from Adandozan’s. The inclusion of a two-storied building had the dual influences
of 1) referring inward and backward to the palace’s and kingdom’s histories, to Agadja
and his multi-storied buildings, and 2) looking outward and forward to foreign influence.
Guezo must have felt akin to Agadja, the monarch who extended the kingdom to the
ocean and with it foreign trade. Having freed the kingdom from the Oyo tributes and
established positive relations on the coast, Guezo essentially finished the work Agadja
201 Akinjogbin, 199. Argyle, 37. It is unclear how active a role Guezo took in this revolt.
Sympathetic histories towards Guezo mention that ministers petitioned him to lead the
revolt, but that he refused to “displace the rightful king unless a sign had been given that
the ancestors had disowned Adan[do]zan.” (Argyle, 37). It seems, however, unlikely that
he was unaware that court members were spreading discontent with the current monarch
and that his friend, de Souza, was providing financial means to aid his overthrow.
202 He was also given the title of Chacha, by which he was often referred. Law, 217.
Chanellor, 36.
203 Akinjogbin, 197. It is unclear how active a role Guezo took in this revolt.
Sympathetic histories towards Guezo mention that ministers petitioned him to lead the
revolt, but that he refused to “displace the rightful king unless a sign had been given that
the ancestors had disowned Adan[do]zan” (Argyle, 37). It seems, however, unlikely that
he was unaware that court members were spreading discontent with the current monarch
and that his friend, de Souza, was providing financial means to aid his overthrow.
204 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 20 Feb. 2013,
Abomey.
67
had begun. Looking to the storied buildings in Akaba’s and Agadja’s palaces, Guezo
could continue the tradition, but with a new twist. Unlike Agadja, Guezo built his multi-
storied structure in the palace’s outer wall. This made it more visible from the outside
and dictated the name of his palace: simbodji, or under the storied hall.205 Guezo
entertained more European visitors than his predecessors and so incorporated
architectural vocabulary with which they were familiar. While the traditional single-
storied hounwa was guarded but open and decorated with reliefs, this structure had a flat,
elevated façade and was equipped with heavy wooden doors.
Beyond functioning as a visual manifestation of Guezo’s awareness and
incorporation of western aesthetics, the simbo served practical purposes. The ground
floor had four rooms, which stored cultural objects and objects of wealth to be distributed
to the population during ceremonies as well as a foyer and place for the Hongan, or
“chief of the door.”206 The second story, reserved for the king and his closest associates,
was used to view and be viewed by his subjects during ceremonies in the courtyard
outside. This exterior space, which came to be known as the Simbodji Square (Place
Simbodji), persisted as a site for the performance of religious rites for Guezo’s successors
after him.
205 Simbo means multi-storied building and dji means under. While this is the name of
Guezo’s palace, sometime the entire palace is referred to as Simbodji, in which case it
can be translated, as Robert Norris described in the 18th century, big house. He says
“what I call palace, is, in the language of the country, Simbomy; which (literally
translated) means, big house.” (Robert Noris, Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahádee
King of Dahomy and Inland Country of Guiney to which are added the Author’s Jouney
to Abomey, the Capital and a short account of the African Slave Trade (London: Frank
Cass and Company, 1968), v-vi). Noris also may have been referring to the storied Cana
palace.
206 Mercier and Lombard, 12.
68
Guezo renovated the ajalala, not only in size, but also by including bas-reliefs
describing his reign. John Duncan who visited Abomey in 1845-46 described the king
situated in the center of his ajalala, with a “richly decorated” presumably appliqued
parasol, on a “crimson carpet, trimmed with gold lace,” surrounded by many of his
wives.207 His description makes apparent how the king utilized the combination of
architecture, wives, and regalia to impress. By this point in Guezo’s reign, he would
have renovated the ajalala, rebuilt the zinkpoho (probably adorned it with relief
sculptures as it is today), and constructed the grand storied entrance hall, thus visually
renewing the palace into a stately display of wealth and organization.
Although Guezo reportedly died of small-pox in 1858, he continued
posthumously to assert his presence through architecture. His son, Glele (r. 1858-1889),
either of his own initiative or at his father’s request, built and dedicated multiple djeho, or
soul houses, for him.208 In addition to the unusual djeho built in his own ajalalahennu,
Guezo has djeho in the palaces of Huegbadja, Akaba, and Agadja (and by default
Tegbesu, Kpengla and Agonglo). Oral tradition justifies this as a manifestation of
Guezo’s role as restorer of the kingdom which earned him spiritual and architectural
space with his predecessors.
It is also possible that Glele’s construction of these additional djeho was also
politically motivated. They served to further marginalize Adandozan and thus secure his
own reign. Adandozan outlived Guezo, leaving the spiritual responsibility for the
207
Duncan, 242-243.
208 Glele built a separate hounwa for his father Guezo in his prince’s palace to pay him
homage. This serves as evidence that Glele may have been working from his own
initiative.
69
construction of Adandozan’s djeho with the living monarch at the time of his death,
Glele.209 In order to discount Adandozan’s reign, Glele built this djeho in Huegbadja’s
ajalalahennu instead of in the palace where Adandozan had ruled as king. It is possible
that Glele had not at that point built a djeho to Guezo in any palace but his own. I find it
plausible that Glele constructed the djeho for Guezo in Huegbadja’s courtyard in
conjunction with his work on Adandozan’s djeho. In this way, he could fulfill his
spiritual imperative to build for Adandozan, while publicly emphasizing his construction
for Guezo. He thereby used architecture to simultaneously satisfy the kingdom’s
religious obligations and conjure popular support. Having done so in Huegbadja’s
palace, he continued by adding djeho dedicated to Guezo in Akaba’s and Agadja’s.
While this may have been done to satisfy the mandate of palatial continuity, it also
functioned to reinforce Glele’s reign. Guezo’s multiple djeho became as a tangible
assertion of lineage demonstrating Glele, as Guezo’s son and chosen heir, as taking his
rightful place in the dynasty of kings.
Glele took the notion of genealogical continuity through palace architecture one
step further. He is said to have transferred the bodies, or relics, of his ancestors
Dakodonu and Ganyehessou from Wawe to Akaba’s palace in Abomey.210 For this
reason, there are currently six djeho in Akaba’s ajalalahennu dedicated to Dan,
Dakodonu, Gangyehessou, Akaba, Guezo, and Akaba’s kpodjito, or queen mother.
Akaba’s djeho, the largest, takes the prominent central place among them. Agadja’s
209 Richard Burton was informed that Adandozan was still alive after Guezo’s death
(Akinjogbin, 200).
210 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 20 Feb 2013,
Abomey.
70
ajalalahenu houses djeho to Agadja, Tegbesu, Kpengla, Agonglo, Agadja’s queen
mother, and Guezo.211
The djeho built for Guezo in his own ajalalahennu, rather than the typical isolated
circular djeho used by his predecessors, or even the square djeho used by his successors,
includes two adjacent round structures jointly encompassed by an exterior ovular, wall
(fig. 17). Although, it is tempting to conclude that this paired djeho belonged jointly to
Adandozan and Guezo, and further insinuate a joint reign, local historians, even those
who readily admit Adandozan’s part in the royal history, insist that both of these
structures belong to Guezo, and represent two facets of his persona: his official royal side
and his charismatic personality.212
Glele (r. 1858-1889), called Badahun before his enthronization, although forced
to defend the throne from contesting relatives at his father’s death, secured his place in
the Dahomean dynasty at age 38.213 Richard Burton described him as having broad
shoulders and a muscular build.214 He was lighter skinned, as his mother may have been
a mulatto, and had small-pox scars on his face.215 He built on Guezo’s successes, and as
the last independent king of Dahomey, is remembered with fondness. His increased
number of wives help account for his many offspring, making his descendants more
numerous in the Abomean population than any other king.
211 Ibid., 1 March 2013, Abomey.
212 Ibid.
213 Law explains that Glele was in part chosen over his older brother, Godo, because of
Godo’s tendency to drink (Law. 226).
214 Scholefield, 80.
215 Ibid., 81.
71
Much to the chagrin of European emissaries, Glele’s reign was initiated with what
they report as “a massive increase in the scale of human sacrifice.”216 Robin Law
correctly acknowledges the traditional need for more numerous sacrifices at the Grand
Customs (or funerary rites of a king) than the Annual Customs. In addition, Glele may
have made sacrifices for each of the djeho he built, whose walls traditionally contained a
variety of spiritually charged substances including blood. Glele also undertook military
endeavors with renewed vigor to supply both these religious undertakings and the
temporarily revived slave trade to Cuba which would ceased in 1866.217 His increased
militarism resulted in some set-backs in the palm oil industry and dissatisfied members of
Ouidah’s merchant community.218 Interestingly, the establishment of the palm oil trade
resulted in a revival of French contact which Glele initially welcomed, seeing their
protectorate of Porto-Novo as a “buffer state” against “British encroachments.”219 His
initial trust, however, soon waned, and their presence eventually lead to the onset of
colonization.
Enjoying a lengthy reign from 1858-1889, Glele had ample time to build a palace
for himself to the south of and adjacent to Guezo’s. The first two courtyards contained
the traditional hounwa, logodo, and a richly decorated ajalala. He also included
buildings which exhibit his emphasis on foreign interaction and military undertakings.
Like his father, Glele showed an interest in European culture and goods. Among other
216 Law, 228.
217 Ibid., 232.
218 Ibid., 229-232.
219 Challenor, 48. Senkamo, 20.
72
things, he had requested, and Richard Francis Burton delivered, a silk damask tent,
embossed silver pipe and belts, gauntlets and a coat of mail.220 A large rectangular
building was added to the north side of his kpododji expressly for the purpose of housing
visiting foreigners. In addition, he incorporated European manufactured glass into his
palace. He ordered windows from England which he installed in his ajalala giving his
palace its name: Ouehondji, palace of glass.
Glele’s palace also indicates a focus on military visibility. In his ajalalahennu,
opposite the logodo and perpendicular to the ajalala, is a building known as the adejeho,
house of courage (fig. 18). Adorned and secured with three heavy, carved, wooden doors
across its façade and presently flanked with historic cannons, it was a place where
soldiers could store their weapons and prepare for combat. It was probably adjacent to
the adejeho and facing the ajalala that the Amazons performed dances, songs and
reenactments of battle at ceremonial court functions. On such occasions, they praised the
king, declared their loyalty and demonstrated their ruthless desire to fight in his name.
To the south of Glele’s courtyards, he included a vast space dedicated to the
female military corps, referred to in foreign accounts as the Amazons. While no traces of
architecture have been preserved, the size of this hall indicates a substantial number of
soldiers who resided and possibly trained here. Though the Amazon’s rose in
prominence during Guezo’s reign, there is no indication that he built a hall for them.
While it is possible that Glele built his palace in the place where they had been living,
and moved their hall further south, it is more probable, that the Amazon’s before Glele’s
220 Scholefield, 74.
73
reign lived among the ahosi in Guezo’s honga, or third courtyard. That under Glele they
required their own hall, testifies to their growing numbers and importance.
As sources vary, it is difficult to make conclusions about the formation of the
corps of Amazons. Contemporary oral sources credit Guezo with their creation, and
mention the previous incidents of armed women as merely his inspiration. It seems
plausible that Hangbe would have had an armed female guard to protect her person in the
palace. There is evidence that Agadja used armed women in a 1729 battle to march in the
back of his army to increase its size sufficient to scare off their opponent, but not
necessarily to fight.221 King Kpengla, in 1781 marched at the head of 800 armed
women, whom Bay concludes would have been his palace guard, to battle at Agoonah.222
To be credited with the establishment of a standing female army, Guezo must have
developed and strengthened the already armed palace guard and set them apart as their
own corps. Their development may have been impelled by the increasingly
disproportionate female to male ratios caused by Trans-Atlantic slave market.223 Over the
generations, the palace seems to have increased in its gendered divide. That these were
women connected to the king and to the palace increased his protection and prestige.
Visually, these uniformed women served as a powerful legitimizing force of the
king’s power. As stated by Edgerton, “When Dahomey’s large professional army of both
men and women paraded, their numbers, flamboyance, and military menace dramatically
221 Bay, Wives, 136.
222 Ibid., 137.
223 In places of concentrated slaving, “Manning calculates an overall average sex ration
of seventy adult men for one hundred women in Gbe-speaking areas” (Ibid., 146).
74
reaffirmed the king’s authority.”224 Though they paraded and fought beside men, they
were still technically wives of the king, who maintained sexual control over them,
executing anyone who sexually defiled one of his female warriors.
The Hall of Amazons added to the vastness of the palace. After Glele delineated
a space for Behanzin’s future rule, the palace had reached its full grandeur, covering
approximately 108 acres. Under French colonial imposition, the palace underwent a
series of transformations. Although they suffered periods of neglect and damage, they
were never fully abandoned.
Throughout its pre-colonial history the palace architecture was affected by a
combination of the interior royal court and outside foreign influences. The Dahomean
kingdom, since its inception, and by very nature of its military expansionism, has always
viewed itself in contrast with outside forces. This is true within its West African context,
from their conquered neighbors to the long military struggle with the Oyo kingdom in
present-day Nigeria, as well as in contrast with Europeans from the advent of the slave-
trade and later the palm-oil trade to the onset of French colonization. Foreigners came to
influence not only the political and economic atmosphere of pre-colonial Dahomey, but
also the shape and style of palace buildings and royal arts.
The gendered nature of the palace, which grew more defined and potent over
time, led to developments in court administration and military organization. If the oral
history is accurate it was also the means of Agadja’s rise to power and Agonglo’s death.
Women, as palace residents and representatives of each Dahomean lineage, demonstrated
the monarch’s political control over the entire kingdom’s peoples. The king’s delegation
224 Bay, Wives, 72.
75
of power to both male and female ministers had spatial manifestations in the palace
complex.
The history of the pre-colonial Dahomean kings also demonstrates how
profoundly connected the individual palaces were to each other. Not only bound by the
physical exterior wall, but also through a spiritual interdependence which dictated the
living king’s attendance to ceremonies on behalf of his predecessors. Through the dictum
that what one does for his own palace, it must be done for his predecessors, we have the
spreading of the lise trees, the building of two story buildings, and the adding of
ornamental bas-reliefs. This created continuity in the architectural presentation of the
palaces which helped make them all identifiable as a unified dynasty.
The pre-colonial Royal Palace of Dahomey provided the kings with political
legitimization. Boundaries separated the king from the commoner and set him apart as
holding religious and political license, not held by others. Through visual and spatial
cues within the palace architecture, the Dahomean kings could assert power with
conviction. However, from the loss of independence to Oyo, to the deposition of
Adandozan, the palace also embodies historical periods of struggle and political intrigue.
It is architecture subject to the changes of history as much as it is to the elements of
nature.
76
CHAPTER II: THE COLONIAL PERIOD:
THE PALACE BURNED, RESTORED, AND TRANFORMED
This chapter investigates the destruction, restoration, and transformation of the
palace leading up to and throughout the period of French colonization, and to place those
changes in their political contexts. It demonstrates how interpretations of pre-colonial
architecture manifest complex struggles for political and cultural power between
colonizers and the colonized. While the French manipulated the palace for their political
purposes, the Dahomeans, through various means, protected it to assert a non-European
identity. With the French army’s arrival in 1892, King Behanzin set fire to the palace
complex to destroy it, rather than have it fall into enemy hands. His French appointed
successor, however, worked to restore it. The first French governor of Dahomey, Victor
Ballot, decided to appropriate the palace’s historic political importance by erecting a
colonial administrative building within its walls to legitimize the French presence. Under
a later governor and after a series of restorations, a portion of the palace complex was
converted into a museum. In each of these changes, there are complex layers of struggle
– simultaneous acknowledgements of pre-colonial cultural history with superimpositions
of foreign political power and western notions of restoration and museum preservation.
French colonial philosophies and portrayals of Dahomey in the press and in public
expositions contributed to the colonial appropriation and transformations of the palace
space. This chapter investigates these destruction, restorations, and transformations of the
palace of the late pre-colonial and early colonial periods in order to unpack the complex
struggles for power as embodied in this royal monument.
77
Franco-Dahomean Conflict: Leading up to Colonization
The events leading up Dahomey’s colonization are complex and politically
sordid. In brief summary, trade relations between French merchants and Dahomean
officials throughout the early and mid-nineteenth century were relatively diplomatic.225
Political conflict ensued when the French began demanding that the port of Cotonou be
put under their control as stipulated in the trading treaties of 1868 and 1878.226 In
November of 1889, Jean Bayol, Lieutenant Governor of the Rivier du Sud, was sent by
the French government to negotiate with King Behanzin, then Prince Kondo,227 who
denied ever agreeing to the secession of Cotonou.228 During this period, King Glele died,
cutting negotiations short as the court’s focus shifted to the preparation of his funerary
rites.229 Bayol, exploiting the transitory period of Dahomey’s court, and using the
continuation of human sacrifices for royal funerary purposes as additional justification,
advocated for the conquering of Cotonou by force.230 When France, in February of 1890,
225 There had been conflict, however, throughout the eighteenth century. William Cohen
notes that between 1712 and 1789 there were seventeen consecutive “directors of trade”
stationed at the fort of Ouidah, one of those was killed and four were evacuated by force.
(William LB. Cohen, The French Encounter with Africans: White Response to Blacks,
1530-1880 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980), 160).
226 David Ross. “Dahomey” pages 144-169 in West African Resistance, Michael
Crowder ed. (London: Hutchinson, 1971), 147.
227This meeting was, in part, to “smooth over” relations between Dahomey and the
French protectorate of Porto-Novo. (William H. Schneider, An Empire for the Masses:
The French Popular Image of Africa, 1870-1900 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood
Press, 1982), 46).
228 According to historian David Ross, the clauses concerning Cotonou were likely
forged by French merchants. (Ross, 147.)
229 Schneider, 44.
230 Ibid., 46. Glele’s funeral included the forty-one male and forty-one female human
sacrifices. (H.L. Wesseling, Translated by Arnold J. Pomerans, Divide and Rule: The
Partition of Africa, 1880-1914 (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1996), 203.
78
forcibly occupied Cotonou and arrested Dahomean administrators stationed there, war
broke out.231
Unfortunately for the Dahomeans, the warfare tactics that made them so
successful and feared among their neighbors did not have the same effect in the fight with
the French. For many of their battles, the Dahomean soldiers relied on surprise attacks
and were using flint-lock rifles and carbines which were cumbersome to load.232 The
French, however, had more advanced and concentrated fire power, a military base in their
protectorate, Porto-Novo, and organization that foiled all surprise attacks.233
This dispute ended in a settlement: Cotonou was recognized as French in that
French troops occupied the town and the French flag would fly there, but the French
would have to pay 20,000 francs annually to Dahomey to compensate for the loss of
custom revenue from the Cotonou port, and Dahomean administrators were allowed to
oversee the dealings of the Fon inhabitants. Thus, as historian David Ross explains,
Behanzin could “claim that the people of Cotonou were still ruled by the Dahomeans”234
French colonial expansionists, however, were not enthusiastic about this
resolution. In their endeavors to enlarge the borders of French territory and to secure a
place on a stretch of coastline where England and Germany were busy claiming land,
they were eager to resume military combat and secure government funding to fuel their
agenda.235 On March 27, 1892 a fairly minor incident became these expansionists’ casus
231 Ross, 147.
232 Ibid., 154, 157.
233 Ibid., 160.
234 Ibid., 157.
235 Ibid., 158.
79
belli. The French armored gunboat Topaz traveled up the Oueme River from Porto Novo
into Dahomean territory. Feeling threatened, Dahomean soldiers fired on the boat. After
an “alarmist report”236 had been sent to Paris, the French Chamber released funds “to
finance colonial defense . . . in the Western Sudan and Dahomey.”237
The French appointed Colonel Alfred-Amédée Dodds to lead the attack on
Abomey. A fifty year old military professional, with dark eyebrows and a heavy
mustache, Dodds was the son of a French father and Senegalese mother. Between
October 4th and November 6th 1892, Dodds and his expeditionary force of 2,000 had
devastated the Dahomean army in battles just outside of Abomey.238 While exact
numbers are difficult to gage, “a contemporary French observer-administrator, whose
estimates seem reasonable, worked out that about 2,000 Fon soldiers were killed while
more than 3,000 were wounded.” The French death toll by comparison was seventy-
seven.239 As the French army marched on the capital city of Abomey, Behanzin,
realizing that continued military resistance was futile, escaped and went into hiding.
Before leaving, however, he boldly set fire to the royal palace complex to destroy it,
rather than have it fall into enemy hands (fig. 20).
236 Ibid.
237 Schneider 48. An article published in the Petit Parisien reporting on the Dahomean
attack on the gunboat Topaz, took a clearly biased stand, far beyond the criteria of ethical
reporting. It made a plea to the French to no longer “tolerate the bravado of the bloody
and grotesque petty kingdom whose bands periodically came to murder and pillage the
little kingdom of Porto-Novo” (Schneider 48). While this article was published after the
French government’s decision to fund military action in Dahomey, its power in
influencing the public mind should not be underestimated.
238 Ross, 159.
239 Ibid., 160.
80
This seemingly rash destruction was, in fact, religiously motivated. The palace,
as the location of the djeho and tombs of the former kings, was a spiritual structure as
well as a political one. Behanzin’s destruction of the palace was a deliberate act to
protect the spiritual, ancestral power that the architecture embodied. However, despite
Behanzin’s attempt at destruction, the French army recognized, if not the spiritual at least
the political significance of the palace and on November 17, 1892 surmounted Guezo’s
Singbodji with the French flag.240 In addition, as Dodds emerged victorious from his
battles around and in Abomey, he claimed as spoils for France some of Dahomey’s
important artistic and religious artifacts.
On January 25, 1894, after a year of hiding and leading guerrilla warfare,
Behanzin finally surrendered, was deposed, and exiled to Martinique and then to Algeria
where he died in 1906. French administrators appointed Behanzin’s half-brother, Agoli-
Agbo I, as his successor. Their intention was to appease the local population by
maintaining the structure of kingship, but also to have a figurehead that they could
manipulate. The illustrated paper Le Petit Journal published on February 19, 1894
provides visual evidence of this hope through a depiction of the newly enstooled king
with French colonial officers on either side, a colonial army and French flag in the
background, and enthusiastic Dahomeans in the foreground (fig. 21). However, Agoli-
Agbo, whose strong-name symbol, the foot tripping over the rock, means “The royal
Dahomean dynasty has stumbled but has not fallen,”241 made concerted efforts to
maintain the traditional order and authority of the kingdom. Almost immediately after
240 Th. Constant-Ernest d’Oliveira, La Visite du Muse’e d’Histoire d’Abomey (Abomey,

1970), 3.
241 Piqué, 31.
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his enthronement, he began to restore the royal palace, and situate his own palace in the
complex. When it became clear that Agoli-Agbo intended to wield independent power, he
too, in 1900 was deposed, exiled to Gabon, and French official, Victor Ballot, was named
governor of Dahomey.
The Last Kings of the Dynasty
Before discussing French colonial manipulations of the palace architecture, it is
necessary to consider how the politically tumultuous contexts of Behanzin and Agoli-
agbo’s reigns affected the plan and physical appearance of the palace. Neither of these
kings was able to complete their individual palaces during their respective reigns. For
Behanzin (r. 1889-1894) this was due to the escalation of conflict with the French. Even
before his enstoolment in 1889, Behanzin found himself in a pending war with the
French. In his three years as king, before he was forced into hiding, he would have been
responsible for the execution of two wars, the general administration of the kingdom, and
the funerary rites of Glele which he was not able to complete.242 It is therefore not
surprising that he had little time and resources left to devote to the building of his palace.
The placement, size, and plan of Behanzin’s palace are indicative of his father’s
foresight, his royal position, and the political context of his reign. Oral sources indicate
that King Glele, concerned with the size of the growing palace, undertook its completion.
He worried that it if was not declared finished it would not take over the entire city and
become too immense to maintain.243 In order to accomplish this goal, while
242 Nondichau, notes that photographs of Behanzin in exile show him with hair. If he
had completed the funerary rites, he would have had his head shorn. Bachalou
Nondichau, in discussion with author, 19 June 2013, Abomey, Benin.
243 Bachalou Nondichau, in discussion with author, 19 June 2013, Abomey, Benin.
According to a statement by Gbehanzin Agboyidu in 1995, as recorded by Tito Spini, the
82
simultaneously promoting his son and heir, he built the outer wall of Behanzin’s future
palace to the south of his own palace and called it Dowomé, meaning the tenth, or final,
wall.244
Behanzin’s palace’s exterior entrance is a lengthy two hundred meters from
Glele’s, indicating that the Hall of the Amazons ended up sandwiched between these two
palaces within the complex. At approximately seventeen and a half acres, Behanzin’s
palace rivals Akaba’s twenty-four acre palace in size. Yet, during Behanzin’s reign this
vast space appears to have remained empty. The plan published in Waterlot’s 1926 book
on the palace bas-reliefs, shows no indication that Behanzin’s palace then included any
interior buildings (fig. 22). The sparse number of buildings that exist today: the hounwa
(or initial covered entryway), the logodos (or successive entryways), the ajalala (or
reception hall), the djeho (or soul house) and Behanzin’s tomb were added after his death.
During his reign, he resided in and ruled from the palace of Glele.245
Agoli-agbo’s reign (1894-1900) was strained, not by an effort to retain power
through military contest with the French, but by a need to assert power in the context of
colonization under them. Unlike Behanzin, Agoli-agbo did not have a lengthy, crowned
prince preparatory period. As Dowomé was designated as the final addition to the palace
complex, Agoli-agbo made no palace augmentations, but made his share of palace
building of the “tenth wall . . . and not any further” was a fulfilment of a prophecy made
by a diviner to king Huegbadja. (Junzo Kawada, ed. The Restoration of King Gbehanzin
Palace, Royal Palaces of Abomey, A World Heritage Property (CRATerre-ENSAG,
2007), 7)
244 Ibid.
245 Mercier, 11.
83
alterations.246 Almost immediately after becoming king, he began the process of palace
restoration. Though no record was kept of the portions he undertook in his restorative
endeavors, he likely worked on the palace from which he ruled, Glele’s. Also, the
rethatching of the highly flammable roofs, many of which were undoubtedly burned by
Behanzin, would have taken priority.
In addition, Agoli-agbo began construction on his own palace. This he positioned
in the area that was Kpengla’s honga, or third courtyard, but instead of using the entrance
shared by the kings Agadja to Agonglo, he built his hounwa into Kpengla’s rear, southern
wall, perpendicular to the palaces of Guezo and Glele. Kpengla was Agoli-agbo’s djoto,
or ancestor who is incarnate in the king as designated by the fa, or diviner.247 As
Kpengla’s interior had been neglected, Agoli-agbo was able to redesign the space to suit
his own needs. This situated him on the Place Singboji which, as described in chapter
one, had been used by the nineteenth century kings as a site of royal festivities.248 Agoli-
agbo’s three successive interior courtyards form an “L” shaped plan. In order to evade
the limitations on building from the French, Agoli-agbo constructed his logodo first,
followed by the hounwa. Where Behanzin’s palace was expansive and assertive, Agoli-
agbo’s is nestled into the already established structure, capitalizing on both the existing
physical architecture and their kings’ recognized authority.249 With the exception of his
246 Antongini, 7. Mercier, 11.
247 Bachalou Nondichau, in discussion with author, 19 June 2013, Abomey.
248 This area constituted the forecourt space for kings Agonglo, Adandozan, Guezo, and
Glele. It is also quite possible that Agoli-agbo ruled from Glele’s palace while awaiting
the completion of his own palace and thus also used this space.
249 It is difficult to determine how much of this palace he was able to complete duringhis
reign. Waterlot’s early colonial map indicate that the hounwa was built and maintained
84
kpododji, or initial courtyard space, his buildings and courtyard spaces are relatively
confined, manifesting the economic strain of a king who’s annual income had dropped
from his predecessors’ 150,000 francs to 10,000 francs during colonization.250 In fact, it
is difficult to determine how much of this palace he was able to complete during his short
reign. Waterlot’s plan shows an established, maintained hounwa, but the interior space
was either only partially constructed, or neglected after his exile (fig. 22). Agoli-agbo’s
engagement with the architecture of previous kings spatially, and through his restoration
efforts functioned to establish his authority through association with his predecessors
under greatly diminished political and economic conditions.
Through the various means of expansion, destruction by fire, and restoration,
Kings Behanzin and Agoli-agbo both aimed to protect the palace and the power it
embodied. By so doing, both used the palace architecture as a symbol of their authority.
The drastic altering of the palace complex functioned as a visual manifestation to
Abomeans of these kings’ power, just as it had for their predecessors whose alterations
were primarily palace expansions.
French Colonial Government and the Survival of the Kingdom’s Culture
Victor Ballot, from his infancy, was made aware of the colonial situation. Son of
a French marine doctor, he was born in Fort-de-France, Martinique, where he spent his
early childhood years.251 At age 26, after five years of marine service, he served as an
administrator in Senegal for three years, and then as the director of political affairs at
250 Bay, Asen, Ancestors, and Vodun: Tracing Change in African Art (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 2008), 78.
251 Germaine Garnier, Papiers d’Afrique (Notes d’Histoire Colonial – number 68:
Dakar, 1963), 3.
85
Saint Louis.252 In 1887 his profession took him to Porto-Novo where he served in
various posts until, on June 22, 1894, he was made governor of the colony of
Dahomey.253
Ballot understood architecture’s ability to manifest power, and chose to build to
assert his. He eventually set up his administration at that kingdom’s heart, and the
colony’s center of greatest resistance, in Abomey. In 1901, he built his “residential
palace” in European style not more than a mile from the palace complex (fig. 23). The
two-story structure, with a symmetrical façade, and grand covered entryway facilitating a
second story balcony would have contrasted with the complex, single-story, earthen,
family compounds of Abomey.254 There is no apparent attempt made here, as there was
later in Dakar and Abidjan in the years between the World Wars, to pull from local
architectural styles to form the syncretic style AOF (or French West African style) as it
came to be known.255 While referring to his residence as a palace is, in and of itself, a
potent declaration of power, restoration efforts to the palace complex and the
construction of the governor’s administration buildings made even bolder statements of
authority.
252 Ibid., 3-4.
253 Ibid., 4.
254 Raymond F. Betts. “Imperial Designs: French Colonial Architecture and Urban
Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa” pages 191-207 in G. Wesley Johnson, ed. Double
Impact: France and Africa in the Age of Imperialism. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood
Press, 1985.) 198.
255Betts, 198.
86
As early as 1900, Ballot began to repair the walls of the palace complex.256 In
addition, three colonial buildings: an administration office, a kitchen, and a workshop
were constructed within the walls of the Royal Palace of Dahomey (fig. 24). These were
built in the palace of Behanzin’s predecessor, King Glele, between his ajalala and tomb.
In the pre-colonial kingdom, this reception hall would have been used by the king to
receive visitors, meet with his ministers, and oversee ceremonies, while the tomb, for
Glele’s predecessors would have been a place to offer him libations and sustain his spirit.
Thus sandwiched between points of political and religious significance these
administration buildings transformed the meaning of the palace. Scholar Bernadin Agbo
in his article “Colonial town/indigenous town: Duality or cultural juxtaposition” explains
that in colonization,
there was very often a superimposition and/or juxtaposition of a new

structure on the old one. This phenomenon was the result not of an
improvement in the production ration within the indigenous society but
rather of a brutal metamorphosis dictated by the colonial administration.
The ancient centers were therefore gradually transformed. 257
Rather than destroy or even ignore the pre-colonial palace and its historical heritage,
Ballot chose to include these French colonial government structures within it as a
tangible assertion of the new government’s rule. While Ballot aimed to capitalize on the
loyalties of the local population, he also inadvertently acknowledged the power of the
pre-colonial monarchs. Perhaps to improve his working environment, Ballot continued
the restoration efforts of Agoli-agbo by undertaking the repair of some of the palace
256 Antongini, 11.
257 Bernardin Agbo. “Colonial town/indigenous town: Duality or cultural juxtaposition?”

pp. 17-24 in Museums & Urban culture in West Africa. (West Africa Museum Program
with the International African Institute, Oxford, 2002), 17.
87
walls.258 In an ironic reversal, the colonial buildings in the palace have been since
claimed as an important part of the present day museum, while Ballot’s private residence
was eventually transformed into the present-day administration offices of the mayor of
Abomey.
The colonial presence made Agoli-agbo’s reign precarious from its beginning.
While he ruled from Glele’s palace, and discretely constructed his own palace, he slept in
Huegbadja’s palace to evade colonial aggressors.259 The combination of divisive nature
of colonial rule and Agoli-agbo’s fulfilling of his spiritual and architectural obligations to
the palace led to his exile. In order to manage the new territories, the French created
canton, administrative districts usually consisting of a few villages, over which they
assigned leaders or chefs de canton. These reported to the colonial administrator of the
larger cercle. The Abomean plateau was divided into eight cantons, and of those, six had
chefs who were chosen among the sons of Glele.260 Upon finding themselves in a
position of notable power, these sons of Glele began looking to Agoli-agbo as a
hindrance to their own successes. While Agoli-agbo occupied the palace as king, the
chefs de canton could not dress as royalty or exercise power to the extent that they would
have liked.261 In their discontent, they collectively agreed to betray Agoli-agbo to
Governor Ballot.
258 Spini, page 12.
259 Bachalou Nondichau, in discussion with author, 19 June 2013, Abomey.
260 The cantons as recounted to my by the current Chef de Canton of Cana are: Cana,
Sinue, Tindji, Alahe, Zogbodomey, Sahe, Dona, and Beda. Dah Langafin (Chef de
Canton of Cana), in discussion with author, 27 April 2013, Cana.
261 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 19 June 2013,
Abomey.
88
Early in Agoli-agbo’s reign, in order to finish the construction of Glele’s djeho,
which Behanzin under stress of war was unable to complete, he required humans for
sacrifice.262 He obtained permission from General Dodds to go on a conquest to fulfill
ceremonial obligations, but was not permitted to kill anyone. Agoli-agbo took three
prisoners, which he secretly killed, used in the construction of the djeho, and later denied
when questioned by French authorities. However, as the Chefs de Canton searched for a
way to increase their own power, they turned to Agoli-agbo’s son, Kodo, and promised
him the position of Chef de Canton, if he could provide proof of the king’s sacrifices.
Kodo asked, and Agoli-agbo showed him the heads of the prisoners that he had sacrificed
for Glele’s djeho. When, consequently Agoli-agbo was sent to Gabon to serve a sentence
of ten years, his repentant son Kodo accompanied him.263
After his decade of imprisonment, Agoli-agbo had the right to return to Abomey.
However, the Chefs de Canton feared a loss of their power and possibly retribution. So
they sent a request to the governor that Agoli-agbo be sent instead to Save, about 140 km
northeast of Abomey, where he spent an additional fifteen years.264 At the end of 25
years of exile, Agoli-agbo demanded permission to return, and was allowed to reside in
262 This story was related to me by Nondichau, (Ibid).
263 Agoli-agbo and his son Kodo spent the forst decade of his exile in Gabon. At one
point, according to Nondichau, the two were taken to a deserted, desolate island and left
there to starve. However, when the ship returned to collect the dead bodies, they found
the two were alive. Agoli-agbo explained that a king has no need to eat, and if the king is
well, than his son is likewise. (Bachalou Nondicau , in discussion with author, 19 June
2013, Abomey.
264 Ibid.
89
the outlying quarter of Moyon. When Behanzin’s remains were returned to Abomey in
1928, Agoli-agbo presided over his funerary rites.265
During Agoli-agbo’s absence, profound changes in the establishment of the
colonial order meant he was no longer permitted to reside in the palace, for which plans
for a museum were already in process, but instead returned to his private palace.
Interestingly, the restoration of his private palace (which had largely deteriorated in his
absence) was partially financed by the French, as well as the labor of twenty men from
each of Abomey’s quarters who helped clear the brush and reconstruct the walls.266
While the institution of the Chefs de Canton and a colonial inclination to do away
with kingship in Dahomey lead to Agoli-agbo’s exile, and arguably to the end of the line
of Dahomean kings, the fact that these chiefs were chosen from the royal line, proved a
means to the preservation of royal arts and religious ceremonies. Without a king present,
each of these canton chiefs “had himself installed with the ceremonies appropriate to a
king.”267 Despite the absence of a king, the ceremonies, regalia, and customs related to
kingship were preserved with pride by the canton chiefs. They each conducted
ceremonies in their own areas as would a king.268 Eventually, members of the royal
family, including the Chef de Canton of Cana, determined a need to create solidarity,
organize ceremonies, and discuss royal matters. The colonial government, wary of
265The funeral was also attended by French colonials who had traveled from Togo,
Niger, then Upper Volta, and throughout Dahomey (Bachalou Nondichau (traditional
historian), in discussion with author, 19 June 2013, Abomey).
266 Ibid.
267 Patrick Manning, “Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1880-1985” (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1988. 74.
268Dah Langafin (Chef de Canton of Cana), in discussion with author, 27 April 2013,
Cana.
90
insurrection required that they register their organization under the colonial system and
have a French representative present at each of their meetings. 269 In 1932, the colonial
governor of Dahomey authorized the formation of CAFRA, the Conseille
d’Administration de la Famille Royale d’Abomey or the Administrative Council of the
royal family of Abomey. CAFRA caused yet another shift in the power structure of the
royal family. They voted one member into the position of president of the organization
and as superior chief. The first of these, Langafin of Cana, moved to Abomey as the
center of administration once again. The Superior chief was changed every five years.
With the formation of CAFRA, there was an organization allied with the colonial
administrators who worked to preserve the palace. It also functioned as a unified body of
royal descendants to ensure the maintenance of tombs, to organize ceremonies and to
preserve the kingdom’s culture.270
Transforming the Palace into a Museum
Although in 1906 the political capital of the Dahomean colony was moved from
Abomey to Porto-Novo, French colonials continued to manipulate the palace. Colonial
administrators of the Abomean region (cercle d’Abomey), E. Chaudoin, and A. Le
Herisse undertook restoration efforts of King Glele’s and King Guezo’s portions of the
palace complex respectively.271 Both of these men had made substantial investments of
269Ibid.
270 Haas, 7.
271 Blier, Musée, 145. Ministere de la Culture et des Communications, Regards sur les
Musées et le Monuments du Benin, (Cotonou: République du Benin, Novembre, 1995),
35. Eva Meyerowitz, who visited the palace in the 1940s claims that after the palace was
burned, only the portions of Glele’s Palace and Guezo’s reception hall stood. (Eva L. R.
Meyerowitz. “The Museum in the Royal Palaces at Abomey, Dahomey.” Burlington
Magazine for Connoisseurs 84, no. 495 (June 1944): 147). If true, this would explain
91
time and energy in understanding Dahomean culture. Chaudoin had visited the palace in
its pre-colonial state, in fact, he had been held prisoner there by King Behanzin, as
described in his 1891 book Trois mois de captivité au Dahomey. His pre-colonial
exposure to the palace complex meant he could more accurately assess the damage and
facilitate restoration. A. Le Herisse’s book L'Ancien royaume du Dahomey, which
includes invaluable information about the kingdom’s history and Fon customs, is among
the most quoted scholarly colonial texts on Dahomey. Restoration projects continued in
1922-23 and 1928. The latter, under the direction of the colonial governor Gaston Fourn,
solicited the help of the Dahomean royal family.272
In 1930, under Governor Dieudonné Reste and a royal descendant known as
Prince Aho, the palaces of Kings Guezo and Glele were first converted into a museum.273
After an elaborate inaugural ceremony, described in greater detail below, the museum
was placed under the direction of the colonial administrator of the Abomean district.274
Despite the additional restorations which took place between 1931 and 1933,275 the
museum upkeep prior to 1945 was negligent. It was apparently during these 1930s
restorations that the palace’s steeply pitched thatched roofs were replaced by shallow
pitched roofs of corrugated metal.276 While the corrugated metal required less
both Ballot’s choice for the location of the museum, and for the choices to restore these
palace portions by Chaudoin and Le Herisse.
272 Ministere de la Culture, Regards sur les Musées, 35.
273 d’Oliveira, 3.
274 Constant-Ernest d’Oliveira notes that the colonial administrator was given the official
title of museum conservator in 1938. (d’Oliveira, 3).
275 Ministere de la Culture, Regards sur les Musees, 145.
276 Pique, 17 and Blier, Musée, 145.
92
maintenance, its narrow eaves exposed the bas-reliefs on the façades to the elements
resulting in their weathering and erosion, especially during the rainy season.277 In
addition to building deterioration, the administrator of the Abomean circle reported a
mysterious decline in the number of objects housed in the museum. In 1941, only 260
museum pieces, of the 355 initially inventoried in 1931 were left.278 Further
investigations by G. Duchemin in 1943, revealed that people were sleeping in palace
rooms with the collection and that museum objects continued to be used in religious
ceremonies.279 All of this appalled the Institut Francaise d’Afrique Noire (IFAN, The
French Institute of Sub-Saharan Africa) who in an attempt to “rectify” the situation took
over the museum administration in 1943 officially placing it under the international
umbrella of the French West African administration with M. Paul Thomassey as its first
museum director.280
In many ways the formation of this museum is singular and remarkable. French
colonial administrators had shown genuine interest in the history and culture of Dahomey
and had involved members of the royal family in the restoration efforts. The content of
277 Blier, Musée, 145-6.
278 Agbenyega Adedze, “Collectors, collections and exhibitions: the history of museums
in francophone West Africa” (Dissertation submitted 1997, Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation
Services), 1999.
Adedze, “Collectors,”110-111. Filatriau was the name of the colonial administrator to

make this report.
279 In fact, the the guard, who lived off of donations from museum visitors, slept in the
palace throne room. This investigation was conducted by G. Duchemin who was sent
there by IFAN (Institut Francaise d’Afrique Noire). (Adedze, 111).
280 Ministere de la Culture, Regards sur les Musees, 36
93
the museum’s display were objects from the royal treasury had been retained and
preserved by combined efforts of the French government and the royal family.281
However, in order to understand the complex agendas and outcomes of this
museum’s formation, we must understand the intentions of the French government. The
formation of Institut Francaise d’Afrique Noire, hereafter referred to as IFAN, was
proposed by Albert Charton, Inspector General of Education of French West Africa, and
established on August 22, 1936.282 Dr. Theodore Monod, IFAN’s director,
enthusiastically took to heart the Institute’s goal to “create museums, archives, libraries,
and scientific collections.”283 He oversaw the establishment of no less than eleven
museums and local centers including reinstatement the Royal Palace of Dahomey which
was christened “The Historic Museum of Abomey.”284 In addition, Monod worked to
facilitate scientific and cultural research through the development of programs, and
publications as well as the creation of a library and museum in Dakar, for which he
collected scientific and cultural specimens.285
281 J. Lombard, “The Historic Museum of Abomey Dahomey,” Documents compiled by

UNESCO and PREMA held at the archives of the Historic Museum of Abomey, vol. 1,
no. 27, 61.
282 While IFAN’s formation was proposed by Albert Charton, who justly felt there was a
void in scholarly research on West Africa and wanted to see a permanent institute
dedicated that cause, it was The Governor General of French West Africa, Jules Brévié,
who undertook its formation. (Agbenyega Adedze, “Symbols of Triumph: IFAN and the
Colonial Museum Complex in French West Africa (1938-1960)” Museum Anthropology
25 no. 2 (2002), 50).
283 Adedze, “Symbols of Triumph,” 50.
284 These others were found in Porto-Novo, Lome, Ouagadougou, Saint Louis, Conakry,
Bamako, Abidjan, Niamey, and Douala (Adedze, “Symbols of Triumph,”51).
285 David Robinson, Paths of Accommodation: Muslim Societies and French Colonial
Authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880-1920 (Athens: Ohio University Press,
2000), 40.
94
The French have a long history of intertwining museums and culture with national
identity and political agendas. In the recent past, French presidents have been directly
involved with the business of museums286 and even today, as scholar Sally Price explains,
“museums in France are solidly under the thumb of the State. National museums are
‘institutions of the State,’ which keeps particularly tight reins on their State-certified
curators.”287 In the context of colonial French West Africa, IFAN, as an institution of
scientific and cultural research, became the embodiment of this interweaving of
government and culture. Charton viewed research of Africa as an “intellectual duty” and
“an exigency of . . . colonial policy.”288 The process of collecting and classifying, of
researching and publishing accomplished by IFAN provided the colonists with
information about their colonial subjects which facilitated their rule. Africanist scholar
Agbenyega Adedze explains, “it was the consolidation of scientific knowledge into
archives, research institutes and museums that gave the colonizing powers the authority
and confidence to rule the peoples they ha[d] conquered.”289 Ultimately, IFAN became a
tool by which to execute aspects of France’s civilizing mission.
286 Sally Price, Paris Primitive: Jacques Chirac’s Museum on the Quai Branly (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2007), 27.
287 Price, 23. Price goes on to discuss the role of French government in current museum
practice. “Another indication of their involvement in things cultural is that presidents are
frequently the featured speakers at openings of museums and exhibitions.” (Price, 27)
288 “Institut Francaise d’Afrique Noire.” Notes Africanes: IFAN, (1961): 36. Jaques
Gaillard, “The Senegalese Scientific Community: Africanization, Dependence and
Crisis” in Scientific Communities in the Developing World Jaques Gaillard, V.V. Krishna,
Roland Waast eds. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 1997, 157.
289 Adedze, “Collectors,” 51.
95
The Civilizing Mission
The rhetoric of a civilizing mission had the advantage of justifying colonial
occupation under an altruistic guise which the French used to promote their own
superiority in both political and ethical realms. The sense of moral, political, and
material superiority were part of the general French and republican mindset in the late
nineteenth century.290 While “civilizing” was among the ambitions of each of the
European colonizing states, French publicists and politicians really promoted it, as
historian Alice Conklin explains, “to the realm of official imperial doctrine.”291 This
mission civilisatrice hinged on two convictions: 1) that French culture, morals, and
government was superior to those it colonized, and 2) that colonial subjects were able,
through guidance, to be raised out of their “savage” state to one of refinement.292
Colonial expansion provided an opportunity to put these philosophies into action.
And where better to execute this mission than in former kingdom of Dahomey?
Notorious among westerners for their human sacrifices, warmongering Kings and female
Amazon warriors, Dahomey became “an archetype of depraved savagery, its name
synonymous with barbarism.”293 French ideology conflated notions of civilization with
principles of mastery and restraint: over the body, nature and disease, and social
290 Alice L. Conklin, “The French Republican Civilizing Mission,” in European

Imperialism 1830-1930 Climax and Contradiction, edited by Alice L. Conklin and Ian C.
Fletcher (New York: Houghton Mifflin company, 1999), 61.
291 Ibid., 60.
292 Ibid., 60.
96
behavior.294 In both illustrated newspapers and public expositions, Dahomey was
presented as desperate for the imperial imposition of this principal of mastery.
The popular “penny press” papers, the Petit Journal and Petit Parisien, began to
include illustrated supplements in 1889, just in time for the Franco-Dahomean wars.295
On March 16, 1890, two weeks after the outbreak of fighting in Cotonou, the Petit
Parisien published a full page, six image montage on Dahomey which included two
scenes of human sacrifices, one of a snake filled “Python Temple” in Ouidah, one of a
victim nailed to a tree surrounded by skewered heads, and one of the famous Amazon
warriors armed with guns and a trophy head (fig. 25). These, starkly contrasted with
portrayal of a composed, uniformed, French Jean Bayol in the upper right hand corner,
did more to endorse colonial expansion than to promote accuracy and educate the French
public on current events. Historian William Schneider explains that four of these images
had been plagiarized from an 1863 Tour du Monde article by a Dr. Répin who had visited
Dahomey in 1856 and had not even witnessed human sacrifices.296 The illustrations in
his article were based on descriptions of those who had seen sacrifices at the
enthronement of King Glele in 1860, and on Frederick Forbes’ illustrations from 1850,
forty years earlier.297 No mention was made of the fluctuation in number of human
294 Conklin, 61.
295 Schneider, 5. Schneider explains that sales for these papers between 1870-1900
reached over one million copies daily, and that the illustrations were often in color. Thus,
these became powerful tools for shaping public opinion during this period of colonial
expansion. (Schneider 5)
296 These included the images of the tree crucifixion, the worship in the Python Temple
and the two of human sacrifices. (Schneider, 99).
297 Schneider, 103. Some of these images have in some cases been altered from their
original perspectives and have eliminated the presence of white spectators. (Schneider,
97
sacrifices in the nineteenth-century. These and other such images of Dahomey enjoyed a
wide circulation with the general public thereby presenting the French “with a vivid
picture of the new opponents which colored all subsequent debate on intervention.”298 It
should be noted that the pre-colonial emphasis on human sacrifices was in part due to the
general limitations on foreign travel to Abomey except during the annual ceremonies.299
Dahomey’s infamy was likewise perpetuated in public exhibitions. The World’s
Fair forum which had been used to demonstrate and promote progress in the scientific
and technological realms (including geographic discoveries) by the end of the nineteenth
century began incorporating exhibits of colonial acquisitions.300 Displays of human
menagerie and fictive architecture, like the newspaper engravings, were framed through
colonial eyes and manipulated to meet political agendas, but in a more immediate and
degrading way. For an audience whose opinions of Africans had been tainted by the
civilizing cause and by theories of Social Darwinism, witnessing their physical presence
in the demeaning state of display and in theatrical reenactments of historic events
provided tangible evidence to reinforce those pre-established notions.
103). The central image of the Amazons in battle is undoubtedly also recycled, as a
variant appeared only the day before (on March 15, 1890) in the Monde Illustré.
298 Schneider, 103. In contrast to these plagiarized over dramatized images, the portrait
Chedigen, the Dahomean ambassador who negotiated Behanzin’s surrendor in 1893,
depicts him as composed and dignified. Schneider explains. “This engraving, which
appeared in the illustrated supplement of the Petit Journal, conveyed a remarkable
dignity even though there were no grounds for the magazine to give the ambassador a
sympathetic portrayal. Behanzin had been fighting the French for over a year after his
capital had been taken, and there was no hope that he could ever be victorious . . . The
reason for the sympathetic nature of the portrait is that it was a true representation of
Chedigen, having even been made from a photograph rather than a sketch.” (Schneider,
120).
300 Schneider, 8-9.
98
Dahomey was one of the cultures which occupied the Chicago Midway during the
famous Columbian Exposition of 1893. The Midway Plaisance, interspersed with an
animal show, a Ferris wheel and other fair sensations, consisted of a mile long series of
exhibits from west to east displaying different ethnic groups arranged roughly from those
considered to be most savage to those considered most civilized.301 Occupying the west
end, along with the East Indian and American Indian Villages, and across from “Captive
Ballooning” the Dahomey Village featured war dances and battle reenactments.302
Visitors may have been drawn by the rumors of Dahomean cannibalism or curious to see
the building of snakes called “The Hell of Serpents.”303 The exhibit’s entrance sign,
which read, “Dahomey Village, Benin French Colony, West Africa Coast” was crowned
by a French flag and flanked by parallel images of a French colonial officer waving his
white pith helmet over his head triumphantly and a female Dahomean warrior holding
high a severed head as a war trophy (fig. 26).304 Although this exhibition took place in
the United States, the billowing tri-color and painted colonial officer as well as the focus
on violence in the depictions and performances of the Dahomeans indicates a condoning
of the colonial cause, while the Midway’s general layout and content reveals the
pervading racism of the period.
301 Bay, Wives, 278-279.
302 Norman Bolotin and Christine Laing. The World’s Columbian Exposition: The
Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 (Champaigne: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 131.
303 Mark Bussler, Brian Connelly, and Gene Wilder. Expo Magic of the White City.
(Pittsburgh, PA: Inecom Entertainment, 2005).
304 This was a mirror-imaged, topless version of the Petit Parisien’s March 16th or
Monde Illustré’s March 15th Amazon published three years earlier.
99
At home in Paris, expositions played a more poignant and pointed role in
promoting the imperial civilizing mission.305 The 1900 Paris World Fair ran for eight
months and was the largest to date, with more than fifty million visitors.306 In its
Exposition Coloniale the Trocadero Palace garden was divided axially, half of the
exposition space was dedicated to French colonies, and the other half to the colonies of
other European powers.307 This nationalistic display of colonial acquisitions may have to
do with France’s relative late arrival to the imperial game and a desire to boast
remarkable success at it.308
In this display, Dahomey functioned as an example of both a need for the
civilizing mission, and progress in its implementation. The main hall in Dahomey’s
exhibit, a dominant, rectilinear, two-story, thatched structure included a jutting balcony
which had no Dahomean precedent was entirely fictive, and in fact, would have been
impossible to construct using the methods and materials of Dahomey at the time (fig.
27).309 Supporting the balcony were sculpted sharks with bared teeth, an allusion to
305 The Paris World’s Fair held in 1889 displayed 400 people in its Village Nègre.
306 This almost doubled the Columbian Exposition which had twenty-seven and a half
million and was not surpassed until the 1964-5 New York World Fair at Flushing
Meadows which had fifty one million. (Schneider, 175.)
307The Colonial Exposition began as part of but ended up dominating the Universal
Exposition. In addition to Dahomey, the other French colonies represented were Senegal,
Soudan, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, French Congo, French Guinea, and Tunisia. (Labelle
Prussin, “The Image of African Architecture in France,” in G. Wesley Johnson, ed.,
Double Impact: France and Africa in the Age of Imperialism. Westport, Conneticut:
Greenwood Press, 1985, 219) .
308 Prussin, 215. France, by the time of the 1900 World’s Fair had acquired more
colonies on the African continent than the other European powers combined (Prussin,
218).
309 On display in this exhibit were maps, photographs, documents, geological specimens,
and according to a guidebook, “the thrones of the kings of Abomey, symbolic figures of
100
Behanzin’s symbol, and serpents referencing Ouidah’s Python Temple, which by this
point had become a part of the colonial visual vocabulary for Dahomey.310 The bas-
reliefs, set into the wall below these features, while authentic in medium, comprised
decorative content, geometric floral motifs. The balustrade and roof supports were
irregular and roughly cut and the thatch untrimmed. These features, according to
architectural historian and Africanist Labelle Prussin, were meant to contrast with the
crafted, linear constructions of the North African displays to create a “conceptual
dichotomy between Black Equatorial Africa and White Muslim Africa.”311 The thatch
and wood also fed into the romanticized notions of Africans as living in a simpler, more
primitive state than Europeans.312 In fact, one could observe the daily lives of
Dahomeans who took up residence in “native huts” within the exhibit throughout the
Fair’s duration. One guidebook hoped that visitors may have the “opportunity of
witnessing the mysterious rites of fetishism performed by ancient witch doctors and
priests in their weird native costumes.”313
The exhibit also contained a “Tower of Sacrifices” which the same book claimed
was adorned with “actual skulls of slaves executed before the eyes of Behanzin.” For
visitors, this allusion to human sacrifices functioned as a manifestation of the progress the
strange gods, the royal vestments, [and] instruments of torture.” Exhibition Paris 1900: A
Practical Guide Containing Information (London: William Heinemann, 1900), 404.
310 See the photo montage published in the Petit Parisien on March 16, 1890 (figure 24).
311 Prussin, 220.
312 Coombes, Annie E., Joseph C. E. Adandé, G. D. Jayalakshmi, and Nick Levinson,
The Colonial Encounter (Hamilton, NJ: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2009).
313 Exhibition Paris 1900, 404.
101
French colonists had made in their civilizing mission.314 To further emphasize imperial
progress, the “Ministry of Colonies” pavilion included maps tracing colonial expansion, a
library with the publications about the colonies, and a display of colonial products.315 At
the Alliance Française’s building, situated adjacent to the Dahomean display, visitors
could observe French lessons being taught to the “natives” from the Dahomean and
Senegalese exhibits.316 Through these displays, not only could the political and economic
benefits of colonization be demonstrated to the masses, but also the civilizing mission in
action.317
While Dahomey continued to be included in the grand, occasional, international
expositions,318 it also became a subject for the the Jardin D’Acclimation located outside
314 Exhibition Paris 1900, 404. This raised platform was undoubtedly an imaginative
reconstruction of the attoh or temporary platforms used in the annual ceremonies of the
pre-colonial Dahomean kings. The French would have known of these platforms from
images the such as the full page engraving in the Journal Illusté (published March 10,
1890) and the aforementioned Petit Parisien’s montage. These, of course had been
recycled from earlier travelling accounts such as drawings in Fredric Forbes’ Dahomey
and the Dahomans (1851) and Répin’s Tour du Monde (1863).
Exhibition Paris 1900, 404.

315 Schneider, 180. Companies, such as the French West Africa Company and the St.
Elié Gold Company of Guyana also had pavilions which emphasized the economic
benefits of colonization.
316 Schneider, 180, 181.
317 Beyond the scope of this dissertation, but certainly fascinating, are the ways in which
the architecture of these international exhibitions sometimes affected the architectural
practices in Africa. Prussin eloquently explains that “the architectural imagery created by
the various colonial expositions, what clearly emerges is a process by which a myth of
supra-reality unfolded and in turn enveloped the traditional architecture of francophone
West Africa. Overt and covert elements of Western, and more specifically, a French
aesthetic found their way back tot the African continent in the course of the twentieth
century.” (Prussin 225) Steven Nelson’s book (find title of that Mousgoum book)
elucidates exactly how that took place for the Mousgum people of northern Cameroon.
318 The colonial exposition held in Marseille in 1922 had a West African Pavilion, which
included depictions of animals on the façade, reminiscent of Abomean bas-reliefs.
(Prussin, 224.) For the version of this exposition held sixteen years earlier, the 1906
102
of Paris which started doing ethnographic exhibits beginning in 1877.319 For Dahomey,
exhibitions in 1891 and 1893 transpired directly following the Dahomean wars and
included war dances, mock battles, and military exercises.320 The 1893 exhibit featured a
daily reenactment of General Dodd’s 1892 march and subsequent the burning of Abomey
by Behanzin. Held in the evening, spectators could watch the sky light up with flames as
they experienced what they had so recently read in the papers.321 Perhaps in an attempt
to get repeat visitors, other spectacles were included to the Dahomean program. The
morning animal sacrifice, scheduled daily at 11:00am drew enough visitors that an
afternoon sacrifice was added. Additionally a major one-time event, a “baggage porters
race” drew quite a crowd.322 When a Fon man named Ahivi won the race, he was lifted
up by his fellow Dahomeans, and paraded around the race-track following a French
Marseille Colonial Exposition, the colonies in the West African Pavilion were displayed
according to their export products. For Dahomey, the exhibition explained the processing
of palm oil. (Schneider 195). Through the years, the conflation of the cultures into one
West African Pavilion and the reduction to a country and culture to merely its raw
material exports expose a lack of interest and understanding of culture in favor of
economic exploitation.
319 Schneider, 9. The garden’s ethnographic exhibits included a variety of peoples from
Galibi people of Guyana South America, to Eskimos from Greenland, from to “Nubians”
of East Africa (who were displayed with a variety of animals including ostriches, camels,
and miniature rhinoceroses), to the Kalmouks of Siberia (Schneider, 130). The obvious
rise in ticket sales in conjunction with ethnographic exhibits and consequent financial
benefit motivated the Garden’s administration to not only continue them, but to look for
ways to draw crowds.
320 Schneider 142.
321 Schneider, 143.
322 The object of the race, which would include both Dahomean and French competitors,
was to be the first to carry a sixty kilograms (reduced from 100, as the African’s
preferred to carry the baggage on their heads) 100 kilometers. The winner by a full ten
kilometers was a Dahomean named Ahivi who achieved almost immediate celebrity
status. (Schneider, 143–144).
103
flag.323 Each of these events appealed to French stereotypes of Dahomeans, as
bloodthirsty, warmongering, heathens, whose virtues shine through in the service to
France and its government.
The portrayal of Dahomeans in both the press and the expositions shaped and
were shaped by colonial agendas in regards to Dahomey’s governance. It is important to
realize that Dahomey contributed in part to their image. Scholars have acknowledged
that the pre-colonial kingdom’s military stratagem included the inciting of fear in their
neighbors through the display of human heads and general ferocity.324 It would likewise
be unfair to discount that among the visitors to fairs or the readership of illustrated
journals, there were people who sought an understanding of the world and its humanity
and wanted to contribute to both in positive ways. Though racist, and oversimplified the
desire to implement a civilizing mission was not without its positive aspects. There was
an ardent desire, though for some wrought with financial motives, to better the economic
situation of the colonial subjects, ideally by means of the already available human and
natural resources of the colonies. The building of an infrastructure in order to promote
this goal, often took the form of railroads.325 Unfortunately, the railroads ability to
transport goods from the interior to the coast frequently served to benefit of the French
economy more than African. French politician, Albert Sarraut, in defense of such
practices, asserted in 1923,
323 Schneider 144.
324 William Cohen likewise suggests that the “Grand Custom” of 1860, commemorating
the death of King Guezo, “seems to have been particularly bloody” in order to
“discourage any attacks against [the] kingdom by Europeans. (Cohen 257-258).
325 Conklin, 64.
104
French colonial policy . . . does not oppress, it liberates; it does not
exhaust, it fertilizes; it does not exploit, it shares. When it seeks
merchandise or markets it brings in return – to peoples who are all too
often a pray to barbarism, misery, to the whip of the slaver . . . the hope of
a better future.326
While this rhetoric fits neatly into the mission civilisatrice – the “hope of a better future”
through the seeking of “merchandise” is inarguably self-interested.
In the cause of betterment of the colonies, the French hoped that West Africans
would, “evolve within their cultures, to the extent that these cultures did not conflict with
the republican principles of French civilization.”327 After World War I, the colonial
rhetoric softened, but only slightly. Instead of emphasizing the eliminating institution
that did not coincide with the French worldview, it emphasized the need to involve West
African leaders and Africans who had been educated in France in the political process.328
The Museum in its Colonial Context
It is in this colonial atmosphere that Governor Reste, and later IFAN, undertook
the creation of The Royal Palace of Dahomey as a Museum. Museums as tools of
education and symbols of status and refinement among the French, would naturally be of
benefit among the Fon who, according to the colonial French, were so in need of cultural
uplifting. It is interesting, or perhaps even contradictory, that the content of this museum
would include items of local history and culture. However, this transformation met the
criteria of capitalizing on the natural and human resources available in the colony, and
326 Hargreaves, France, 227 taken from Albert Sarraut, “La Mise en Valeur des Colonies
françaises 1923,” in France and West Africa: An Anthology of Historical Documents,
(London: Macmillan, 1969), 84-93.
327 Conklin, 64.
328 Ibid., 65.
105
encouraged the Fon to evolve within their own culture. While the preservation of the
museum by IFAN focused more on the Dahomean cultural context, in its initial
transformation the museum became an arena for declaring French authority.
During the 1930 inaugural ceremony of the museum, Governor Reste
demonstrated in speech and action the notions of French superiority and the civilizing
mission. His speech, directed at other colonials present, reminded listeners of the violent
tendencies of the pre-colonial kingdom.329 However, he also acknowledged that the local
culture could be used as a launching point. He stated his hope that the formation of the
museum would demonstrate
respect for the custom of the indigenous peoples, our admiration for their
artworks, and our desire to render homage to their past: hopeful that their
contact with us and under our influence they will improve and under our
guidance, this country which until now [has been] isolated from the
civilized world would move with giant steps in the way of progress.330
Although the transformation of the buildings and the contributions of the collection were
joint efforts of colonial officers and local Dahomeans, only French colonials were
acknowledged by name during Reste’s speech.331 During the ceremony, as local chiefs
processed in front of Governor Reste, they each respectfully removed their crown and
bared their shoulder as an acknowledgment of his political power.332
Such downplaying of indigenous authority had its consequences. Between the
World Wars, there arose discontent among French West African colonial subjects due to
declining economic conditions, and in part because of a divide between the local
330 Ibid., 109.
331 Ibid.
332 Ibid., 108.
106
populations and a new African “elite” who had either fought during the First World War
or had been educated by the French system.333
Colonial administrators saw local chiefs’ lack of authority, or more specifically
their lack of ability to inspire religious orthodoxy, as a substantial part of the problem.334
While the French colonial philosophy emphasized “direct rule,” they also acknowledged
their minority status.335 In 1935, only a year before the development of IFAN, Jules
Brévie, Governor General of French West Africa, called for a “cultural renaissance,” and
a new focus on African traditions.336 As part of this movement, “rural popular schools”
were presumptively established to teach colonial subjects about their own culture and
moral systems.337 Local chiefs were instructed in African art, music, history, and folklore
to bolster their “traditional authority” in a hope of increasing stability among their
subjects.338
333 James E. Genova, Colonial Ambivalence, Cultural Authenticity, and the Limitations
of Mimicry in French-Ruled West Africa, 1914-1956. vol. 45 of Francophone Cultures
and Literatures edited by Michal G. Paulson and Tamara Alvarez-Detrel (New York:
Peter Lang, 2004), 113.
334 Genova, 111.
335 In 1938, out of the 15 million French West African residence, only were 26,000
French. (Victor T. Le Vine. Politics in Francophone Africa (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne
Rienner, 2004), 39.)
336 Genova, Ambivalence, 95.
337 Genova, Ambivalence, 95. Though perhaps not readily apparently, this “cultural
renaissance” fit neatly into France’s civilizing mission. Genova explains, “The fact that
France was authorized and even duty-bound to instruct the subject populations in their
own culture perpetuated the underlying assumptions of the mission civilisatrice that
claimed for the colonizing power the prerogative to mold and guide the societies which it
had conquered.” (Genova 112).
338 Ibid., 111.
107
This “cultural renaissance” also focused on the preservation of “native crafts” and
the teaching of “artisanal skills.”339 It is not, therefore, surprising that IFAN saw value in
undertaking the restoration and upkeep of the museum. Displaying fine quality, pre-
colonial artworks, provided “artists and craftsmen with the examples and motifs to
nourish modern creation.”340 As a venue for such modern creation, IFAN established an
artisan’s workshop on-site within the museum space where art forms such as applique,
metal work, weaving and other traditional media could be made and sold.
The display of crafted objects was likewise thought to promote civility. Among
the works of art looted by Dodds and militia after their victorious taking of Abomey in
1892 were Sossa Adede’s sculptures of Glele and Behanzin in their strong name guises,
as the lion and shark respectively, and Behanzin’s stool, which stood approximately 2
meters high and served as a centerpiece in the Musee de l’Homme in Paris (fig. 28).341
They were taken, in part, because Behanzin’s stool with its balanced symmetry,
geometric composition and carefully finished wood, and Sossa Adede’s monumental,
proportional, muscular, and carefully crafted sculptures all appealed to western
aesthetics.342 Art historian, Annie Coombes explains that the spoils of Dodds, because of
339 Ibid., 114.
340 Marie-Albane de Suremain, “L’IFAN et la ‘mise en musée’ des cultures africaines

(1936-1961) » Outre-mers : revue d’histoire outre-mers 95, no. 356/357 : 151-172. 151.
341 Dodds may or may not have known the significance of these objects at the time of his
claiming them. Sosa Adede’s sculptures were potent religious objects which, at least for
Glele’s sculpture, contained empowering materials allowing it to walk and talk. It would
accompanied the royal army in battle, which may be how Dodds found it. (Blier African
Vodun, 335-336) All of these are currently located at the Musee de Quai Branly.
342 Dodd’s donated 26 Dahomean objects to the Musee de l’Homme after the wars in
1893 and 1895 including sculptures, stools, clothing, ornamented calabashes and a copper
tray from the kingdom of Benin. (Adedze, “Collectors,” 106).
108
their fine craftsmanship and aesthetic value, served as evidence that Dahomey, as
barbaric as the French painted it, was still capable of redemption.343 To the colonial mind
the display of crafted royal artifacts in the context of a museum in Abomey would expose
both colonial subject and colonizer to the potential for quality work of which the Fon
people were capable, thus support the “civilizing” cause.
The palace architecture should also be viewed in the context of colonial
acquisitions. Where Dodds and others were able to transport treasures from Africa, the
palace, through its conversion could be claimed, and controlled in Africa. Just as
Behanzin and Agoli Agbo transformed the palace so that it could manifest their power, so
to the French, through restoration and transformation could claim it theirs. In many ways
this appropriation of the palace space was much more diplomatic than the intrusive
methods of Victor Ballot. It’s cooperative undertaking functioned as Louis Angoulvant
advocated, soon after he became the colonial governor of the Ivory Coast, “to win over
the waverers; to encourage the masses, who can always be drawn to our side by self-
interest until one day they are drawn there by sympathy; in short, to establish our
authority beyond dispute”344
In addition to the French gaining of control of the palace space, the preservation
of pre-colonial skills and the encouragement of civility, museum display practices
bolstered the colonial agenda by secularizing the once sacred space.345 As mentioned
343 Coombes.
344 Hargreaves, 203. This quote consitutes an excerpt from General Instructions, 26
November 1908, printed in Gabriel Louis Angoulvant, La Pacification de la Cote
d’Ivoire (1916), 60-7. Angoulvant’s had a long career in colonial administration both in
Africa and Asia.
345 Blier, “Musée,” 148.
109
above, the palace was primarily a center for religious worship for the deified deceased
kings. It had been a privileged space, controlled by the living king said to have
supernatural powers. By opening its doors to anyone willing to pay the entrance fee the
museum deconstructed that idea of exclusivity and privilege, as Suzanne Blier explains,
to “demystify this once sacred royal space.”346 The inclusion of artisan workshops, and
souvenir shop (not to mention the more recent additions of a bar) contributed to further
secularization.347
Methods of Museum Display
Besides IFAN’s federal museum in Dakar, on which a great deal of energy and
resources were spent on its collection and display, a “center for indigenous arts” in the
Ivory Coast, and The Historic Museum of Abomey were considered noteworthy.348 Sadly,
the majority of IFAN’s museums and local centers had scarcely the means to sustain
themselves.349 The financial attention Abomey received was in part due to the
demeaning publicity in the French press and in public expositions at the turn of the
century which translated into a general French awareness and interest in the region.
IFAN, which was responsible for tourism of the French West African colonies until 1960,
had hoped to generate enough interest in colonial visitors, that the museum would
346 Blier, “Musée,” 148.
347 It should be here noted that the art form of applique, made and sold in the artisan
workshops within the museum, was once a medium monopolized by the king.
348 Interestingly, both were functioning institutions before IFAN assumed sponsorship of
them. The Ivory Coast’s “center of indigenous arts” which was created in 1941 and was
taken over by IFAN in 1944 (de Suremain, 158).
349 These local centers opened in the 1940s and 50s (de Suremain, 157).
110
eventually pay for itself.350 Throughout the colonial period, the palace’s role as a
museum influenced the other aspects of its existence. Physical alterations to the
architecture were made to accommodate its evolving purpose. In addition, the items on
display took on new meaning as museum objects. The nuances of the Abomey museum’s
display practices are better understood in a context of French colonial display.
While I have yet to find documentation about the items on and methods of display
in the initial 1930 inauguration of the museum, it is probable that they were similar to
those documented in the 1940s, but with more objects and less organization.351 Eva
Meyerowitz , scholar of African art and culture, published a review of the museum in
1944, probably just as IFAN was preparing for its reopening. She describes three main
display halls. In the throne room of King Guezo’s palace, an impressive, black,
appliqued banner served as a backdrop to the appropriate (throne room) display of king’s
royal stools, pedestaled on an earthen or concrete raised bench which hugged the interior
wall. The stools alternated with each king’s kataklé, the four footed stools used by heads
of households. Interspersed with these Meyerowitz describes “broad silver armlets . . .
wooden scepters, . . . ancient copper vessels and the long pipes of kings.”352 In a small,
attached room were a random assortment of weapons (guns, scimitars, and knives),
350 Blier, Musee, 148. Find the citation about money from somewhere else.
351 The number of items owned by the museum had decreased between 1930 and 1941
by ninety-five objects, see above. Meyerowitz laments a lack of silver, which pre-
colonial visitors recorded as being abundant in the royal treasury. (Meyerowitz, 148).
As silver would be valuable for its material alone, it is possible that silver items are what
went missing in that eleven year period. My statement about organization stems only
from the assumption that IFAN, with its focus on scientific categorization, applied such
to its curatorial methods.
352 Meyerowitz, 147.
111
pieces of Amazons’ uniforms, banners and European items given as gifts to the kings.353
In what was presumably Guezo’s ajalala, an impressive display of sculptures, generally
carved in wood and then covered in metal plates, were raised on another installed earthen
bench (fig. 29).354 These were religious figures, or bocio, which Meyerowitz claims were
connected with protection and victory in war.355 Leaning against the bench were
decorative metal rooftops used in the pre-colonial period. The asen, or ancestral staffs
were displayed in King Glele’s otherwise empty ajalala; stuck directly into the floor,
these iron rods stood vertically along the back wall (fig. 30).
According to the photographs which accompany Meyerowitz’s article, the
museum displays, while rich in visual content, severely lacked contextual information.
There appears to have been no explanatory plaques or museum labels. IFAN applied its
scientific approach of categorizing to Abomey’s cultural and ethnographic material. The
practice of sorting stools, statues, fifty plus asen, and miscellaneous items into various
rooms, served as insufficient explanation of cultural representation. Even if visitors had
access to guided tours to explain, for example, the purpose of asen or the role of the
Amazon warriors in the court, without labels they were denied specific details, such as
which asen belonged to which member of the royal family or when each king reigned.356
Undoubtedly, museum patrons were consequently misled into thinking that the royal
353 Ibid., 147.
354 Meyerowitz, 147.
355 Ibid.
356 Perhaps visitors to the museum during the colonial period would have had an
obligatory guided tour, as is the current practice. By the end of the colonial period they
could have come with Paul Mercier and J. Lombard’s museum guidebook in hand, which
provides a rich cultural and historical context. Regardless, the lack of written explanation
provided in the actual display, was a typical and telling colonial practice.
112
stools were all original, and that the appliqued banner was made in the pre-colonial
period, when actually the original thrones had burned during Guezo’s reign (when
Andandozan and/or his descendants set fire to the treasury) and the banner is a copy. 357
This lack of transparency demonstrates colonial philosophies on African art display both
in the west and on the continent which favored a glossed over, easily digested
representation of the pre-colonial histories and cultures, over a the acknowledgment of a
dynamic history with specific players.
In discussing the practices of colonial museums, the late Phillip Ravenhill
explains that collectors sought to display pieces with cultural traits which “had come
down unchanged from the timeless past to the present from within the ethnic group.”358
The fictive changelessness and isolation of peoples served to make an ethnic group more
easily accessible to an outside audience. In the process, objects came to represent “a
category [and] the object became a type.” 359 For this reason, details about the period of
stool manufacture, or originality of a banner became secondary to the objects ability to
represent a historic era through traditional media and types. While it is true, that any
exhibition will necessarily exclude something, the absence of basic contextual
357 Blier suggests that the kings’ thrones were “made by the same artist or workshop”
and that the originals probably had more variation in form. (Blier, “Musée,” 150). This
cloth is said to be a copy of one made by the applique artist Yemade. (Meyerowitz, 147.)
Lombard points out that the applique cloth illustrates the historical exploits of each
sovereign, thus providing visual commentary. (Lombard, 62).
358 Phillip L. Ravenhill, “The passive object and the tribal paradigm: colonial
museography in French West Africa,” in African Material Culture, Mary Jo Arnoldi,
Christraud M. Geary, and Kris L. Hardin, 265-282 (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1996), 268.
359 Ravenhill, 270.
113
information within the display reveals colonial attitudes which could also be observed in
museums in France.
Unlike other European colonial powers who financed ethnographic collecting
missions, France’s colonial artifacts were mostly looted at times of war, and were
displayed in ethnographic museums, such as the Trocadero.360 These displays, as Adedze
explains, were likewise “guided by the principles of natural history.”361 Objects were not
always chosen for their fine craftsmanship or aesthetic qualities, but for “their
representativeness and symbolic portrayal of a culture.”362 Labels, while present, often
included the name of the culture without a date or artist’s name.363
By the end of the colonial period, the palaces of Guezo and Glele had evolved in
conjunction with their new purpose as the Historic Museum of Abomey. Additional doors
and windows were cut into the royal halls to improve the lighting of their displays. 364
Glele’s ajalala, which had displayed the royal asen, instead exhibited jewelry, and his
“House of Courage” appropriately exhibited weapons. While Guezo’s zinkpoho, treasury
or throne room, continued to store the thrones, his ajalala became the new venue for the
asen. The tombs of Glele and his wives as well as the djeho of both kings seem to have
360 Adedze, “Collectors,” 44. The colonial museum guide written by Paul Mercier and J.
Lombard mentions a photograph on display of a remarkable piece of Dahomean religious
sculpture which was then being housed at the Museum de l’Homme in Paris (Mercier,
25). This hollow, life size figure was forged from sheets of iron and represented the god
of iron, Gu. In this way the French used photography to compensate for the items looted
during previous military expeditions.
361 Ibid., 42.
362 Ibid., 42.
363 Sally Price’s book argues that the French museum, the quai Branly still suffers from
a serious lack of contextual information.
364 Lombard, 62.
114
been open for visitors, as they are today.365 The expanded display area demonstrates how
the museum purpose began to fill the palace space. In the process, the architecture took
on new meaning, as museum objects. The throne room and both ajalala though tucked
away in the posterior courtyards, were undoubtedly initially chosen as exhibition halls
due to their decorative facades.366 The bas-reliefs ornamentation, once a declaration of
power and record of historic events, in the museum context became a fixed display of
traditional art.
The area of Ballot’s administration buildings were appropriately designated as the
office of the museum. In this way, that space persisted as a colonial administration center
but in an adjusted museum setting. In order to cater to the colonial tourist market, a
museum store occupied the east end of Glele’s Johnonho and the above mentioned artists
workshop was located across the courtyard from it. As visitors most likely entered the
museum through Guezo’s Simbo they would have existed through Glele’s hounwa, thus
making this courtyard with its store and workshops a convenient place to do souvenir
shopping before exiting the museum.
While the palace as museum can be justly read as a colonial endeavor to exploit
the local culture for its own benefit, it can just as honestly be seen as a benefit to the local
people and culture of Abomey. Not only was there more attention given to the
preservation of the architecture and artifacts, but also the emphasis on Dahomean history
and culture boosted the local pride of Abomeans.
365 See museum plan in Mercier and J. Lombard, Guide du Museé D’Abomey (fig. 14).
366 These three buildings together constitute 130 bas-reliefs (Spini, 8).
115
Despite its colonial purposes, the museum has proven an important tool for the
Fon population to proclaim local identity. Even in the early years of IFAN’s funding and
control of it, the museum’s popularity among the local population soared. In 1947, not
long after the museum’s initial opening, the annual attendance was marked at 1,220
visitors. By “1950 the figure had risen to 7,250 . . . and in 1955 to 27, 029 ([only] 700 of
which were Europeans).”367 Both the objects and the palace became an assertion of local
identity for Dahomeans. This demonstration of interest served as a reclamation of the
palace, not from the political top down, but from the populace’s bottom up. Leonardo
Cardoso, Director, Ethnographic Museum, Bissau, Guinea Bissau asserts,
If it is true that the main issues surrounding individual, community, or

national identity can be expressed in terms of individual particularities or
in terms of a set of fundamental elements intrinsic to the individual or to
the community, elements which allow us to distinguish them from all
others. Then I submit that museums should serve as a medium for
transmitting knowledge about these elements and should serve to preserve
that which is ours, that which differentiates us from others. 368
The individual peculiarities of Dahomean history were wrapped up in the mud walls and
bas-reliefs, in the thrones and asen of the art and architecture of the pre-colonial
kingdom. This museum made these distinguishing elements accessible to the Fon
population, and most immediately to the residents of Abomey. Even the artisan
workshop ensured the continuation of art forms that may have been lost had it not been
for the market provided through the museum.
367 Lombard, 63.
368 Cardosa, 294. From the IFAN annual report of 1955, we have that “25,000 people
visited the museum in 1955 of whom 563 were Europeans, a trend that was repeated in
1956 with 26,500 visitors, 850 of whom were Europeans.” (Adedze “Collectors,” 110).
116
At the 1991 ICOM (International Council of Museums) conference on museums
in Africa, Cardoso explains that “all museums evolved from the need to display
something.”369 On the surface, Dahomey’s palace architecture and its pre-colonial royal
artifacts constituted the “something” that needed display. But on a deeper level, for the
French, progress in their colonial civilizing cause, and for the Fon, a preservation of local
history and culture, were what needed to be exhibited. In this way, the evolution of the
palace, in and of itself, constituted a display: of power, of identity, of history, of culture.
The Royal Palace of Dahomey, through each of its colonial phases, was
manipulated to either demonstrate political authority, or - more subtly - as a result of the
underlying political atmosphere of the period. While periods of destruction under
Behanzin, defacement under Ballot and restoration under Agoli-agbo were all aimed to
assert the power of individual leaders, the periods of restoration and transformation into a
museum took more of a collective approach. As an embodiment of pre-colonial historic,
political, and religious significance this palace functioned as a means to communicate to
the local population the current assertions of and contests for cultural and political power.
369 Ibid., 293.
117
CHAPTER III: INDEPENDENCE AND RESTORATION:
THE PALACE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY
In its post-colonial context (1960-present), the Royal Palace of Dahomey assumed
new roles in both domestic and international spheres. Changes in the political climate,
due to independence from France, initiated greater autonomy for the royal family.
Consequently, royal descendants organized themselves to realize the funerary rites for
Kings Behanzin and Agoli-agbo. While such rites were preformed previously in these
kings’ respective, outlying, private palaces, the shifting of their spiritual centers from the
private palaces to the central palace complex constituted a spiritual reclamation of the
palace’s space and history by the descendants of the kings. In the post-colonial era, the
religious functions of the palace have helped to preserve historic and religious traditions,
and thus comprise an assertion of non-European, post-colonial identity.
As earthen structures, the palace buildings are in constant flux of deterioration
and restoration. The palace’s declining condition, especially following severe weather in
the 1970s, in combination with the lack of resources of the newly independent state,
made the urgency of the its preservation an international issue. Post-colonial restoration
efforts have been largely, though not exclusively, funded by foreign entities. With these
foreign funders come western notions of restoration and preservation which conflict, to a
certain degree, with the preservation priorities of the Beninois. The introduction and
inclusion of modern materials, notions of restoration and preservation, and the spiritual
need to continue religious traditions despite external circumstances, all indicate a
cultural divide in the understanding of what “preservation” means.
However, the palace in its post-colonial period has simultaneously proven an
impetus of positive international relations. Since its inscription on the UNESCO World
118
Heritage list in the 1980s, the palace has been the means of cooperation between the
Beninois government and the foreign governments of Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden,
France, and the United States among others. The museum, often with the funding and
recommendations of these cooperative efforts, has tried to appeal to international tourism.
At the same time, it has worked to educate the national Beninois population who continue
to patronize the museum most. In this same vein, the museum has worked cooperatively
with the people of Abomey to protect the sacred purposes of both the architectural space
and religious items on display. The spiritual and physical components of the palace have
thus superseded the secularization and government control of its colonial period. The
Royal Palace of Dahomey has, in turn, become a place of education, cooperative
endeavors, and religious ceremonies.
Independence: Reclaiming the Palace in the Post-Colonial Moment
Dahomey’s political independence from French colonialism was not an isolated
event, but part of an international wave for self-government in the years following the
end of World War II. The French encountered resistance from their colonies on a global
scale. In 1954, after more than seven years of fighting, French forces surrendered French
Indochina to the Viet Minh army.370 That same year the complicated Algerian struggle
for freedom led by the Front National de Liberation (FLN) picked up momentum, and
lasted until 1962, during which period Morocco and Tunisia were granted
independence.371 Also in 1962, the French National Assembly adopted the Loi Cadre, or
Reform Act. Put in place by French Overseas Minister Gaston Defferre, this act was
370 Patrick Manning, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1880-1985 (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1988), 147-149.
371 France granted independence to both of these nations in 1956.
119
initially was set up to enable Togo and Cameroon, then United Nations Trust Territories,
towards sustainable self-government. By permitting universal adult suffrage and
allowing governments more autonomy, it inspired the colonies of that region toward
independence.372 The Loi Cadre also set in motion the disbanding of the French West
African Federation and the “balkanization,” as Leopold Senghor termed it, of the former
large French West African territory into distinct entities which fell along colonial
borders.373 It was these individual territories, sometimes in groups, that pursued political
independence.
For West Africa, arguably the most powerful impetus for a break from colonial
rule was Ghana’s declaration of independence in 1957.374 Although Ghana had been the
British colony of the Gold Coast, the charisma and dignity its first prime minister,
Kwame Nkruma, inspired hope and pride throughout the region. Ghana hosted the First
All-African People’s Conference in 1958, and in 1960, as Okwui Enwezor so aptly
describes it, “a loud cannon-shot fired across the bow of the political spectrum in Africa
and around the world” as seventeen African nations achieved independence.375 United
372 Manning, Francophone, 147.
373 Manning, Francophone,146, 148-149. The French Equatorial African Federation was
likewise dissolved during the same period. The breaking apart of both of these
federations resulted into “12 constituent territories.” (Manning, Francophone, 146).
While this breaking apart of the French West African Territory has been lamented by
some scholars as step towards disunity, I tend to agree with scholar W.A. Skurnik who
proclaims the original institution of the French West African Federation “a French-
imposed financial solidarity” formed to manage the cost of colonial administration. (W.
A. Skurnik, “France and Fragmentation in West Africa: 1945-1960” Journal of African
History 8, no. 2 (1967): 318) .
374 Manning, Francophone, 147-149.
375 Okui Enwezor “The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in
Africa, 1945-1994, An Introduction,” in The Short Century: Independence and
Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994, ed. Okui Enwezor (Munich and New York:
Prestel, 2001), 11.
120
Nations, which accepted them all into the international organization, declared it “the year
of Africa.”376 Among those seventeen, the French colony of Dahomey gained
independence and became the Republic of Dahomey on August 1, 1960.
The dawning of independence for the people of Abomey meant another shift in
the power structure of the royal family. As explained in Chapter 2, under the colonial
system, CAFRA (the Administrative Council of the Royal Family of Abomey) chose
among themselves a leader who functioned as the as the head of the organization and the
master of religious ceremonies, much as a pre-colonial king. However, with the end of
French colonial rule, instead of shifting leaders every five years, the elected head took on
the title of king which he maintained until his death. In this way, the royal family
reinstituted the office of king as a ceremonial head of the traditional state for Abomey,
while a president was elected as the head of the newly independent political state for the
nation in Porto Novo. Just as in the pre-colonial kingdom, succession has not always
been smooth, sometimes causing serious rifts among descendants of various kings. With
this shift in office to kingship, however, the former chefs de canton have not lost the
status they had achieved under colonization. They are considered ceremonial heads for
their respective outlying areas, where they are authorized to dress as royalty in their
respective palaces and perform ceremonies for those under their jurisdiction.
While not permitted to build their own grand palaces within the walls of the
central palace complex, the post-colonial kings, have erected a building and walled
courtyard adjoined to the ajalalahennu of King Glele.377 This area continues to be
376 Enwezor, 11.
377 According to the various palace plans, this was constructed between independence
and 1968. Mercier’s 1959 plan does not indicate its presence, but Crozet’s 1968 plan
121
important to the current king who uses it to hold council with members of CAFRA and as
temporary living quarters during the ceremonial season.
King Sagbadjou, a descendant of King Glele and the first of the post-colonial
kings, reigned until his death in 1977.378 While the new office of king never had the
financial means nor the political power possessed by their pre-colonial counterparts, they
have played a fundamental role in the establishment of the palace as primarily a religious
site – and in the process as a site for claiming the past as part of Abomean identity.
Families of Abomey have held in memory roles, offices, and responsibilities that the pre-
colonial kings had assigned them, and continue to fulfill these when called upon. Such
was the case when the royal family met to discuss the interment of the last two kings of
the pre-colonial Dahomean dynastic list.
After Behanzin’s death in exile, his remains were finally returned to Abomey in
1928.379 The colonial government, perhaps comprehending to a certain extent the
significance of the palace space as a home for the spirits of the past kings, prohibited his
burial in the central palace.380 Behanzin’s descendants, therefore, buried his remains in
his private palace in Abomey’s Djime quarter. Likewise, at the time of Agoli-agbo’s
death, his descendants buried him in his outlying private palace in the Kpassassa quarter.
In 1965, just five years after independence, the royal family met under the direction of
King Sagbadjou to organize the logistics of rectifying this situation.
includes it – though it evolved slightly in shape and content between then and Spini’s
1985 plan (see figures 1, 14 and 35).
378 Manning estimates he lived to 100 years old. (Manning, Francophone, 74).
379 His remains probably returned in the form of ashes.
Abomey.
122
At an enormous expenditure to the members of the royal family, the tombs of
Behanzin and Agoli-agbo were transferred from their private palaces to the central
palace.381 This was accomplished through the ceremonial relocation of earth taken from
their original burial places and wrapped in white cloth. Participants then performed the
funeral customs anew, lasting for three nights for each of the kings. After these
festivities, their respective sections of the central palace underwent a purification rite
performed by the kpamegan, or royal physician. Essential to this entire process, was the
construction and/or renewal of spiritually significant architecture: the tombs, djeho and
ajalala in Behanzin’s and Agoli-agbo’s respective portions of the central palace.382
The ceremonial and architectural aspects comprehended in this process function
together to bring a new legitimacy of the pre-colonial past to the post-colonial moment.
The materialization of new palace buildings and of multi-day ceremonies required the
energy, resources, and cooperation of the people of Abomey. It functioned as a physical,
visible, and spiritual means to reinstitute the power of the kings in the post-colonial
moment and to provide closure to the ancestors finally able to rest with their forefather’s
in the central palace complex. This is not to suggest that the religious ceremonies or
kings’ importance had dissipated under colonization, but only that with the independence
from the colonial management, the royal family was able to exercise autonomy on a new,
liberated level.
381 Ibid.
382 Tito Spini claims that the ajalala of Behanzin had been built previous to this time,
“in the 1950s by the descendants of the dethroned king.” (Kawada, 7).
123
Assessing the Physical State of Palace and the Modernization of Materials
During the post-colonial period, there was an increasing need to attend to the
declining physical condition of the palace. IFAN was no longer present to monitor the
state of the museum, the newly independent nation was struggling economically and
politically, and natural disasters aggravated the architectural deterioration already
underway through exposure to the elements.383 During the colonial period, the
restoration efforts focused in on the palaces of Glele and Guezo, while the other portions
of the palace complex were seemingly left to the mercy of the rain, wind, gravity, rats
and termites.384
The post-colonial restoration efforts of the Royal Palace of Dahomey indicate a
cultural divide between the preservation priorities of Westerners, who emphasize the
physical appearance of the buildings, and the Beninois, who tend to focus on the
architecture’s spiritual significance. Certainly Abomeans care about palace’s physical
state, and some western researchers understand the spiritual nature of the palace, but
generally, the actions of both parties have indicated that their priorities lie elsewhere.
This divide becomes apparent through the use of modern building materials to the Royal
Palace, introduced in both colonial and post-colonial restoration and conservation efforts.
Both parties indicate concern for cost and energy of architectural maintenance. While
383 It would certainly be wrong to presume that before Behanzin set fire to it, every
portion of the palace was in continual, pristine upkeep. Earthen walls’ and thatched
roofs’ ephemeral nature and the pre-colonial kings’ political obligations would have
made it difficult to maintain every structure in any of the palace’s historical period.
384 However, while no substantial, documented restoration efforts were being made in
the palaces of Huegbadja, Akaba, Agaja, Tegbessou, Agonglo and Kpengla they were
never wholly abandoned. The palace remained the physical center of the city and a
spiritual center for descendants of the kings who continued to conduct ceremonies in their
designated palace space. The buildings most important to the religious lives of the people
and the ancestors, the tombs and djeho, have always been most regularly attended to.
124
materials such as corrugated steel and cement would seem to require less maintenance
than thatch and earth, they have come with their own conservation concerns, and have
been a source of contention for those who advocate physical likeness of the palace to its
pre-colonial state.
During the colonial period, many of the palace’s steeply pitched thatched roofs
began to be replaced by shallow pitched roofs of corrugated metal.385 For the palaces of
Kings Guezo and Glele, this was likely done between 1931 and 1933, after the initial
formation of the museum, but prior to the funding and support of IFAN. 386 While the
corrugated metal required less maintenance and was therefore economically beneficial,
its shallow slope and narrow eaves accelerated erosion of the bas-reliefs and walls.387
Soon after the independence of Dahomey, the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, began sending scholars and architects to
assess the state of the palace’s architecture and the museum. In their assessments, the
roofs continued to be source of debate. J. Crozet, who visited in 1968, simultaneously
emphasized the need for historical accuracy and physical durability. In his report, he
observed that most of the buildings were covered in corrugated steel, and claimed it
requisite “to recover the metal roofs with a mask of thatch to reproduce the primitive
aspects of the constructions” or as Paul Mercier somewhat more diplomatically expressed
it, “to safeguard the traditional aspects of the royal huts.” 388 In this way, assumedly,
385 Piqué, 17; Blier, “Museé,” 145.
386 Blier, “Museé,” 145.
387 Ibid., 145 -6.
388 J. Crozet, “Dahomey: Etude de la restauration et de la mise en valeur des palais

royaux d’Abomey” UNESCO, No. de serie: 640/BMS.RD/CLT Paris, July 1968), 7.
Mercier and Lombard, 11.
125
Crozet sought the advantages of metal, its longevity and ability to seal out rain and
moisture, with a nostalgic guise of pre-colonial thatch. Crozet suggested the execution of
this labor be undertaken by the kings’ descendants.389 Photographs from a museum guide
published in the 1970s show that Crozet’s recommendation for false thatching was indeed
implemented (fig. 31-32).390
Crozet’s endeavor to achieve historical likeness, however, was short-sighted. In
his initial examination, he correctly observed that the roofs’ volume had decreased from
the pre-colonial, steeply pitched, thatched roofs. However, he does not recommend,
perhaps due to lack of financial means for execution, a change in either the roof pitch or
the eave width.391 Some eaves did not overhang more than half a foot leaving the facades
exposed.392 Likewise, the roofs’ shallow slope of approximately 30 degrees, in
conjunction with the false thatching retained moisture leading to the deterioration of the
corrugated steel. This, in turn, allowed the penetration of water and the dampening the
roof beam structures which were thus made more vulnerable to termites, fungus and the
eventual decay.393
If the thatch had been added as genuine roofing (built at least 30 cm thick),
instead of an aesthetic guise, it would have possibly functioned to keep the moisture from
389 The word he uses is proprietaires which translates to English as landlords, but which
probably refers to the asiata, or the descendant (usually the first born of the king’s sons)
who is responsible for the portion of the palace belonging to his ancestor.
390 Th. Constant-Ernest d’Oliveira, La Visite du Museé d’Histoire d’Abomey (Abomey,

1970).
391 Crozet, 4.
392 d’Oliveira, 6-7.
393Thierry Joffroy, Palais royaux d’Abomey 1. Cierconstances et processus de

degradation. Grenoble, France: CRATerre-EAG, February 1996, 8.
126
reaching the metal.394 As it was, the false thatching proved problematic and even
hazardous. In order to secure the straw, galvanized wire netting was added to its exterior,
further choking the circulation of air through the thatch and causing a reaction between
the netting and the sheet metal.395 In 1980, the roof of Guezo’s zinkpoho caught fire and
burned.396
While the mask of thatch proved problematic, the lowering of the roofs’ slope and
shortening of its eave width should have been a more pressing concern. The resulting
unprotected facades softened, flaked and crumbled with exposure to rain and wind.397
The base of the walls were especially vulnerable not only to direct exposure, but to the
splashing of falling water from the eaves and the evaporation of stagnant water after
precipitation.398 In addition, the decreased volume of the roofs affected the structure’s
size and consequently its aesthetics and sense of grandeur. UNESCO delegate M. Robert
Haas, in 1985, called it a “falsification of a document of art and of history.”399 He
debates the need for historical physical likeness explicitly by stating,
Either we research the building approach which existed in the past . . .

utilizing the traditional methods of construction, and of ancestral
materials. . . . Or, if we don’t want to accept all these constraints[,]. . . . it
394 Even with the thickness, however, the shallow pitch and lack of circulation due to the
presence of the metal may have still caused problems (Robert L. Haas, Les palais royaux
d’Abomey (Paris: UNESCO, 1985), 21). Thatch has proven an effective roofing material
throughout the world, but depending on the climate, it needs a certain thickness and
should be at least 45 degrees. (Joffroy, 82).
395 Haas, 21.
396 Ibid., 14.
397 Joffroy, 11.
398 Ibid., 12.
399 Haas, 8.
127
is preferable to realize that the construction of contemporary workmanship
. . . [can be] more functional and better adapted to our needs.400
While he considered the original high pitched thatch roof the ideal, he acknowledged the
difficulty of maintenance. His solution: to restore the original “slope, overhang, [and]
proportions of the wall to roof” but “to accept the use of metal as a mark of our era.”401
After the palace’s inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, in 1985, Haas’
suggestion was, for the most part, implemented. Later, UNESCO delegate Thierry
Joffroy emphasized the need to paint these roofs in order further to seal out moisture,
slow their wear, and prevent the intrusion of rust. A removal of the thatch and a return to
the original roof slope has proven a long-term productive solution.
Long before the rectification of the roof slope and volume, however, the shallow
roofs, which had been installed in the 1930s, had so badly damaged the buildings’
facades, that cement was introduced to the palace to compensate for and slow down the
damage. Traditionally, the palace walls were made of Abomey’s red earth, especially of
low earth, referred to as terre de barre which is the least sandy soil and has the highest
clay content.402 By mixing earth with cement, builders used what was termed stabilized
earth or tersta (terre stabilizé). 403 While the present-day recommended proportions are
approximately 8% cement to 92% earth, earlier much higher proportions of cement, up to
400 Ibid., 12-13.
401 Ibid., 8.
402 Jacques Lombard, “Le Palais des Rois d’Abomey,” Revue Encyclopedique de
l’Afrique no. 3 (September - October 1960) : 172.
403 Nondichau reports the introduction of cement to the palace as 1952. (Bachalou
Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 6 July 2013, Abomey).
128
30% were used.404 Prior to Haas’ visit in the mid-1980s, tersta of sand, soil and an
evidently high cement volume was applied to museum walls as plaster coating for the
existing earthen walls. 405 While cement was added to the mixture to help strengthen and
prolong the life and durability of the walls, there was a material incompatibility between
it and the earthen core. The walls’ earthen core had a greater elasticity, expanding and
contracting under variable temperature and humidity conditions beyond the means of the
rigid cement resulting in its cracking, fissures, detachment, and crumbling (see fig. 11 for
an example).406
As with the corrugated steel roofs, the desire to conceal the use of concrete was a
concern of foreign funders to the palace restoration. The intent was again to have a
material that was visually faithful to the palace’s pre-colonial state, but to use something
that required less labor and, in turn, was less costly. Eventually stabilized earth was used
for the entire wall material for reconstructed buildings – thus solving the detachment
problem while still staying visually true to the historic building. 407 Tersta, however, was
both more costly and more durable than plain low-earth. As a result walls have been
built with a reduction in the original wall thickness of approximately 30 centimeters to 25
centimeters with tersta.408 In a few cases, iron rods have been added to tersta walls to
further increase strength and stability, but over time, due to humidity, the iron reinforcing
404 Jean Gabus “Monuments historiques du Dahomey et du Cameroun: projets de

restauration,” Historical Monuments in Dahomey and Cameroon: Restoration Plans
(UNESCO archives), 131,136.
405 Joffroy, 75.
406 Haas, 19-20.
407 Joffroy, 88.
408 Ibid., 90.
129
bars have oxidized, detached from the stabilized earth, and have accelerated wall
deterioration.409 In contemporary repair efforts, builders must be careful to mend and
plaster earthen walls with low earth and tersta walls with tersta, if possible in the same
approximate concrete proportion of the wall being repaired, so as to avoid cracking and
fissures.410
Those early post-colonial UNESCO delegates assessing the palace’s condition
have demonstrated concern for the physical appearance of the palace buildings in
conjunction with the need to increase the durability of the buildings and keep the cost of
maintenance low. With the introduction of modern materials has come a simultaneous
need to conceal them, so as to maintain the appearance of the pre-colonial palace. This
they accomplished through the masking of the metal roofs with straw, and the mixing of
cement with Abomey’s red earth.
Even Jean Gabus, UNESCO envoy to the Palace in 1964, whose recommendation
for the site outside of the museum was arguably unconventional and incongruent with the
historical, cultural and religious purposes of the palace, and who readily accepted the use
of cement, still emphasized the need that the museum buildings appear historically
faithful. He proposed documentation of the palace outside of the museum by means of a
three-dimensional model, and stressed the need to have the ruins maintained on-site.
However, rather than putting forth plans for reconstruction he recommended the planting
of a botanical garden around the ruins. This he explained is an ancient Japanese tradition
which “will take into account the physical aspects of the plants, dimensions, colors of the
409 Joffroy, 92.
410 Haas, 20.
130
flowers, [and] duration of the floration.”411 While I’m sure in Gabus’s mind this may
have constituted an aesthetic, tourist friendly proposition for the portion of the palace in
ruins, it would have been costly to implement, difficult to maintain, and lacking relevance
to the kingdom’s history. It also may have led to further deterioration of the ruins. For
the museum, he emphasized the need to restore and eventually reconstruct the museum
architecture, to revamp the museum displays, and to rebuild storage for the museum.412
For these building reconstructions, he recommended the integration of cement with the
earth at the high portion of one part cement, two parts earth. In using this proportion,
however, he assures that “the external appearance would remain unchanged.”413
Abomeans, while concerned with architectural aesthetics, have demonstrated
through their restoration efforts, different preservation ethics. The continual evolution of
their own earthen residential spaces and the understanding that the palace in its pre-
colonial period was similarly alterable contribute to their willingness to be flexible with
the physical appearance of the royal architecture. For the people of Abomey,
preservation of the religious purposes of the palace takes precedence over its physical
appearance. While this is accentuated in the kings’ outlying private palaces discussed in
the Chapter 4, it is evident in the kings’ tombs in the central palace complex.
In 1968, when UNESCO architect Crozet examined the ruins of the palaces
outside of the museum, he discovered that some portions of the palace, the tombs and
what he terms temples, presumably djeho, were not abandoned to ruin, indicating use
411 Ibid., 2.
412 UNESCO, Mission Jean Gabus au Dahomey du 9 au 16 Aout 1964. (12 November
1964), 1.
413 Gabus, 131,136.
131
throughout the colonial period.414 Six decades earlier, and only two decades after
Behanzin had burned much of the palace, colonial officer Em. G. Waterlot likewise
observed that the tombs were being maintained. According to his account,
Unlike the buildings which formerly served as residences or halls for the
numerous inhabitants of the palace, the tombs of the kings and the altars dedicated to
their spirits were in perfect state of upkeep in 1911. This is because the Dahomean . . .
each year, for the period of commemorative sacrifices, repairs the monuments of these
great deceased ones.415
The pre-colonial Dahomean kings were and are described as Vodun, or deities.
As a result, the palaces of the kings, especially the tombs, became important ceremonial
centers for the worship of these deities posthumously. The upkeep of tombs, suggests that
the kings’ descendants used them, as they do today, during the annual ceremonies and as
places to offer libations every four days, in conjunction with the market cycles.416
The tombs continue to be important to the royal family who has, especially
outside of the museum, more closely monitored their state than UNESCO delegates. The
tombs of kings Huegbadja, Agadja, and Kpengla have used a substantial amount of
cement in visually recognizable ways. Huegbadja’s tomb, for example, rebuilt in cement
by his descendants in 1971 under the authorization of King Sagbadjou incorporates easily
414 Crozet, 7.
415 Em. G. Waterlot, Les bas-reliefs des bâtiments royaux d'Abomey (Dahomey) (Paris:
Institut d'ethnologie, 1926), 3.
416 In fact Crozet observed, “Every four days, certain tombs are the theater of
ceremonies [during] the course of which women invoke the spirit of the deceased king
before his bed” (Crozet, 3)
132
identifiable cinderblock around its base (fig. 33).417 The King and royal family allowed
the use of cement for the same reason UNESCO delegates did, to preserve and prevent
deterioration. And for that same reason it is readily incorporated into Abomean homes -
as a primary building material, as plaster for earthen walls, as a mortar for earthen bricks,
or, as it is currently used in the palace, as a tersta mixture for the wall elevations.418 The
incorporation of cement functions to prolong the life of a building, and for the people of
Abomey, the preservation of spiritual architecture is paramount.
Evidence suggests that other small-scale restoration efforts were carried out by
the royal family in the palace but outside of the museum. Mercier and Lombard mention
“certain buildings of Kpengla’s palace” having been restored.419 In all probability this
was undertaken by the descendants of Kpengla being authorized by CAFRA and the
colonial delegate.
Leading up to the Palace’s Official Partnership with UNESCO
In the 1970s and 80s, torrential rains and strong winds battered the palace site
necessitating further assessment by more UNESCO delegates as requested by the
government of the then Peoples Republic of Benin. After the severe storms of 1975 and
1977 Belgian architect Andre Stevens and Beatrice Coursier of the Musee de l’Homme,
Paris were sent to evaluate the conditions of the museum’s buildings and collection
respectively. The roofs of Guezo’s zinkpoho and his two-story entrance hall were torn up
417 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 6 July 2013,
Abomey.
418 When I inquired about its use to a man who was constructing a building of tersta in
his own home, he explained that cement is durable, but creates a hot interior. Earth is
cooler. By mixing the two, one has the advantage of a cooler interior and a longer lasting
elevation (Dah Kpelu (Tohossu priest), in discussion with the author, Summer 2011).
419 Mercier, 11.
133
in places, and perhaps not entirely due to storm damage, but also to neglect, the entrance
hall, was in need of floor and stair replacement.420 The roof damage was severe enough
in the zinkpoho, that the thrones were transferred to Glele’s relatively undamaged ajalala
for protection.421
After another bout of severe weather, the tornado of March 1985, M. Robert Haas
was sent to determine the extent of the damage and the need for reconstruction. At this
stage, Haas called for urgent repairs to Guezo’s logodo and reported that wind had ripped
off pieces of the roof on Guezo’s ajalala.422 In addition, he lamented the damage of
termites to the roof beam structures and reported a substantial rise in the use of cement.423
Cinderblocks were being used in Glele’s exterior, southern wall, and in the artisan’s
building; a cement trough was inserted into Glele’s kpododji to help with the drainage of
rain water. For many of the buildings’ a foot of cement circumscribed the exterior,
probably to help prevent base deterioration of the base of the wall from falling water.424
420 Beatrice Coursier, “La conservation et la restauration des collections du muse

historique d’Abomey” ([Republique Popoulaire du Benin, Aide aux Etats membres pour
la preservation du patrimoine culturel et naturel et le developpement des musees]
Document a diffusion restreinte Rapport technique, UNESCO, Paris 1977. No. de serie
FMR/CC/CH/77/197), 5. M. Robert Haas, who visited the palace in 1985, reported that in
Guezo’s storied entrance hall, a staircase had been built, and flooring and false ceilings
had been replaced sometime between his visit and Stevens’ reports. (Haas 12).
421 Coursier, 7. The roof of the house of courage (or hall of arms) was also replaced in
1979. (Haas 15.) Funds from UNESCO and the Agency of Cultural and Technical
Cooperation (l’Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique) helped finance repairs
and preservation of the museum after the 1977 storms. (UNESCO, 7). The Agence de
Cooperation Culturelle et Technique now goes under the name Organisation
internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).
422 Haas, 13, 14.
423 Ibid., 8.
424 Ibid., 15. The cement trough for drainage was included in 1983.
134
The rise in the use of cement was likely implemented in response to the severe weather
from the previous years.
Those assessing the palace began to propose that it be monitored in a more
permanent and lasting way. The museum’s battered state, the poor preservation
practices, and the lack of a functional budget for restoration helped expedite the palace’s
inscription on both UNESCO’s World Heritage List and its Sites in Danger List.425 The
palace assessments by UNESCO delegates had made apparent the need for continual
upkeep and prevention of deterioration as well as the need for financial support. In
addition, a series of national and international regulations emphasized the need for the
palace’s protection making its entrance into the global arena of cultural sites feasible.426
With the independence of Dahomey, the museum became the responsibility of the
government, and no longer under the jurisdiction of the colonial organization, IFAN.427
The museum was put under the charge of a conservator who directed the museum and its
employees.428 On August 5, 1961, the Insitut de Recherche Appliques de Dahomey
(IRAD) as a replacement organization for IFAN became responsible for advocating for
425 Ibid., 7.
426 Even before independence on 11 October 1956, IFAN inscribed the palace on the list
of Natural Monuments and Sites. (UNESCO Report: Convention Concerning the
Protection of World Heritage, Cultural and Natural: The Royal Palaces of Abomey –
Proposition of their Inscription on the List of World Heritage undertaken by the
Republique Populaire du Benin. (9-3-1984): 2).
427 Ministere de la Culture, de la Jeunesse, des Sports et Loisirs Direction du Patrimoine
Culturel, Republique du Benin, Site des Palais royaux d’Abomey: Plan de conservation
de gestion et de mise en valeur 2007-2011(Ministre de la Culture, Benin Cotonou, 2007),
6.
428 Antongini, 14.
135
the palace’s maintenance and restoration.429 The government began taking an active role
in the palace’s preservation as well.430 On February 10, 1978, the Beninois government
put in place an ordinance for the protection of cultural goods.431 Benin ratified the
UNESCO World Heritage Convention, on June 14, 1982, thus expressing support of the
World Heritage mission and publicly showing a desire to preserve their own cultural
sites.432
The World Heritage program, initiated in the 1970s under UNESCO helps to
recognize and preserve cultural and natural sites for the legacy of humanity as a whole. It
has established a committee responsible for creating a list of “sites of exceptional and
universal value” called the World Heritage Site List.433 The committee meets annually to
extend the list and to distribute “financial and technical help to state parties for the
preservation of the sites.”434 Financial contributions come from state parties voluntarily
who wish to help safeguard “this heritage in countries which lack a means to do so.”435 In
1985, the World Heritage committee selected The Royal Palace of Dahomey for their
World Heritage List, and because of the dire condition of the palace, for its Sites in
Danger List, which made the palace a priority for restoration efforts.
429 Antongini,.14.
430 On June 1, 1968, the president passed an ordinance regarding the protection of
cultural goods was passed. (UNESCO Report, 3).
431Antongini, 2.
432 Kawada, 2.
433 Mark Swadling, Masterworks of Man & Nature: Preserving Our World Heritage
(Patonga, Australia: Harper-MacRae, 1992), 8.
434 Ibid.
435 Ibid., 12.
136
With the inscription of the palace on both the UNESCO World Heritage List and
its Sites in Danger List in 1985 the need to maintain visual historic accuracy became
more ardently monitored. In fact, when The International Council on Monuments and
Sites (ICOMOS) made the recommendation for its inscription, they pled,
If the mistakes made in recent years (short-sighted concreting, changes in

wall height in roof slope and overhang, replacement of straw roofing with
corrugated sheet metal) are not corrected through careful restoration, then
the Palaces of Abomey will henceforth offer nothing more than an
unacceptable testimony and a sham of what was one of the greatest
kingdoms in Africa.436
Following its inscription, UNESCO provided education workshops and handbooks on
proper building and courtyard maintenance. The Getty Foundation had all of the original
bas-reliefs from King Glele’s reception hall removed and meticulously restored before
the structure was razed for rebuilding. And the German government, which assisted in
the restoration of portions of King Huegbadja’s palace threatened to pull funding if the
buildings were not roofed with true thatch.437
Documentation of the palace and its restoration projects as well as research on the
historical precedents of the former states of the palace became a priority. As a prelude to
its inscription, Robert Haas noted, “all conservation action must necessarily refer to the
foundation of descriptions and representations to know their initial state”438 and therefore
called for an “assemblance of documents” to make their “initial state” known.439 This
436 International Council on the Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). Recommendation of

the Royal Palaces of Abomey, Benin, March 9, 1984, World Heritage List No. 323.
437 Renate Kraus-Poetz (former head of the German/Benin alliance, Bohicon), in
discussion with the author, August 2008, Abomey, Benin.
438 Haas, 16.
439 Haas, 16.
137
gathering of data for analysis took on a large scale in 1997 when documents were
gathered and a five volume compilation was formed for analysis.440 Haas clearly speaks
on behalf of UNESCO to outline the restoration priorities of prevention, preservation,
consolidation, restoration, reproduction, and reconstruction. He emphasizes the order of
these steps, making clear that prevention and preservation should be at the top of the list
– that it is more important to keep and maintain what is already there, rather than to build
new when not necessary. In the cases where restoration, reproduction, and reconstruction
are necessary, he makes clear the need for documentation of the originals and of the need
to be true to the traditional materials and building methods.441 As an exception the roofs,
which returned to their original slope, remained for the most part sheet metal. Haas and
his UNESCO associates’ emphasis on documentation and historic accuracy, though
noble, had to be tempered with an understanding of the palace’s cultural context.
While the World Heritage Site committee claims to guarantee “the integrity and
authenticity of the conservation or restoration work,” ideas of authenticity can be vague
and culturally specific.442 Spini and Antongini regret that, “in reality, UNESCO as well
as other national or international organizations have always been called to intervene in
urgent conditions. . . and have stayed for just a brief time . . . not comprehending the
complexity of the various factors which are integrated to the site of Abomey.”443 Such
factors are diverse, but include the autonomy of the royal family and the identity of the
440 Only three copies of this compilation were made and are kept in Benin (at the
Palace), in France (at the CRA-Terre documentation center), and in the United States.
441 Haas, 17.
442 Swadling, 8.
443 Antongini, 8.
138
palace from the royal family’s perspective as a primarily religious site. The meticulous
documentation and notions of historical accuracy are concerns imposed by the external
funders. Haas decreed “all actions must be conducted in a very attentive and
methodological manner . . .” and that decisions should be made with the “counsel and
express recommendations” of UNESCO consultants.444 While such measures are put in
place for the “protection of the palace site”445 they are potentially limiting for Abomeans.
Although, aesthetic and material choices of the royal family are subject to stricter
monitoring under the World Heritage partnership, cooperation with and acknowledgment
of the roles played by Abomeans have become more often documented. Local workers
are always hired to carry out the labor of palace reparations or building reconstructions.
In this way, UNESCO restoration efforts have contributed to the local economy.
Additionally, in an effort to be more historically accurate in appearance, western funders
and researchers rely more heavily on the oral tradition, the primary source of historical
information in Abomey, thus further opening avenues of dialogue and understanding.
Citizens of Abomey have likewise acknowledged the benefits of this external funding to
restore and maintain the site, despite restrictions.
Cooperative Projects in the Museum
Since the palace’s inscription on the World Heritage list, efforts have been made
within the museum to rectify past, short-sighted restoration efforts. In addition to the
return of the former roof steepness, the cinderblocks and cement troughs have been
removed from the museum structures. Ground levels within the courtyards have been
444 Haas, 26.
445 Ibid.
139
reworked to direct the flow of rainwater away from the buildings while holes have been
cut in the base of exterior walls to facilitate drainage to the outside of the palace. Most
immediately, restoration and reparation work was done to the Guezo’s ajalala, and the
Glele’s palace walls and tomb.446
The combination of deterioration over time and recent damage from severe
weather necessitated the razing and rebuilding of Glele’s ajalala. As this structure is
thought to have escaped the 1892 fire, the bas-reliefs possibly date back to the period of
Glele’s reign.447 In 1988, the bas-relief sculptures were removed from the façade and
framed in tersta casings before the building was leveled. 448 Made of timeworn, sun-dried
earth, these sculptures were fragile, and six of the fifty-six were lost in the process of
removal, while several others suffered structural cracks and severe damage.449 In this
condition, the bas-reliefs remained in storage for five years until a collaborative effort
between the Getty Conservation Institute and the Department of Cultural Patrimony of
the Ministry of Culture and Communications of Benin undertook a serious preservation
campaign over a period of three year (fig. 34).450 The object of the operation was to
stabilize and conserve, not to reconstruct or restore. Launched in 1993, this project
446 Ministere de la Culture, Site des Palais, 17.
447 While probably originals, they had been repaired and repainted several times
throughout their history. (Piqué “Conservation of the Bas-Reliefs,” 3rd Campaign, 1).
448 Piqué, GCI Newsletter, 6.
449 Ibid.
450 Francesca Piqué and Leslie Rainer, “Conservation of the Bas-Reliefs from the Salle
des Bijoux Musee Historique d’Abomey, Fall 1995, 5th campaign overview” The Getty
Conservation Institute and Minister de la Culture et des Communications, Gouvernment
du Benin (October, 1995). In addition this project received support from the International
Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM)
and CRATerre-EAG, an association devoted to the research of earthen architecture.
(Piqué, GCI Newsletter, 10).
140
included autumn and spring visits from specialists who helped to facilitate the
conservation of the bas-reliefs, the documentation of the process and product, and the
training of museum employees in preservation and documentation skills.451 The royal
family, in the form of CAFRA lead by King Agoli-agbo Dedjalagni, were used as
consultants throughout this process, and acknowledged as the “traditional stewards” of
the palace.452
This project demonstrates the emphasis Western support tends to place on
extensive and meticulous documentation. The first phase of the project chronicled the
scientific examination of the bas-reliefs.453 Later phases recorded the method of the relief
transport to and from the workshop, the process of stabilization of the sculptures, and
instruction on the effects of salt and humidity.454 Education in documentary photography,
and photographic processing were included in the training, so as to continue the archival
legacy.455 Video documentation during the fifth phase recorded both the project’s
undertaking and interviews with CAFRA members.456
Having been removed, the relief sculptures from Glele’s ajalala changed their
meaning. They were “no longer an ensemble of architectural elements” but “separate
452 Ibid., 10-11.
453 Piqué, “Conservation of the Bas-Reliefs,” 3rd Campaign, 2.
454 Piqué, “Conservation of the Bas reliefs,” 5th Campaign, 5.
455 Ibid., 5.
456 Francesca Piqué, Leslie Rainer and Valerie Dorge, L’Institute Getty de Conservation,
Project Abomey: Rapport 5eme et 6eme Campagnes (Automne 1995 et Printemps 1996),
July 1996, 15.
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artifacts” which are currently displayed as part of the museum’s permanent exhibition.457
Ironically, they are housed in Victor Ballot’s former colonial administration building.
What was once a structure of western domination has thus become a place to celebrate
Dahomean history and to acknowledge western-Beninois cooperation.
Between 1992 and 1997 the organization known as PREMA (the Preventive of
Museums in Africa – dedicated to museum enhancement on the continent) undertook two
major projects in partnership with the Historic Museum of Abomey. PREMA-Benin I and
PREMA-Benin II devoted resources to the conservation of the museum’s collection and
architecture of the entire palace complex respectively.458 PREMA-Benin I, launched in
1992, dealt primarily with the classification and documentation of the museum
collections, fumigation of the display items and the improvement of their conservation
and surveillance.459 PREMA-Benin II focused on the architectural upkeep, and included
the realization of a maintenance guide, and education workshops.460 As part of this
project Benin’s chief architect of historic monuments, Aimé Goncalves and Dorthy
Mizehoun, the superior technician of buildings, were both sent to France for a course on
conservation principles of earthen architecture.461 Equipment and supplies for perpetual
458 Thierry Joffroy, “Actions des cinq dernieres annees: volet ‘architecture’ du projet
PREMA-Benin II, 1995-1997,” in Actes de Conference: Passé, present et future des
palais et sites royaux d’Abomey, (Los Angeles: Getty Conseration Instutute, 1999): 55.
460 For building maintenance, 11 permeanant employees were trained, and the royal
family chose 9 artisans – all of whom participated in the PREMA training (Joffroy,
“Actions des cinq dernieres annees,” 57).
461 Joffroy, “Actions des cinq dernieres annees,” 56. Additionally Goncalves was trained
in Italy and at the museum. (Thierry Joffroy and Sebastien Moriset, Projet PREMA-Benin
142
maintenance were provided for the museum as a long term investment in the preservation
of the site.462
In 1997, at the close of both the PREMA-Benin and the Getty Conservation
Institute projects, a conference was held to discuss the recent endeavors and to look
forward to future projects.463 With the museum in a more stabilized condition, UNESCO
and its supporting organizations began to examine the site outside of Guezo and Glele’s
palaces.464 With the exception of sacred structures, such as the tombs, many of the
buildings, walls and courtyards had suffered a century of decay. As UNESCO had
inscribed the entire palace, and not just the museum, the need to document, preserve, and
restore these portions of the palace moved to the forefront of the agenda.465
Restoration Projects Outside of the Museum
Palace restoration outside of the museum has made substantial strides in the last
two decades as funded by various parties. The restoration of the palaces of Behanzin,
Huegbadja, and the hounwa of Agadja, have been financed by foreign contributors, while
the state of Benin and the royal family have funded the restorations of Akaba and Agoli-
agbo’s palaces. The willingness of the Beninois to donate resources to the palace
2: Atelier-Formation d’artisans Museé Historique d’Abomey, 8 au 26 Janvier 1996

(Grenoble, France: CRATerre-EAG,1996), 27.
462 Joffroy and Moriset, 27.
464 Attention was still given to the museum as well. For example, in 2001, funds from
the United State helped to finance the restoration of the tombs Guezo and the forty-one
wives of Agonglo (Ibid., 19).
465 In addition to the efforts described above, in 2000, SAMP (the Swedish African
Museum Programme) were involved with the restoration of Angonglo’s tomb, and the
tomb of the forty-one wives of Guezo (Ministere de la Culture, Site des Palais, 19).
143
restoration is a testament to the significance they place on it and its purposes.
Regrettably, colonial photographic documentation of the portions of the palace outside of
the museum is scarce, and drawn records are inconsistent. Consequently, reconstruction
has relied on a combination of oral history, precedent, and imagination. Behanzin’s
palace, whose pre-colonial interior was empty, nicely demonstrates the quandary of post-
colonial “restoration.”
While Glele built the surrounding wall of Behanzin’s palace, it was not until
independence and the transferring Behanzin’s tomb that Dowome’s interior architecture
really began to materialize.466 Sacred structures, such as the djeho and ajalala were
constructed as part of his funerary celebration in 1965. After his ajalala was complete,
Behanzin’s descendants built him a hounwa.467 Crozet’s 1968 plan suggests that,
because Behanzin’s exterior wall had deteriorated, and his descendants built a smaller,
and therefore less costly, interior wall. This surrounded and protected these new
constructions and had the hounwa set into it (see fig. 35).468
466According the 2007 pamphlet put out by the Minister of Culture, the family of
Behanzin completed the palace of Dowome in the 1930s after the return on Behanzin’s
remains. However, this was likely a misunderstanding by the author. The palace that
was completed for Behanzin during that period was his private palace in the Djime
quarter of Abomey. (Ministere de la Culture, Site des Palais, 12). Nondichau explains
that Behanzin’s ajalala was the first building in his palace interior. (Bachalou Nondichau
(traditional historian), in discussion with author, 19 June 2013, Abomey). Mysterious to
me, however, is that though assumedly his ceremonial rites would have included the
building of a tomb, djeho, and ajalala, the tomb is conspicuously absent from Crozet’s
1968 plan. According the 2007 pamphlet put out by the Minister of Culture, the family of
Behanzin completed the palace of Dowome in the 1930s after the return on Behanzin’s
remains. However, this was likely a misunderstanding by the author. The palace that
was completed for Behanzin during that period was his private palace in Djime
(Ministere de la Culture, Site des Palais, 12.
467 This became the logodo as the palace was modified with later constructions.
468 Strangely, Crozet’s plan excludes the adoxo, or tomb, which later plans place behind
Behanzin’s ajalala. This diverges from the account of Bachalou Nondichau, local
historian who attended the funeral in 1965. This discrepancy, while not yet settled,
144
This process, in conjunction with Agoli-agbo’s funerary constructions, changed
the face and meaning of the central palace. It signified a reclaiming of the palace in
physical and spiritual ways. The royal family with a king at their head again, could
exercise agency without colonial monitoring. They could defy the French injunction
which forbade the burial of kings Behanzin and Agoli-agbo within the complex. They
were able to endow the central palace with the spiritual force of the last two kings on the
dynastic list, and were willing to do so at their own cost.
It also demonstrates the priorities of the royal descendants which puts religious
significance over physical appearance and plan. It was more important to construct the
spiritually charged spaces immediately, than to wait until they had the resources to build
the three separate courtyards and surrounding wall. The plan of Dowome evolved with
time and means. Spini’s 1985 plan shows that, in addition to the ajalala, djeho, and
tomb, a new hounwa had been erected, the former having evolved into a logodo, or
entryway into the successive courtyards rather than the first (fig. 1).469 This new hounwa,
while meant to be the initial entryway, was set back into the boundaries of the palace
space, rather than in the exterior wall. Once the exterior and interior walls were restored,
Behanzin’s palace unlike the palaces of his predecessors, had an enclosed forecourt area,
thus creating four interior courtyard spaces, as opposed to the traditional three. In this
causes me speculate that either Crozet’s plan was falsely drawn, or that the djeho initially
functioned simultaneously as the tomb and soul house. Tombs were purposefully tucked
away, often either in the back of the third courtyard, as was the case for Akaba,
Huegbadja, and Kpengla, or behind the ajalala, like Glele’s. It is therefore possible that
Crozet didn’t realize it was there.
469 This is according to the Surveys done in 1985 and published in Giovanna Antongini
and Tito Giovanni Spini’s Les Palais Royaux d’Abomey, 1995, which show the traces of
walls.
145
way, as the interior of Behanzin’s palace began to take shape, it demonstrated the
defensive conditions of his reign.
Between January 2002 and April 2004, Behanzin’s palace, Dowome, underwent
major renovations funded by the Japanese government through the UNESCO/Japan
Fund-in-trust.470 At the time of the projects commencement, the outer wall stood only on
the eastern portion of Behanzin’s palace, the rest were in ruins.471 Due to the mass and
height of the exterior wall, and the dilapidated state of the interior walls this portion of
the restoration took more time to execute than the repair and restoration of the interior
buildings.472 Interior walls, which after repair fully separated the courtyards into distinct
spaces, were roofed with corrugated steel supported on logs which had been treated for
termite prevention (fig. 36).473
Between 1985 and 2002, a tassinonho, the designated building for royal women to
gather for ceremonies, had also been erected, making a grand total of six interior
buildings: the hounwa, tassinonho, logodo, ajalala, adoho and djeho.474 According to a
2007 plan, this restoration also under took the construction of a guard house in the
ajalalahennu (fig. 37). The buildings were reroofed with a steeper pitch and wider eave
width. The djeho and tomb were done in thatch while the other buildings were roofed
with painted corrugated steel. Under the supervision of the Getty Conservation Insitute,
470 Kawada, 9. The amount donated by Japan for this project totaled US$ 416, 932.
471 Ibid., 16.
472 The exterior wall construction took ten months to complete (over two dry seasons),
while interior work only took eight months (Ibid.).
473 The roof beams were treated with carbonyl (Ibid.).
474 Ibid., 17.
146
the ajalala’s sixty-seven bas-reliefs were documented, cleaned of dust and salt and
treated through the filling of gaps, the fixing of flakes and retouching with earth, kaolin
and pigments.475 As with previous projects, this one included the training of museum
employees and hired laborers on techniques of conservation, maintenance and
drainage.476
The restoration of Behanzin’s palace meant the creation of a new museum,
separate from but in close connection to the Historic Museum of Abomey. This
constituted the first step in a long term agenda to open the entire palace site to visitors,
who had previously been limited to the palaces of Glele and Guezo. The exposition
focuses on the life of Behanzin – his enthronement, reign and resistance against the
colonial invasion (fig. 38).477 It showcases the king whose reputation reached great
proportions during his own lifetime, and who continues to be the most well-known
internationally since. The idea of expanding opportunities for visitors throughout the
palace changes the nature and encourages the upkeep of architecture.
It is interesting that nowhere in UNESCO’s twenty-eight page publication on the
restoration of Dowome nor in the museum exhibition does it mention that Behanzin never
actually ruled from this palace; or that during his lifetime and the entire colonial period,
the palace was void of interior structures.478 Likewise, though the plan shows the newly
475 Ibid., 18.
476 Ibid., 15, 20.
477 Thierry Joffroy, Leonard Ahonon, and Gabin Djimasse, Une Introduction à Abomey
(Grenoble, France: CRAterre-ENSAG, September 2009), 22.
478 The closest it comes to this is when Rachida de Souza does mention that”King
Gbehanzin could not complete the construction of his palace, Dowome, for lack of time.”
and there is one mention that the ajalala of Behanzin may have been built in the 1950s
(Kawada, 7).
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erected guard house the text makes no acknowledgement of its novelty.479 The rhetoric
surrounding UNESCO’s efforts in Behanzin’s palace focuses on “restoration” implying a
renewal of the pre-colonial past, instead of a refurbishing and completion of a post-
colonial reclamation of the site on behalf of this pre-colonial monarch.
The restorations of Huegbadja’s palace and Agadja’s hounwa, while supported by
some documentation, also relied on oral sources and the precedents of Glele, Guezo, and
now Behanzin’s palaces.480 In part realized with museum funds and in part through the
cooperation with the German government and the Mayor of Abomey, the restoration of
Huegbadja’s palace took place beginning in 2005 and was completed by 2008.481
In this restoration, the German delegate Renate Klauss-Poetz insisted on the use
of thatch roofing, claiming it the more “authentic” material. With the exception of the
hounwa, ajalala, and adoho, all of the roofs have been done in a high pitch, straw thatch.
These include the two logodo, the three djeho, the minister’s building (located in the
kpododji, or initial courtyard), and even a wife’s residence (located in the honga, or third
courtyard) (fig. 39 and 6).482 The use of thatch without the continual funds for upkeep,
however, has already proven problematic. By 2013, the roofs of the three djeho had been
removed (fig. 40). As the other thatch roofs in this palace are currently in good
479 It is possible that the guardhouse was constructed before this restoration, but I have
yet to find documentation of that.
480 The Waterlot plan of the palace marks the entrance to both Huegbadja and Agadja’s
palaces, it does not show a hounwa (fig. 22). Crozet’s 1968 plan, however, shows the
distinct location of each (fig. 35).
481 Huegbadja’s hounwa was restored in 2005 using the funds of the museum (Ministere
de la Culture, Site des Palais, 18).
482 It is probable, that by the type of roofing, one can determine who funded the
restoration of the various buildings in this particular palace: roofs of metal by local funds,
and roofs of thatch by German funds.
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condition, I would speculate their removal was due to an infestation of some sort. The
insistence on the use of thatch further highlights the divide in preservation priorities
between western funders and the people of Abomey. Though it has not been realized, the
Beninois Minister of Culture expressed the aim of utilizing Huegbadja’s palace, like
Behanzin’s, as an additional exhibition space.483
Currently, with the exception of its hounwa, the palace of Agadja remains in ruin.
The restoration of this hounwa, completed in 2009, visually manifests a long-term
partnership between the cities of Abomey and Albi. Albi located in southwest France,
whose medieval city on the Tarn River is also a World Heritage site, has developed a
“sister city” relationship with Abomey. In addition to the restoration of the hounwa they
have continually helped with the funding of small projects, such as clearing of vegetation
around the palaces, and the installation of electricity.484 Agadja’s newly constructed
hounwa is pierced from the outside with four portals, for the four kings who once shared
this palace space. Adjacent to each portal are the symbols of each king, executed in
painted bas-relief by local artist and descendant of Akaba, Eduard Vodoumbo (fig. 41).
The palaces of Akaba and Agoli-agbo, were restored with primarily Beninois
funds. Akaba’s palace, including an impressive ajalala and the massive exterior wall,
which surrounds the 24 acre site, were funded by the Program of Public Investment (PIP)
between 2008 and 2011 (fig. 42).485 Local and state funds also made possible the
restoration of Agoli-agbo’s hounwa, djeho, and logodo in 2004, 2005 and 2007
484 Ibid., 30.
485 Gabin Djimasse (traditional historian and head of the Office of Tourism, Abomey), in
discussion with by author, July 2, 2013, Abomey.
149
respectively.486 The most dramatic changes in Agoli-agbo’s palace, however, took place
between 2011 and 2012, in preparation for the grand religious customs known as the
Gandaxi, discussed in detail in chapter five. In addition to the installation of interior
walls, Agoli-agbo’s ajalala was rebuilt and adorned with elaborate, high gloss bas-reliefs
done by local artist Lucien Klo (fig 43). The reliefs, some of which use reflective paints,
appeal to a contemporary Beninois aesthetic much more than to any historic tradition or
pre-colonial norms. The size and style of these bas-reliefs are very different from the
preserved reliefs in Glele and Guezo’s palaces. This embellishment is not meant as a
break from the past, but a contemporary glorification of it. They simultaneously exhibit
Agoli-agbo’s symbols, and the Royal Family’s assertion of their own autonomy in the
contemporary moment. Accomplished without external funding, both the palaces of
Akaba and Agoli-agbo exhibit the palace’s significance to contemporary Benin.
In its post-colonial era, the museum also took on increased importance for the
people of Benin. In line with the trends of the latter part of the colonial period, the
primary visitors to the museum in the post-colonial era continued to be people of Benin.
The museum became an icon of not only Abomean identity, but of national identity.
The Museum as a Post-colonial Entity
Adjustments in the museum’s content, purpose, and display indicate the new
political context of post-colonization. When compared with other formerly IFAN run
museums, the Royal Palace of Dahomey has undergone improvements and renovations,
while others have remained basically unchanged.487 A combination of foreign aid and
487 Ravenhill, 278.
150
ticket sales facilitate museum upkeep and have provided electricity, increased security,
and promotion of the site.488 While display practices have improved in some aspects
from their colonial state, the royal family’s desire to preserve notions of pre-colonial
grandeur has obscured accuracy to some extent.
A decade after independence the museum entrance was changed from Guezo’s
storied hall to Glele’s hounwa.489 The thrones and asen, or iron ancestral staffs, have
been moved from their former display halls, in Guezo’s zinkpoho and ajalala respectively
to Glele’s jononho, making them an impressive first stop for museum visitors. Guezo’s
storied entrance hall has been revamped to include an upstairs gallery/meeting room.490
The museum displays interweaves ethnological material with history of the palace and
kingdom. There are sections of the museum which deal aspects of Fon life: with food and
cultivation, with religious practices, and with the migration of peoples.
While the issue of contextualizing information has somewhat improved since
independence, transparency is still lacking. Museum visitors are accompanied by an
obligatory tour guide who explains the meaning and importance of architecture and
display objects. Labels have become more abundant and visible, sometimes including the
kings’ reign dates in order to better situate the objects chronologically. However, the
488 Fans and lighting added to the museum as part of the PREMA-Benin project.
(Prevention dans les Musées African, PREMA Cours National Benin ’92. ICCROM:
Centre International d’etudes Pour la Conservation et la Restauration des Biens Culturels,
1993). Ticket sales only account for a small portion of the museum’s financement. 25%
of ticket sales must be paid to the state. The 75% that is left goes towards the paying of
employees and the small restorations and maintenance of the museum. (Urbaine Hadonou
(conservator of the Historic Museum of Abomey), in discussion with author, 23 July
2013, Abomey).
489 d’Oliveira, 4. Visitors, however, are still encouraged and often escorted to visit the
artisans’ workshops even though no longer located at the tour’s conclusion.
490 Haas, 11.
151
information about the origins of these objects is not always transparent. For example, the
1959 published museum guide acknowledged that the kings’ stools, as explained in
Chapter 1, were destroyed in a fire during Guezo’s rule, and that the thrones on display
are nineteenth-century replacements;491 the 1970 guidebook also notes that the thrones are
not original, but incorrectly concludes that they were destroyed in the fire set by
Behanzin; contemporary tours, however, falsely declare that the stools, with the
exception of Dako-donu’s, to be originals.492
The buildings added by the French colonial administration have been converted
by the museum to meet its changing needs. For example, the government administration
building constructed under the direction of Victor Ballot had been converted into a hall of
object restoration and a reserve for archival material by the time of Coursier’s 1977 visit,
and has since been revamped as an exhibition hall for the display of Glele’s preserved
bas-reliefs described above.493 During the colonial period, IFAN constructed a building
outside of the palace, across the street to the north of Agadja’s hounwa which functioned
as their primary headquarters. This currently serves as storage for archival material and
has been used in the past by the museum conservator as his office.
An increased emphasis on tourism and the museum as a commercial vehicle
materialized in the post-colonial period. Stevens, in 1978, along with preservation and
maintenance recommendations about rainwater drainage, and the elimination of plants on
491 d’Oliveira, 13. Blier, Museé, 150.
492 Blier bemoans this fact: “even though it was noted by Mercier and Lombard that the
thones are of late date, no effort has been made to indicate this fact in the exhibition
labels” (Blier, Museé, 152).
493 Coursier, 6.
152
the museum interior, also proposed the installation of a buvette or bar in Guezo’s storied
entrance hall as a place for museum visitors to sit and relax with a cool drink. He also
points out that a more complete installation of electricity would allow an extension of two
hours to the museum’s visiting schedule.494 Suggestions made as part of the Prema-
Benin II project during the 1990s included a new bar, (as the one Stevens recommended
had already been removed by 1985), performances, and the sale of postcards and
products.495 The mayor of Albi, in an effort “to contribute to the development of the site
and its touristic valorization” expressed a desire to contribute to postcard and promotional
book publications.496 Currently, in addition to the artisans workshops, where patrons can
purchase crafted goods, Glele’s kpododji houses a bar and souvenir shop for the sale of
published promotional and educational material (fig. 44).
While the museum draws tourists in from all over the world, its largest visiting
population remains the Beninois. In 2007, of the 24,855 recorded visitors, 17,371 were
nationals and 7,484 were foreign tourists. By 2009, the total number of patrons had risen
to 34,019, but the number of foreigners had only risen by 300 to 7,784. The majority of
the Beninois patrons visit as part of school fieldtrips. In 2009, the Beninois school
groups accounted for 58 percent of the total number of visitors for the year, and 76
percent of the nationals.497 In this way, the palace has become a means to educate a
494 André Stevens, Les Palais Royaux d’Abomey, Republique Populaire du Benin
(France : UNESCO, 1978), 23, 12. Apparently this recommended buvette was
implemented, if only temporarily. Haas, six years later mentions its brief existence
(Haas, 10).
495 Joffroy and Moriset, 29.
497 These 2009 statistics exclude “Free Wednesdays.” Numbers here came from the
records held in the offices of the Historic Museum of Abomey.
153
rising generation. Despite cost, buses arrive from around the country. In this way, the
palace functions to perpetuate the importance of the pre-colonial past for the future.
While many of the negative aspects of colonial display have been abandoned, the
descendants of the kings sometimes manipulate the display practices and obscure
historical events in favor of glorifying their ancestors. The royal family has played an
essential role in the understanding of the palace after its inscription on the World
Heritage List, and continues to be a primary source of historic information. Spini and
Antongini confess that in their research they have “encountered a network of silence,
ambiguities and cover-ups which intentionally recreated a censored history in order to
erase all shadow of the incontestable glory which must have surrounded each king.”498
Similarly, I have had difficulty untangling the conflicting accounts of pre-colonial history
and have even been forbidden by an informant not to publish certain data so as not to
offend members of the royal family.499 There continues to be a lack of transparency
about Adandozan’s role in history or in the palace architecture. 500 Evidence of his reign,
the presence of his hounwa and what was once Adandozan’s, but more recently Guezo’s,
ajalala, are attributed to Agonglo and Guezo respectively. The museum visitor unversed
in Dahomean history would not even know of his existence.
498 Giovanna Antongini and Giovanni Tito Spini, “The difficulties of conservation,” in
The Restoration of King Gehanzin Palace Royal Palaces of Abomey: A World Heritage
Property, ed. Junzo Kawada (Grenoble, France: CRATerre-ENSAG, 2007), 12.
499 I have consented not to include that information in order to protect my informant.
500 Interestingly, the museum in Ouidah has an applique of the Dahomean kings which
includes Adandozan on it. However, in Abomey, he is not present. In Ouidah, the royal
family does not seem to have as much of an influence.
154
“Unlike most national museums in Africa,” as Adeze points out, The Historic
Museum of Abomey, “is considered to be a shrine to the local population.”501 For the
descendants of the kings, the palace is first and foremost, a sacred site. The dual aspect
of the museum space, as “religious center and tourist attraction” has necessitated
coordination between the state and the members of the royal family.502 According to the
current museum conservator, Dr. Urbaine Hadonou, it is essential to guard neutrality
between the royal family and the state or museum administration.503 Government
decrees, established for the protection of monuments and sites, have been careful not to
inhibit the “right of usage for the royal ceremonies and of upkeep of the tombs and
temples by CAFRA.” 504 The museum conservator works closely with the royal family to
accommodate ceremonies. 505 Museum patrons are allowed access to the several sacred
tombs and djeho within the palace, but are asked to remove their shoes and uncover their
heads before entering these spaces. In this way the sacred nature of these buildings are
protected, and the education of the visitors enhanced.
It is not only the architectural space that finds itself subject to this dual nature, but
some of the objects on display function as both cultural artifacts and sacred ceremonial
objects. The royal asen, or ancestral staffs, are the museum objects used most frequently
501 Agbenyega Adedze, “Museums as a Tool for Nationalism in Africa,” Museum

Anthropology 19, no. 2 (Fall 1995): 58-64.
502 Ibid., 63.
503 Urbaine Hadonou (conservator of the Historic Museum of Abomey), in discussion

with author, 23 July 2013, Abomey.
504 Antongini, Benin Royal Palace of Abomey, 2, 3.
505 Urbaine Hadonou (conservator of the Historic Museum of Abomey), in discussion

with author, 23 July 2013, Abomey.
155
in ceremonies. In order for members of the royal family to have access to these items,
they need to gain permission from the museum conservator who claims never to have
denied such a request.506 The objects can then be removed from the museum, sometimes
for as long as four months at a time, where they fulfill their sacred purposes. The asen
function as a resting place for the spirits they represent, and receive offerings of food and
drink placed both at their feet on their tops. After use, they undergo a “desacralizing,”
process which presumably involves the cleaning off of libations.507 While this
accessibility of the royal family to museum objects helps maintain religious nature of the
objects and the palace, it has been the cause of concern to some western funders. As
expressed by Piqué and Rainer,
[H]ere in Benin the museum object is not completely under our control. It
is the object of our conservation efforts, but it also continues to be the
property of the community. The ethical standards of museums will tell
you that only the conservator should handle it. Here, however, the object
is also regularly handled by one or another person of the community.508
The continual use of the objects and space for religious ceremonies, while potentially
problematic to western conservators, brings the palace and objects legitimacy and
purpose for the people of Abomey.
The museum in its post-colonial context brings accessibility and stability to the
site. It has encouraged good restoration practices without discouraging the religious
506 Ibid., There is no specific paperwork involved. Usually a simple note is written to
indicate what has been temporarily removed from the collection and the intended
duration of its use (whether it be a week or four months). The original document is kept
at the museum, while a copy is given to the member of the royal family borrowing the
object. This copy is returned with the object.
508 Ibid.
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purposes of the space or museum objects. It has become more tourist-friendly while
catering to the educational needs of the Beninois.
The introduction of the museum’s 1970s printed guide sets up six loose periods of
Abomean history.509 The sixth constitutes “the period of decolonization and national
independence” which it describes as “the renaissance of Danhomey, a Danhomey . . .
attached to its traditions, but open to all the civilizations.”510 This somewhat
oversimplified description of the period captures the essence of palace as both a symbol
of local identity and an agent for international attention. Freed from colonial subjugation,
Abomeans took a renewed and invigorated reclamation of their history and culture.
Simultaneously, they promoted that history in order to encourage international support.
In the first decades after independence, UNESCO delegates assessed the palace,
publicizing its declining state and cultural importance. The inscription of the palace on
the UNESCO World Heritage and Sites in Danger Lists provided a channel for
international organizations and governments to contribute to the cause of cultural
preservation in Abomey. Although foreign monitoring may have been somewhat limiting
to the royal family, and the understanding of the palaces religious import was not always
translated, the cooperative efforts in restoration and maintenance of the palace and the
museum collection have been primarily positive.
Spini and Antongini, who have been involved in the documentation and
restoration efforts since the 1970s, and who have the combined skills of architect and
anthropologist, describe the safeguarding of the site’s “’soul’ or its essence” as the most
509 These periods do not include any dates, not even approximated ones. (d’Oliveira 1).
510 d’Oliveira, 1.
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difficulty aspect of restoration. They understand that in the case of the Royal Palace of
Dahomey “the importance of the content is more important than the container; the
content being the summation of the historic, religious and symbolic values which make
up a building, a space or even a natural element, a place consecrated by popular
consensus.”511
The difference in the criteria for preservation between Western funders and
assessors and the members of the royal family and town of Abomey indicate a difference
in the understanding of what the palace is. Restoration documents published by
UNESCO sponsored foreign parties throughout the 1990s, refer to Glele’s adjalala as the
Hall of Jewelry and Guezo’s adjalala as the Hall of Asen. This designated the spaces by
what had been displayed there rather on its pre-colonial historic role.512 It indicates a
tendency by foreigners to see the palace as a museum first and in terms of its pre-colonial
history and its religious significance second.
A 1992 UNESCO publication lists the critical criteria for choosing cultural World
Heritage Site includes that a site may, “Provide evidence of civilization which has
disappeared” and follows with the examples “the Royal Palaces of Abomey, Benin; [and]
Machu Picchu, Peru.”513 While certainly the political power of the pre-colonial kings
was diminished with the onset of colonization and currently lies with the elected
government officials in Porto-Novo (and Cotonou), the central palace was never
abandoned nor have the cultural and religious traditions associated with it “disappeared.”
511 Antongini, “The Difficulties of Conservation,’” 12.
512 The display arrangements have since been altered.
513 Swadling, 12.
158
The participation of thousands of people of the Gandaxi ceremony 2012-2013 including
representatives from each of the towns households attest to this.
The director of Benin’s Department of Cultural Heritage, Rachida Avari de
Souza, during the conservation efforts of the Glele’s bas-reliefs spoke for the nation when
she said,
Our view of cultural conservation is not simply material. To be sure, we

carry our projects devoted to buildings and objects within the limits of our
resources. But there is an important second dimension – to preserve and
maintain the cultural totality which includes dance, music and ritual. All
this is the foundation of our cultural heritage and nourishes it. This kind
of preservation . . . is highly codified in its presentation; it is not archived
in a written sense. It leaves no material trace. Nevertheless, we try to
hold on to it because it ensures the functioning of certain cultural sites in
Benin.514
This cultural and religious dimension of the palace keeps the space living and dynamic.
While perspectives and emphases may differ, western and Beninois have, through their
collaborative efforts, continue to preserve purposes of the palace.
The Royal Palace of Dahomey despite its transformations attests to a rich history,
culture and religion that existed before and survived despite colonial rule. While the
central palace’s upkeep may be financed and monitored by western entities, the space’s
historic significance and its religious uses ensure that it will continues as a symbol of
Abomean identity. The physical and metaphorical layers that palace accumulated
throughout its pre-colonial and colonial history have made it a source of post-colonial,
national pride and international attention. As a result, the diverse parties invested in its
continued existence and maintenance have added new layers of meaning to this ever
evolving structure.
159
CHAPTER IV:
ROYAL ARCHITECTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF ABOMEY
Outside of the Royal Palace of Dahomey, the pre-colonial kings had a spatial
presence that extended into the arrangement of Abomey. Royal architecture profoundly
affected and was influenced by its urban context. A defensive moat accompanied by a
city wall with guarded entrances surrounded the center of the city while the crowned
princes' residences, located outside of this wall, were instrumental in establishing new
city quarters. These, in addition to a royal road leading up to Abomey, all contributed to
the Abomey’s royal character during the reign of the pre-colonial kings and have
continued to define the city and its inhabitants throughout the colonial and post-colonial
periods. The restoration and current use of such sites further demonstrates the
importance Abomeans place on pre-colonial history and the kings’ spiritual role in their
lives.
In addition to presenting the historic and contemporary functions of pre-colonial
sites, this chapter will examine the nature of domestic compounds and their rapport with
the palace historically and presently. The relationship between the residential spaces and
Dahomey’s central palace complex occurs on three levels: in the basic domestic
architectural plan, through the system of governing of the families, and through the
ornamentation of wealthy households. Abomy’s domestic compounds include buildings
and spaces which parallel palace architecture: a hounwa, an ajalala, and an asenho,
which corresponds to the djeho, or soul houses of the kings. The titled “head of
household,” undergoes an enthronement ceremony during which he or she is presented
with objects which parallel the regalia of the Dahomean kings. Contemporary wealthy
families commission artists to adorn their homes with bas-relief sculptures often with
160
subject matter alluding to the pre-colonial kings in order to announce social status
through the manifestation of lineage. Historic urban sites and domestic architecture
indicate the importance of the royal history to the post-colonial identity for the city and
people of Abomey.
The Royal Road, the Agbodo and the City Wall
Abomey is located approximately 100 kilometers inland on the Abomean
plateau.515 The most common route to the city from the coast was via Cana,516 a town
approximately seven and a half miles southeast of Abomey. For many of the kings, Cana
acted as a second capital, containing free standing palaces for the monarchs from Agadja
to Glele.517 Visitors were impressed with the order and charm of Cana; Sir Richard
Burton called it the kings “country quarters.”518 King Guezo, who had regular contact
from foreign visitors travelling this route, broadened the road connecting the main gates
of Cana and Abomey to twenty to thirty meters wide.519 It was lined with shade trees and
surrounded by well-cultivated farmland. 520 This impressive journey was evidence of
royal power, between the king’s two most common places of residence. The width,
shade, and views from the road all attested to the king’s authority, control, and luxury.
515 The Kingdom of Dahomey and the French Settlements on the Gulf of Benin (London:
Waterlow and Sons, 1893), 6.
516 Written Kana or Calmina in various accounts and maps.
517 Monroe, “Continutity,” 366. Adandozan in not included among them, but again, he
may have built a palace that was razed or claimed by Guezo.
518 Richard F. Burton, “The Present State of Dahome,” 400.
519 Stanely B. Alpern, “Dahomey’s Royal Road” History in Africa 26 (1999): 15.
520 Alpern’s research shows these trees to be Bombax, African locust bean, palms,
orange or lime trees, “umbrella trees,” and Shea butter trees (Alpern, 16-17).
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The Royal Road exists today, but only as an unpaved path connecting the village of Cana
to Abomey.
Surrounding the pre-colonial city lay a deep moat and city wall, which had, at
different locations, wooden bridges, accompanied by guardhouses and soldiers.521
Initiated by King Agadja (r.1716-1741) the wall and moat, at the time of their
construction, probably enclosed the main part of the city’s population.522 The wall
towered approximately fifteen feet high and was lined with defensive vegetation.523 An
1851 illustration of the city wall by Frederick E. Forbes shows spikes protruding from the
top of the wall and depicts paired entrances into the city: one reserved exclusively for the
king, the other for the general population (fig.45). These spikes may have been what
Frenchman M. Brue described in 1843 as iron forks upon which were fixed human
skulls.524 Sacrificial remains and elephant bones were often placed beside the wall’s
portals. 525
521 The number of entrances likely changed over time. Norris notes that there were four,
but at the end of the pre-colonial period there were six including four positioned at the
cardinal points (Blier, Royal Arts of Africa, 105).
522 Abomey, as slave trader Robert Norris observed who visited in 1772 three decades
after Agadja’s death, contained a population of approximately twenty-four thousand
(Norris, 92).
523 According to Lieutenant Wallon, who visited in 1861, the wall was about 15 feet tall
with the moat 8 to 10 feet deep. (Wallon F. (Lieutenant de vasseau), Le Royaume de
Dahomey (cotes occidentales d’Afrique) (Paris: Librairie Challamel Aine, 1861), 1 carte.,
332). Blier estimates it at 20 feet high (Blier, The Royal Arts of Africa, 104).
524 M. Brue, « Voyage fait en 1843, dans le royaume de Dahomey par m. Brue, agent du
comptoir français établi a Whydah," in Revue coloniale, Tome VI (September-December
1845) (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1845).
525 Blier, Royal Arts of Afria, 105.
162
Maintaining exclusive portals for the sovereign at each entrance of the city
marked the king’s separateness from his subjects and visitors in a visual, spatial way.
Laffitte, who visited during king Glele’s reign noted that the entrance for the king was
wide, while the one for the general population was narrow.526 While the narrow entrance
would have served the practical purpose of regulating traffic, it also made a visual
statement about the king’s importance in the hierarchy of Abomey’s inhabitants. One was
not permitted to enter a city gate except by foot.527 Many European visitors, who
traveled to the city via hammock, were therefore obliged to acknowledge the king
physically on their arrival by descending.528
The agbodo, the moat or trench, ran the circumference of the city just outside the
city wall. Its size and depth served to regulate traffic towards designated entrances, and
defend against attacks. Labor-intensive to dig, Norris suggests that the clay removed to
make this moat was likely used in the city’s architectural construction and most certainly
was used to build the city wall.529 Various nineteenth century accounts estimate the
agbodo depth from five to ten feet and report that it was filled with thorny acacia.530 It
526 M. L’Abbé Laffitte, Le Dahomé: Souvenirs de Voyage et de Mission, (Tours: Alfred

Mame et Fils, Editeurs, 1876), 88.
527 Frances Borghero, Journal de Francesco Borghero, premier missionaire du
Dahomey: 1861-1865 (Paris: Editions Kathala, 1997), 65.
528 Hammocks were used as a common means of transportation. Hired servants carried
the hanging hammock, attached to a long pole. In 1843, M. Brue describes having to
descend from his hammock in order to pass through the city wall (Brue, 55).
529 Norris, 92-93.
530 Richard Burton describes the agbodo as being approximately five feet deep and filled
with acacia (Scholefield, 84). M. Brue, in 1843 estimates between eight and ten feet deep
(Brue, 55). The difference in estimation may have simply been due to the location of the
moat they were examining.
163
dictated the name of the city, Abomey which the French perverted from its original
Agbome: in (me) the moat (agbodo).
While little more than traces of the city wall remain today, the agbodo is still
visible in certain places. Sometimes crops are planted and buildings are constructed
inside the agbodo despite current regulations about its preservation. The need to “assist
the Mayor in his role of protection of the agbodo” was explicitly spelled out in the 2007-
2011 Plan de conservation, de gestion et de mise en valeur of the palace sites put out by
Benin’s Minister of Culture.531 Although there is no visible evidence that preservation
efforts are underway, its location is widely known in the oral history and the building of
the agbodo is also commemorated by a popular and oft sung folk song.532
The City Plan
King Agadja is credited with creating the first plan of the capital, including the
addition of this exterior moat and wall. Though he seemed to have been influenced by
Yoruba cities, the moat’s square shape and the wall’s paired gates were unique
innovations.533 Various foreign accounts complained that the interior of the pre-colonial
city was unorganized. According to slave trader Robert Norris who visited Abomey in
the eighteenth century, “It is built without any order, or at least regard paid to the
regularity of the streets.”534 Edgerton, describes the city as “dismal” and implies that it
acted as a foil to the grandeur of the palace complex, most especially the powerful
532 The folk song about the building of the agbodo says, it was built for Huegbadja. This
furthers the notion that Agaja wanted to be connected with Huegbadja and seen as his
heir.
534Norris, 92.
164
presence of its exterior wall. 535 Likewise, Laffitte, who visited in 1876 stated, “The only
monument of Abomey that merits a special mention is the palace of the king.”536 While
the palace did act as an impressive site, Abomey was not unorganized, but organized
according to a different scheme than the European visitors knew how to read.
The domestic architecture of the city still consists primarily of familial
compounds known as collectivities. Buildings within these collectivities are constructed
or left to disintegrate according to the needs of the inhabitants. However a collectivity’s
spiritual core remains despite changes to the architectural space. Likewise, the Royal
Palace of Dahomey evolved and grew over the two and a half centuries of its pre-colonial
lifetime. The ruling monarch maintained control of the palace and therefore imposed a
visual and spatial continuity on his own as well as on his predecessors’ palaces.
Arguably, just as individual collectivities are arranged around their spiritual core, the
central palace complex functions as the spiritual center of the city.
The pre-colonial kings dictated that certain families settle adjacent to the palace
exterior and act as guardians of the palace walls.537 These families have remained in both
location and assignment. In order to grow their treasury and encourage ingenuity, kings
would pay a “dowry,” in effect enter into a marriage contract with artists.538 Under such
a contract, the artists were granted land around the palace as well as money and goods.
535Edgerton, of course, was drawing from pre-colonial accounts to make his conclusion
(Edgerton, 16).
536 Laffitte, 88.
537 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with the author, 6 July
2013, Abomey.
538 Adande, 51.
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In this way the artists were provided for and the king was assured loyalty and the
abundant production of manufactured goods. The city quarters set apart for the artist
families, such as Houtondji, the metal smiths, and Yemadji, the applique artists, likewise
continue to reside in the areas originally granted to them, and many still produce artistic
goods.539
Abomey is organized into districts or quarters (quartiers) several of which
correspond to the monarchs who ruled at the city’s center.540 The private palaces of the
kings, also known as the crowned prince’s palaces, constitute the living space of each
monarch before he took the throne. They are located throughout Abomey and played an
important role in the developing of and the present-day character of several of the city’s
quarters.541 Thus, the memorial of past kings had spatial significance that extended into
the urban arrangement of the city.
The Crowned Prince’s Palaces
While scholars often refer to the crowned prince’s palaces as architecture set apart
to honor the designated heir to the throne, they often fail to explain that these structures
were not officially recognized as such until after a king’s ascension. Royal succession, as
made apparent in chapter one, was often contested. In addition, each of the king’s sons
built his own “palace,” as part of his coming of age and preparation for marriage,
regardless of whether or not he had been designated as crowned prince.
539 Adande, 51.
540 Olivier Lignerolles claims that the quartiers were organized around the crowned
prince’s palaces, and while there may be some evidence for that, it should be remembered
that most of Abomey’s quartier have no crowned prince’s palace. Olivier de Lignerolles,
“Abomey: Ancient City, Sanctuary City,” Revue Noire 31 (December 1998/ February
1999): 45.
541 Lignerolles, 45.
166
Agadja, in addition to being responsible for the commencement of the agbodo and
the city wall, formed a school for the royal princes called the Vihondji. Any son born to
the king remained with his mother in the Royal Palace until the age of ten, when he was
sent to the Vihondji for an education. Here, evidently through harsh means, the qualities
of composure, firmness and resilience were taught.542 After ten years of schooling a
prince was brought before the king to report on the success of his education, at which
time the king gave him four limbs from a tree known as kpatin which he planted as
designated by the diviner. These eventually took root and indicated the outer corners of
the prince’s private compound, or palace. Within the borders four kpatin, which would
eventually take root and grow, the exterior walls were built. With the establishment of a
private home, a prince was also free to marry.543
Interestingly, Huegbadja’s palace (which initiated the entire, central, palace
complex) took the name Kpatissa, or under the kpatin tree. It is not clear, whether
Huegbadja incorporated an existing kpatin tree into his palace and thereby originated the
use of the kpatin in later construction, or if he conducted the perhaps already established
kpatin ceremony and in so doing spiritually legitimized the whole palace and set the
precedence for his posterity. Blier interestingly recounts Huegbadja as having killed Dan
by impaling him through the stomach with a kpatin rod which he later planted to found
the new palace and new regime.544 Regardless of which of these origins has historic
542 This was apparently a rather harsh education, teaching the boys not to cry when
beaten, or something like that. (Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion
with author, Feb 20, 2013, Abomey).
543 Ibid.
544 Suzanne P. Blier, “Razing the Roof: The Imperative of Building Destruction in
Dahomè (Dahomey),” in Structure & Meaning in Human Settlements, ed. Tony Atkin
167
merit, the endowment of the kpatin limbs on a prince to establish his own home correlates
the central palace to his private palace.
By moving his sons out of the palace at age ten, Agadja further contributed to the
development of gendered space in the palace by solidifying the female interior/male
exterior dichotomy. During a boy’s transition to manhood, he was physically removed
from the palace, simultaneously protecting the king from any potentially opportunistic,
power coveting heirs while providing education and presumably purpose to the lives of
his descendants. Due to his own cunning in taking the throne out of turn, Agadja may
have been especially cautious of potential usurpers.545
An eventual king’s private palace was set apart through a series of physical
transformations after his enthronement. According to Monroe, the outer walls of these
complexes were constructed of palm fronds and not rebuilt with earthen walls until a
prince was officially set apart as king.546 In this way, the private palaces were elevated in
status in conjunction with the king himself. This consequently also elevated the status of
the city quarter and, as explained below, encouraged settlement there. If they did
undergo this evolution, the outer walls towered about five meters high.547 At this point,
and Joseph Rykwert (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology

and Anthropology, 2005), 166.
545 Though evidence is sparse, it is possible that the crowned prince’s palaces may have
promoted the designated heir. If the size and placement of these were indicative of
status, these palaces would have functioned, as Monroe suggests, as “an important
component of elite strategies to project a vision of order and smooth transition of power
in politically tumultuous time” (Monroe, “Belly,” 780).
546 Monroe does not specify that it was the outer walls that were palm fronds, but that
seems logical, as the royal children would need to have something sturdier than this.
547 Lombard, “Le Palais des Rois d’Abomey,” 172.
168
the crowned prince’s palace was partially vacated, though not forgotten, as most of the
king and family transferred to the central Royal Palace of Dahomey.
After a king’s death, his private palace was added to the royal ceremonial centers
and its city quarter was elevated in status once again. A ceremonial tomb was
constructed within the private palace. Because the kings had tombs in the central Royal
Palace, these tended not to be the physical resting place of their remains. In order to
establish tombs spiritually in the private palaces, earth was removed from the original
tomb, and wrapped in white fabric in order to transfer it to the private palace tomb.548
During the period from 1972-1990, when the Marxist regime forbade the performance of
religious ceremonies, these tombs became the main venue for the ceremonial offerings to
kings, as they could be conducted more discretely.549 The private palaces do not have
djeho to accompany the tombs, but rather sinutin, or the place where one drinks the
water. When ceremonies are performed for the kings in these private palaces, the iron
ancestral staffs, asen, are placed in the sinutin to receive libations and offerings.
In addition, royal temples were built in the vicinity of the crowned prince’s
palaces, adding further religious content to the city quarter. As descendants of each king
were and are responsible for conducting the royal ceremonies in his behalf, these palaces
and temples promoted the settlement of royal descendants in close proximity to their
respective father’s palace and temple.
548 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, June 12, 2013,
Abomey. This is the same ceremony described in Chapter 3 for the transfer of the tombs
of Behanzin and Agoli-agbo in the central palace.
Abomey.
169
Those “palaces,” or homes of the princes who did not become king, underwent a
different kind of transformation which likewise remain today. These homes have
evolved into collectivities, residential compounds, still occupied by their descendants.
Such homes label themselves under the name of the child of the king from which they are
descended and then the name of the king himself.550 While no formal education is
recorded for the daughters of the kings, they were presumably able to continue to reside
in the palace until their marriage when they were also presented with four kpatin. These
princesses likewise became the founders of collectivities.
Each of the crowned prince’s palaces, through its placement, size, and plan,
provides insights into the development of pre-colonial Abomey and into the character of
individual kings. The crowned prince’s palaces, from Dakodonou to Agadja, lack the
normalizing of those which succeeded them. The first kings on the dynastic list,
Dakodonou and Gangyehessou, being chiefs of Wawe, had no architectural presence in
Abomey. Their Wawe homes functioned as their palaces. Unlike their successors, there
was no separate, central, royal complex over which to transfer once they were crowned
king. Their descendants continued to reside in their palatial residences.
When the dynasty made its geographic shift to Abomey, there was a rise in status
both for the ruler and his palace. While Huegbadja and Akaba do not have private
palaces distinct from the Royal Palace (Huegbadja’s residence became his palace, and he
willed Akaba the palace of Dan probably before his enthronization), the establishment of
550 For example, the Collectivity Tokoudagba Guezo is full of the descendants of
Tokoudagba who was a son/prince of King Guezo.
170
the central palace helped bring new prestige and substance to the dynasty there.551 It is
difficult to discern whether the descendants of these two kings remained in their portions
of the central palace after their deaths, as precedent dictated, or whether they vacated the
palace as became the norm by the time of Agadja. There are collectivities which claim
Huegbadja or Akaba in their ancestry evincing that their descendants eventually settled
outside of their palaces. If their descendants remained in the central palace complex after
their deaths, this may have concerned Agadja, whose rise to kingship was arguably
unethical, and may have been a factor in his establishment the Vihodji school to evade
retribution.552
Agadja’s vast private palace in Abomey’s outlying Zassa quarter is adjacent to
Hangbe’s private palace and was used later by King Guezo for the military training of his
female troops.553 Tegbesu’s private palace, in contrast, is built just outside of the agbodo
in the Adandokpodji quarter. Tegbesu’s private palace’s proximity to the central palace
shows both a more controlled succession and consequently a more established power of
the king. When Agadja built his private residence, he was not the designated heir and
though Tegbesu’s reign was to some extent contested, oral tradition indicates that he was
551 Nondichau asserts that Akaba had a private home which he gave to Awissou to
reward him for his help during his reign. (Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in
discussion with author, June 12, 2013, Abomey). Agbosassa, as a minor did not have a
private palace but was in the home of Ayimetondji (Ibid.).
552 The fact that Agadja, son of Huegbadja, did not reside in the palace of his father, as
he had several private palaces, indicates that, at least to some extent, children of the king
were settling outside of the palace.
553 According to Nondichau, Agadja had “private palaces” in Zassa, Wawe, Allada and
Moiyon. (Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, June
12, 2013, Abomey). However, not all of these were built before his rise to power. His
Allada palace, for example, functioned as a satellite residence while he ruled there.
171
the favored successor of his father.554 Tegbesu must have built this palace upon his
return from Oyo, and though today it is largely in ruin, his descendants claim to know
how the palace was organized and can recount events that happened in various sections of
the palace.
From Tegbesu to Agoli-agbo, the private palaces became more normalized. They
are all built outside of the agbodo. Kpengla’s private palace is not far from Tegbesu’s on
the border of the Adandokpodji and Hodja quarters; Agonglo’s however, is located on the
other side of town to the Gbècon Hwégbo quarter; Guezo’s is close to his in Gbècon
Hunli; and the palaces of Glele and Gbehanzin are farther away in the Djègbè and Djimè
quarters respectively (fig. 46). Some scholars have noted a spiral pattern in the
placement of these palaces. As enticing as that is, I speculate that location was
determined more by the availability of land and the need to expand with the expanding
city.
The stipulation that the crowned prince’s palace’s be built outside of the agbodo,
while certainly tied the availability of land, also provided a geographic distance between
potential heirs and the king, thus decreasing their threat to him. Not all of the kings’ sons
built outside of the agbodo, thus further solidifying one’s designation as vidaho, or heir to
the throne. This distance also encouraged their independence and individualization.
With the exception of Guezo’s, each consecutive crowned prince’s palace from Kpengla
to Behanzin is located further from the central palace than his predecessor. Guezo’s
break in precedence can be attributed to the fact that he wasn’t the designated heir to the
554 Bay, Wives, 82.
172
throne, but overthrew Adandozan to take power. Thus the location of his palace testifies
of his break in political procedure.
Perhaps none of the crowned prince’s palaces provides more insights into the
reign and character of a particular monarch than does the private palace of Guezo. After
his rise to kingship, Guezo used his crowned prince’s palace and the area surrounding it
to make architectural assertions of power and ingenuity. In 1828 he initiated the Hounjlo
market which was to become, and remains, the main market center for Abomey. It lies
geographically adjacent and to the west of his crowned prince’s palace and directly south
of the central royal palace. Around this market he built two multi-storied buildings for
foreign visitors.
In another architectural manifestation of Guezo’s welcome of foreign influence,
he ceded a portion of the land set apart for his private palace for the building of a
Catholic Church, St. Pierre Paul. This was not the first Catholic Church built in Abomey,
Agadja had permitted missionaries to build on Place Goho. However, by allowing this
church’s erection in his palatial territory, Guezo manifested his level of acceptance of the
Christianity. Though it has been remade throughout the generations, this church remains
a prominent part of Abomey’s built environment (fig. 47).
Glele’s private palace indicates his commitment to family and religion.
Interestingly, it has two hounwa in the exterior wall (fig 48). The second hounwa is said
to have been dedicated to either honor Guezo his father, or Nudaye, Glele’s little brother
173
who was born with spiritual powers.555 Across from the Glele’s private palace, is the
Gbetinsa temple dedicated to the divinity of hunters.556
Monroe suggests that with each private palace “both noble and commoner
lineages were installed in neighboring quarters.”557 While there may have been some
attempt to diversify the population, it is more likely that settlement of different classes
occurred as a natural consequence of the availability of space and opportunities for
employment. Whether the building of a crowned prince’s palace was instrumental in
founding a new quarter of the city or not, they certainly are important to the character of
the city quarters in which they lie today. Descendants of kings have continued to reside
around the private palace of their ancestor, and declare their ties to the kings through
decorative bas-reliefs praising their royal ancestor.
Restoration of the Private Palaces
The tendency of Abomeans to focus on the religious purposes of architecture and
not to be overly concerned with replicating pre-colonial prototypes discussed in Chapter
3, becomes even more apparent when examining the post-colonial restoration efforts of
the kings’ private palaces. These crowned prince’s palaces share in the central palace’s
historic and religious significance. However, unlike the central palace, they are not
included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is the responsibility of the descendants
of each king to act as stewards for them, and they can do so without the same level of
external restrictions. The glorification of these spaces helps descendants and keepers of
555 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, June 12 2013,
Abomey. Nudaye is a tohossou and shares a temple with Zewa.
556 Ibid.
557 Monroe, “Belly,” 782
174
the royal history to construct a historical narrative which favors their ancestor and
consequently themselves. While some of these private palaces have deteriorated, many
have undergone serious restoration and are regularly maintained. Arguably, more
liberties are taken with their restoration processes because they are closer in nature to the
ever evolving collectivities.
King Agonglo’s prince’s palace, restored in 1997 to celebrate two hundred years
from the time of his death, had drastic alterations made to its physical appearance and
purpose. Besides the use of visible cement in the first two courtyards of the king,
including the tomb’s elevation, and cement plaster on the hounwa, ajalala, and sinutin,
new buildings, including public toilets, have been added in an attempt to make the space
modern and tourist friendly (fig. 49 and 50). The ajalalahennu and tomb maintain their
ceremonial character and purposes, but in the third and largest courtyard, two groupings
of open-aired buildings have been erected for the purpose of weaving and artisan
workshops (fig. 51). These raised, roofed, concrete structures were in no way part of the
original palace of Agonglo, nor were they included at any time during the pre-colonial
period. They are, instead, a modern fabrication to meet the needs of the artists and
weavers, and to capitalize on the tourist market of those who may be coming to enjoy the
historic sites.558 The first of these groupings is used by weavers, whose workshops
surround a central gazebo-like structure where their works can be displayed (fig. 52).
They continue to work there even when it is not tourist season and sell their goods in bulk
558 The man largely responsible for organizing the restoration of Agonglo’s private
palace is named Bathaeliney Adoukounou, and is now a cardinal at the Vatican. He
made the workshops. (Pierre Adjehounou (weaver in Agonglo’s palace), in discussion
with author, July or August 2013, Abomey). Weavers continue to work there even when
not tourist season, making woven works to be sold in bulk to merchants from Cotonou.
175
to merchants from Cotonou.559 In the second, more tucked away grouping are workshops
for artists. Here contemporary artists like Lass Dolass, who claims descent from
Agonglo, keeps a studio space and stores his artworks.
In addition to the collaborative benefits artists may receive from establishing shop
in the palace, they are also declaring it a living, functional space. They are
simultaneously preserving the notions of Agonglo as the “artist king” while contributing
to the physical preservation of the site. The workers’ constant presence contributes to the
space’s continual care; they remove plants and clean the space, or they pool their money
to hire youth to maintain it.560 Although the artisan workshops have no historic
precedence, they help maintain the spirit of Agonglo’s reign, rather than the physical
likeness of his pre-colonial private palace.
Seeing the maintenance benefit of having resident artists, other palaces have
followed suit. Guezo’s satellite palace in the village of Agbangnizoun, whose recent
restoration was completed in 2013 includes in the first courtyard, separate small
workshops for an appliqué artist, a wood carver, a metal smith, a clay sculptor and a
weaver (fig. 53). In a similar move, the descendants of king Kpengla encouraged a
contemporary artist, Arolando (a descendant of Kpengla’s line), to use Kpengla’s private
palace as exhibition and studio space (fig. 54).561
559 Pierre Adjehounou (weaver in Agonglo’s palace), in discussion with authorJuly or

August 2013, Abomey.
560Ibid.
561 He expressed that at first he was so concerned that people may steal his artwork that
he slept in the palace for three months. Since that time he has left his artwork there with
little worry. He works with an association of Kpengla’s descendants for the maintaining
of the palace space. (Arolando (artist), in discussion with author, March 13, 2014,
Abomey.)
176
An investigation into the most recent restoration of King Kpengla’s private palace
provides interesting insight into Abomean priorities in architectural preservation. The
palace of King Kpengla changed in height, color and decoration during its 2009-2010
“restoration” (fig. 55 and 56). Interestingly, the foreman for this project, named Adigble
Kpassassi, insisted it was an exact restoration. Having worked on the restoration of at
least seven Dahomean palaces, he described the process.562 After clearing the
undergrowth, he located and examined the traces of walls to determine the buildings’
floor plans. Then these remnants were dug up and mixed with the mud swish intended
for the construction of the new buildings. This process, he explained, spiritually
empowered the new palace walls with the remnants of the old. “When a wall [presumably
a building] is finished, then a ceremony is performed” which includes the offering of “a
hen and rooster, cola nuts, corn flour, and Sodabi [a traditional alcoholic beverage].”563
During the construction of the tomb, or adoxo, arguably the most sacred building “it is
forbidden to sleep with a woman.”564 In his description, he emphasizes the spiritual
protocol of construction over the material product.565 Where western restoration efforts
tend to preserve what original ruins have survived, Kpassassi describes the need to dig up
and mix the old with the new, in order that the new function as a spiritually empowered
562 He worked on the private palaces of Agonglo (in 1997), Guezo (in 2005), Behanzin
(in 2006), Glele (in 2009) and the central palace spaces of Huegbadja (in 2004) and
Akaba (beginning in 2008). Adigble Kpassassi, in discussion with author, 11 July 2011,
Abomey.
563Ibid.
564 Kpassassi explains that the consequence “If you sleep with a woman, your children
will die.” (Ibid.)
565 Beyond the spiritual protocol, there are state and local regulations which, though
loosely enforced, contribute to the physical maintenance of historic buildings. Those
working on the restorations are prohibited from removing any archeological material
from the site (Ibid.)
177
resurrection of the old. Kpassassi’s notion of exact restoration was not in reference to its
physical form, but rather its spiritual essence.
The shared responsibility of the descendants to maintain and repair the private
palaces has facilitated the organization of the kings’ descendants, and thus contributes to
a sense of communal identity in the post-colonial moment which harkens back to pre-
colonial history. The private palace of King Kpengla, for example, is maintained by a
group of Kpengla’s descendants who meet once a month to clean the palace and discuss
related matters.566 The rebuilding of King Guezo’s private palace was a joint effort of
several wealthy descendants of the king who divided the responsibility of restoring
various buildings.
While there may be flexibility with the appearance and functions of these spaces,
there are religious ceremonies held in the private palaces and sacred obligations and
restrictions that are rigidly maintained. Not only are sacrifices made in conjunction with
the building of religious structures, but when they are complete it is imperative that one
remove his shoes before entry.
Restoration efforts often take place in conjunction with the cycle of religious
ceremonies. In conjunction with the 2012-2013 Gandaxi ceremony, for example,
descendants of King Tegbesu erected his private palace’s hounwa, Agonglo’s private
palace was newly plastered and painted, and Guezo’s underwent serious refurbishment
with the addition of roofs and interior walls (fig. 57). Where restoration was not
logistically possible, the kings descendants assemble temporary structures of poles, mats,
and tarps to represent the necessary architectural spaces to perform the ceremonies, thus
566 Arolando (artist), in discussion with author, March 19, 2014, Abomey.
178
demonstrating that the importance of the religious ceremonies outweighs the aesthetics of
their setting (fig. 58). These ceremonies, especially the grand Gandaxi, held in both the
central and private palace attract and engage the local population on both spiritual and
recreational levels.
In addition to the use of private palaces as studio and exhibition space, these
buildings have taken on diverse functions. Locals have employed part of the vast open
space in King Glele’s private palace for the cultivation of crops. The palace of King
Agoli-agbo I is the residence for his descendant and current king of Abomey, Agoli-agbo
Dedjalani; Behanzin’s crowned prince’s palace has become a tourist site run by his
descendants; And the private palace of Adandozan, which was located in the Zassa
quarter, has been razed.567 Such transformation and even destruction demonstrate how the
Royal family has utilized architecture as Monroe explains, to help “shape the experience
and memory of public urban space vis-à-vis a particular vision of dynastic origins.”568 In
contrast, to the painstakingly documented restoration projects undertaken in the central
palace under UNESCO’s watch since the mid-1980s, it is difficult to find documentation
on the rebuilding of the various private palaces.
The pre-colonial Dahomean palace construction outside of Abomey, while
beyond the scope of this dissertation reveals information about the history of the
kingdom. In addition to Cana where palaces span the reigns of Agadja through Glele and
Wawe where the early kings had residents, there were palaces located throughout the pre-
567 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 1 March 2013,
Abomey.
568 Monroe, “Belly,” 780.
179
colonial kingdom.569 Monroe speculates that Agadja built nine palaces during his
reign.570 Guezo also built many palaces in outlying villages, some to honor his wives.
These palaces would have served as a royal presence throughout various parts of the
Dahomean kingdom. They served as a royal presence as well as practical points of
administration, collection of taxes and goods, and religious ceremonies.571
Royal Influence and Domestic Architecture in Abomey
The royal architecture of Abomey has close relationship with the domestic
architecture of the city. In contemporary Abomey, nuclear families are seldom isolated,
but reside with extended relations grouped into an organization called an xwedo or
collectivity. The term collectivity refers to both the group of patrilineal descendants,
sometimes as many as several hundred of them, and the architectural space of that
residential community.572 A study published in 1984 estimated 1,300 collectivities in
urban Abomey.573 While not all of those of the paternal lineage reside in the collectivity,
either by choice or by space constraints, they remain affiliated with it and many return for
Monroe, who has conducted archeological research in the palaces of Cana, rejoices that
“Cana has avoided extensive renovation projects in the twentieth century” arguing that
“such projects at Abomey have, until recently, caused more destruction than
preservation” (Monroe, “Continuity,” 366).
570 Ibid., 357.
571 Monroe, “Continuity,” 361. For a more detailed account of the role and placement of
these outlying palaces, I would refer the reader to J. Cameron Monroe’s article
“Continuity, Revolution or Evolution on the Slave Coast of West Africa? Royal
Architecture and Political Order in Precolonial Dahomey.”
572 Urbanor, M. Houseman, B. Agbo, P. Hounmenou, B. Legonou, Ch. Massy, “Abomey
Etude Ethno-Fonciere,” Republique Populaire du Benin Ministere de l’Equipement et des
Transports IV no. 100 (October 1984) : 7.
573 Ibid., 7.
180
ceremonies, reunions, and important decisions.574 Part of the criteria for the architectural
collectivity is that it include a hounwa, an ajalala, a family cemetery and a house of
prayer to the ancestors (asenho).
Many, though not all, of the collectivities which exist in Abomey were formed by
the descendants of kings, ministers of the kings, and religious heads. It is also possible
for members of an established collectivity to found their own, separate collectivity. This
is not done rashly, as once it is established the new collectivity will be under the spiritual
and financial obligation to carry out the ceremonial rites inherent to a collectivity. If one
chooses to establish his own collectivity, after receiving authorization from his current
head of household, he performs the same ceremony carried out by the pre-colonial
princes and princesses. He plants the kpatin sticks to indicate the outer boundaries of his
compound and builds the outer walls. Within this space he presents corn, beans, cowries
and coins in a bowl wrapped in white fabric to the divinity Hueli to guard the home. This
offering is buried in the earth in the space which usually becomes the ajalalahennu. Hue
meaning home and li to install carries the double meaning of “installed in the home” and
“established house.” This invitation to Hueli therefore simultaneously ensures the
establishment of this deity’s residence within the home and warrants that the home has
become a legitimate collectivity.575
Each collectivity is equipped with a hounwa as entrance to the large residential
complex (fig. 59). Often adorned with the family’s name and symbols, the hounwa
functions as an identifying marker of the collectivity; a declarative statement of the
574 Ibid., 8.
Abomey.
181
collectivity’s spiritual and genealogical significance. As the hounwa of each of the
individual palace’s within the pre-colonial palace complex constituted a liminal space
between the royal interior and the common exterior, so too the hounwa in the
collectivities functions as a transitory space, a liminal interior/exterior location where the
public and private meet. Families will often use this space as a place of casual social
gathering, or vending. The same basic rectilinear plan exists between palatial and
collectivity hounwa.
Courtyards were as important spatially within the palace complex as the elevated
architectural structures. While the collectivities do not adhere to the same succession of
courtyards which exists in the palace, courtyards are imperative to the home’s function.
Within the collectivity individual family lines are grouped in buildings surrounding
courtyard spaces, used for gatherings and for daily chores. As was true with the palace,
the most ceremonially important of the collectivity’s courtyards is the ajalalahennu,
flanked by the ajalala, which provides a space for ceremonial gatherings.
In contemporary collectivities the ajalala functions as a place of reception and
ceremony, where the head of the household receives guests and where important family
observances take place. Typically collectivities will mark the ajalalahennu with a sign
asking visitors to remove their shoes upon entering thus signifying it as a sacred space.
For ceremonies such as the installment of a new head of household, families sometimes
decorate the ajalala with ribbons and erect a tent in the ajalalhennu to provide shade to
those attending. After the installation of a new head of household, he or she is required
to sleep in the ajalala for one week.576 As with the palace reception halls, the domestic
576 Ibid.
182
ajalala are rectilinear structures with multiple openings, where the head of home can sit
to receive visitors (fig. 60).
The presence of ancestors through tombs or cemeteries within architectural space
proves an important element for both the pre-colonial palace complex as well as the
contemporary collectivities. The tombs present in the palace complex may or may not be
where the royal bodies are actually interred. Some kings have more than one tomb,
located in the palace complex, in crowned prince’s palace (the palace in Abomey in
which a king resided before his enthronement), and possibly even in ancillary palaces
located outside Abomey. Ceremonies can take place at multiple tombs for the same king,
suggesting that the structure of the tomb, and reverence paid to the king via ceremonies
supersedes the presence of actually body relics in importance. Palace tombs tend to be
circular, square, or hexagonal, and sometimes include a bed and a place to pour libations
for the deceased.
In this way, the family cemeteries located in the collectivities are different.
Adoxo are sacred spaces, rarely viewed by those not belonging to the collectivity. The
few adoxo I have seen constituted a plot of ground where the ancestors are buried,
sometimes surrounded by a wall with flanking buildings adorned with the skulls of
animal sacrifices. Where the royal tombs are dedicated to the individual, the adoxo is
collective. However, in both the palace and the collectivities the presence of tombs and
adoxo respectively adds spiritual significance to the architectural space. Both provide a
presence of supernatural power and of genealogical legitimacy to the
organizations/descendants they bolster.
183
Collectivities contain neither djeho, which are reserved for the central palace, nor
sinutin, which are found in the private palaces, but rather asenho. These buildings are
usually next to or perpendicular to the ajalala and are used to store the asen, or iron
ancestral staffs during ceremony. In this way the ancestors can participate in familial
festivities by ceremonially partaking of the offerings presented them, and observing the
family’s affairs. There is one exception to this rule: the collectivity of Toffa has a djeho
(fig.61). Toffa was the elder brother of King Guezo. Before leaving for a battle, Toffa
consulted with a diviner who indicated that if he joined this fight it would mean his death.
However, loyal to his brother Guezo who insisted that he go, he fought, and is said to
have been the first Dahomean casualty at this particular conflict. Guezo, in grief and in
honor of his brother, built a djeho in his collectivity which remains there to this day.577
As with the pre-colonial palace, gender plays into the space of the residential
collectivities. Within a collectivity, a room is set aside as his living quarters of the head
of household. If the head of household is male, it is forbidden that a son spend the night
with his father in this designated space. Unlike the pre-colonial palace, male
descendants are not banished from residence in the entire compound, but only from head
of household’s living space.
In addition to the presence, form and use of corresponding architectural structures
in the residential collectivities and the pre-colonial palace complex, there are also
connections between their governments. The collectivities, through the ceremonial
investiture of their leaders, draw, in part, on royal history and the palace complex for
their authority.
577 Ibid. The Adoukounou family, descendants of Agonglo, claim also to have a djeho.
184
Although the Fon are patrilineal, princesses were an interesting exception to the
societal norms. Descendants of princesses were considered members of the royal lineage
over their father’s line.578 According to Edna Bay, this “freed the sexuality of princesses
and made them socially male in patrilineal Fon society.”579 In common Fon marriages,
women move into husband’s collectivity, Bay indicates that when this happened for
princesses, they “were autonomous within the households of their husbands, having
separate quarters and bringing a large entourage of retainers with them.”580 Whether the
practice of founding their own collectivities was something that evolved over time or a
matter of the princesses’ decision, evidence indicates that daughters of kings, like sons,
had the right to found their own collectivities, thus making her the head of household or
nan. At a nan’s death, if no daughters or sisters are able to take her place as the head of
the household, the title of nan can pass to a male descendant, but he will retain the title of
nan (not dah) and at his death, it will pass back to a female heir if available.581
In order to become the titled head of the household of a collectivity, dah for men
and nan for women, one must undergo an installation ceremony. Currently, these
ceremonies take place in King Glele’s portion of the central palace before his ajalala
where the current king Agboli-agbo Dedjalani witnesses and authorizes the event. The
current king, who holds only a shadow of the power of his pre-colonial predecessors,
invests men and women with the authority to preside over their homes. In this process,
578 Bay, Wives, 52.
579 Ibid.
580 Ibid.
Abomey.
185
the dah or nan simultaneously acknowledges power in and thus endows power upon
current king. These events likewise sustain the king through substantial monetary gifts
and obligations. This ceremony draws on the political power of the palace, the once
active center of rule in order to endow the spatial collectivity with the power of the royal
past in a reciprocal relationship where palace and home as well as the dah or nan and the
king are mutually bolstered and sustained in the post-colonial moment.
During this installation a dah or nan is presented with a head covering, a tunic, an
appliqued umbrella, a makpo or scepter, which parallel the regalia of the Dahomean
kings. The story of Tegbesu’s enthronement provides evidence of the importance of such
regalia to the early pre-colonial kings. Like many of the kings, Tegbesu met opposition
from a brother contending for the throne. During his installation he was presented with
the ceremonial tunic, which his opposition “laced with thorns and stinging medicines”
knowing that if he would not wear it, his enstoolment would not be valid.582 Tegbesu,
however, bore the pain, wore the tunic, and received the strong name “the buffalo who is
dressed is impossible to undress.”583 Like the pre-colonial kings who in addition to
receiving a “strong name” underwent a name change, a new head of household will shed
his or her personal name and replace it with the title dah or nan.
After a period of at least five days following the initial ceremony, the newly
installed dah or nan and his or her entourage return to Glele’s palace where they have
drinks with the king and his ministers. From there they parade from the palace to
Abomey’s principle market. While circling the market a number of times, the dah or
582 Bay, Wives, 82.
583 Ibid., 83.
186
nan, if wealthy, will throw money and candy as part of this procession, in much the same
way that the pre-colonial kings would have thrown cowry shells during the Annual
Customs. From the market, the parade progresses to the family’s home where the
celebrations continue with dancing and music. Thus the investiture culminates with a
physical procession from the palace to the market to home, symbolically empowering the
collectivity and its new head with the historic political and current economic benefits of
Abomey.
Collectivities hold annual ceremonies to revere and feed their ancestral dead.584
These highlight again the standing affiliation between the collectivities and the palace.
On November 1, each year at the start of the dry season, the king performs ceremonies
for the pre-colonial kings in the palace. After these are completed, he gives permission to
the city of Abomey to commence their family ceremonies in the collectivities.585 The
annual ceremony for the ancestors is called the Ka kplekple in which the collectivity
gathers and cooks in order to offer the ancestors food such as fried potato, yam, beans, or
whatever the living would eat. If, due to lack of resources, it is not possible for the
collectivity to fulfill this obligation, they can instead ceremonially offer drink libations in
a ceremony known as Agangbigba. Every fourth year, large scale elaborations of the Ka
kplekple constitute the ceremony known as De or Dekedoho which requires more
resources to conduct due to the sacrifice of many goats and chickens.586 These parallel in
584 According to Nondichau these take place on the birthday of its founding ancestor.
(Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, June 29, 2011,
Abomey). I find this somewhat problematic, as the ceremonial season takes places
during the dry season (from November to April) therefore limiting the dates available.
585 Ibid.
586 Ibid.
187
purpose and content to the ceremonies conducted for the kings at the central palace: the
annual ceremonies, as well as the grand ceremony, the Gandaxi, which takes place every
four or seven years.
While both the ceremonial investiture and the corresponding architectural
structures provide an undeniable link between the royal palace and the collectivities, it is
difficult to determine in which direction the relationship was bred historically. Through
the centuries, the ever changing ephemeral earthen architecture make it impossible to
conclude whether the collectivities are working to imitate and incorporate elements of the
pre-colonial palace, or the pre-colonial palace is an aggrandizement of the perhaps
already established collectivities. And while the installation of the dah or nan seems to
hearken back to pre-colonial enthronement ceremonies, it is also possible that the early
kings of Dahomey appropriated already established rites of the people they conquered in
order to gain credibility among their new subjects. The palaces of Dakodonnu and
Gangyehssou in Wawe include hounwa, ajalala, and a royal tombs, but it is impossible to
deduce whether these were added during the lifetime of these kings, or posthumously.
While evidence is sparse, I would argue for a reciprocal relationship between
collectivities and the Royal Palace of Dahomey: that collectivities pre-dated and were
therefore the basis for the plan and spiritual nature of the palace, but that over time the
palace and court structures have influenced and standardized the collectivities. 587
In order to have a collectivity, families must trace their lineage to a towhiyo or
mystical/divine ancestor who founded the lineage. These were the first inhabitants of the
587 According to Nondichau, those who don’t belong to a collectivity “are foreign.”
(Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, July 6, 2011,
Abomey).
188
earth and are the ancestors who spiritually brought the collectivity into being.588 The
Abomean proverb that “the collectivity is not greater than its towhiyo” indicates a
hierarchy which places the towhiyo above the founding ancestors of the home.589 There
numerous towhiyo, and only three of them, Agassou, Aligbonon, and Ajahouto, are part
of the royal Dahomean line. There are multiple other towhiyo in Abomey and their
ceremonies differ slightly indicating that the existing Guedevy population had established
their own ancestral rites before the settlement of the Dahomean line. Further proof that
the collectivities existed in some form before the rise of the Dahomean kings, lies in the
fact that the towhiyo Bosikbon and Guede existed among the Guedevy before their
arrival. In fact, Guedevy, or Guedevi means child of Guede.
Though, the collectivities probably pre-dated the palace, once the palace was
established, and certainly in post-colonial Abomey, it has come to influence the
collectivities in form and ornamentation. Collectivities are inclusive by nature,
incorporating the religious practices of people who marry into them.590 As the palace
began to make the ceremonies a grand, public display, it is possible, that it encouraged a
normalizing of ceremonies throughout Abomey. In addition, such ceremonies gave
public access to the palace’s impressive ajalalahennu. The view of the ajalala
undoubtedly influenced the domestic spaces.
588 Danon Apakpla (priest of Dan Ayidowhedo), in discussion with author, August 10,
2011, Abomey.
589 Ibid.
590 For example, if someone who belongs to a collectivity marries a Yoruba person, and
that person dies, the collectivity will perform both Fon and Yoruba ceremonies.
(Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian, in discussion with author, July 6, 2011,
Abomey).
189
As the palaces became more standardized over time, and the number and
influence of the royal descendants increased, there was likely a general normalizing of
the collectivities. In addition, as the number of royal descendants grew, they began to
take the collectivity form to other parts of the kingdom. In Allada and Bohicon for
example, there are collectivities which claim lineage from the Dahomean kings.
The connection between the palace and the collectivities, regardless of which
preceded the other, adds prestige to the domestic architecture and has been important in
defining a post-colonial, non-European identity for the city of Abomey. Monroe asserts,
“buildings are . . . powerful tools for shaping the embodied practices and cultural
memories of those who inhabit them.”591 As tools for shaping cultural memory, the
collectivities, through space and ceremony, proclaim a substantial connection to the royal
palace. Arguably the most overt and poignant allusions to the pre-colonial past for the
purpose of shaping a post-colonial identity occurs through the collectivities’
ornamentation. Through both the medium and subject matter of architectural adornment,
contemporary Abomeans advertise an endorsement of the pre-colonial kings, boast of
genealogical connections to them, and create visual parallels between them and their dah
or nan.
Among the several decorative media used in the royal palace complex, the most
permanent and communicative were bas-relief sculptures. The palace reliefs were both
ornamental and overtly political symbols for visitors entering the palace complex. The
subject matter commemorated historic battles, portrayed Fon legends and mythology, and
591 J. Cameron Monroe, “Power by Design: Architecture and politics in precolonial

Dahomey,” Journal of Social Archaeology 10 no.3 (2010): 371.
190
glorified a reign through a king's "strong name" symbols.592 King Glele's ajalala, for
example, includes both combat scenes as well as depictions of the lion, a hornbill, and a
chameleon, all derived from Glele's "strong names" and divination imagery (fig. 62).593
Their historically and religiously didactic messages thus functioned as an important
legitimizing tool of the king’s power and authority. Originally made of earth from
termite mounds mixed with palm oil and plant fibers, they were set into niches in
principal palace building facades, such as the hounwa and ajalala. Natural pigments
from indigo leaves, gingerroot, millet-stalk extract, wood powder, soot, and kaolin
decorated the reliefs in brilliant blues, yellows, reds, blacks and whites.594 The
simplified, highly communicative, figurative style of the reliefs' content made them a
striking part of the palace building facades.
After, or perhaps during, the reign of king Agonglo the bas-relief medium became
a royal monopoly.595 This medium was authorized for royal structures, temples and
couvants (houses related to religious Vodun worship), thus further setting such buildings
apart from ordinary domestic and commercial structures.596 However, there was a
transformation of the purpose and accessibility of this medium during colonization. With
the rise of colonial rule and the deterioration of much of the palace complex, most of the
royal bas-reliefs disappeared. It was during this early colonial period, during Agoli-
592 Piqué, Palace Sculptures of Abomey, 3.
593 Susanne Preston Blier, “King Glele of Danhomè, Part One: Divination Portraits of a
Lion King and Man of Iron,” African Arts 23, no.4 (October 1990): 49.
594 Piqué, Palace Sculptures of Abomey, 52.
Abomey.
596 Ibid.
191
agbo’s 25 years of exile, that the royal families initiated the use of bas-reliefs on their
homes.597
The lack of photographic evidence of domestic spaces throughout the colonial era
makes it difficult to trace the quality and quantity of bas-reliefs. Labitte, whose 1950s
photographs of Dahomey can be found in the Quai-Branly museum archives, include
several temples and one, possibly two collectivities which incorporate relief sculpture
into their facades.598
Contemporary wealthy families continue to commission artists to adorn their
collectivities with paintings and relief sculptures often with subject matter alluding to the
pre-colonial kings. While there are those, like Houtonji collectivity, who commission
traditional earthen bas-reliefs, most commissions in contemporary domestic spaces are
raised reliefs composed of cement and commercial paints. Despite the shift in materials,
there is a preference for and prestige associated with relief decoration.
As was true with the palace, in collectivities decorative content includes religious
and historic subject matter. Perhaps the most popular subject is a dynastic list of the
kings, especially among, but not limited to, those who trace their ancestry to royalty (fig.
63). These include eleven or twelve kings as manifest by their strong name symbols
beginning with Gangyehessou and concluding with either Behanzin, or Agboli-Agbo. A
Abomey.
598 The one Labitte photo that definitely shows a collectivity is called “Concession des
forgerons”, the collectivity of the Hountondji family, who were the royal blacksmiths of
the king. The bas-reliefs included are a chameleon, a man with a gun, and a man
metalworking. The other photo is entitled “Bas-reliefs du temple de fetishe – Abomey,
Dahomey.” It is possible that this was a collectivity or couvant (a collectivity that housed
a spiritual vodun center. The façade of the building has the words “Dah Pakosou” written
on it and a bas-relief sculpture of a man on a leapard’s back. (Quai-branly archives,
accessed October 2012).
192
family claiming descent from a particular king may include depictions of events in the
history of that king’s life or even monumental statues of the king’s strong name symbols.
Just as with the pre-colonial royal bas-reliefs, these domestic decorative elements are
meant to provide visitors with a sense of the collectivity’s power and wealth. They
function as symbols overtly advertising an association to the pre-colonial kingdom and
sometimes a manifestation of pride in the prestige of royal ancestry.
Portraits of historic or current dah are sometimes included with dates of their
leadership. Interestingly, these are occasionally combined with royal images to create a
visual connection between dah and the pre-colonial kings, or even with a particular king.
In the collectivity Mehou Tamandaho, for example, artist Lucien Klo depicts the current
dah in a full length portrait relief (fig. 64). In front of him, on either side, are free
standing cement sculptures of the armed, uniformed, actively posed female body-guards
of the pre-colonial kings known in the literature as the Amazons. Amazons were a
powerful presence in the pre-colonial palace. They were responsible for the protection of
the king, and, in the nineteenth century, fought actively in battles. The Ahossin
collectivity includes such figures, also by Lucien Klo, standing guard before an ajalala.
The current absence of the Amazons within the palace gives license to contemporary
collectivities to appropriate them, in the form of life-size statues in order to assert the
collectivity as a modern day proxy for the palace. The collectivity assumes a palatial role
and the dah a kingly one.
The tendency to compare the head of household to the pre-colonial monarchs
manifests itself visually as portraits of the dah are paired with portraits of the kings. In
the same Ahossin collectivity, past dah are listed as symbols and dates in a royal dynastic
193
fashion. The current dah, however, is depicted in portrait form next to king Guezo both
on the exterior and interior, insinuating the dah’s self-identification with his royal
forefather (fig. 65). More subtly, in the collectivity of Nan Metchonoussi, the ajalala
reliefs parallel the throne of the pre-colonial kings on one side, with her katakle, the
stools reserved for the heads of households on the other.
In the ajalala of collectivity Zewa-Nudayi, artist Eusebe Adjamale drew on
colonial imagery to portray king Behanzin in the same position and costume as the image
published on the cover of Le Petit Journal’s 23rd of April 1892 edition (fig. 67 and 68).
Adjamale placed Behanzin’s portrait along the back wall of the ajalala’s interior, behind
the seat of the dah, thus providing a visual association between the royal, static, past and
the current, living, head of the collectivity. These examples, among others provide
evidence that the collectivities are using visual ornamentation as a means of asserting a
post-colonial identity that recalls and capitalizes on a pre-colonial past.
Architecture evolves with cultural values.599 Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa
explains that “tradition is a force of cohesion that slows down change and ties individual
invention securely to its patterns established through . . . time and the test of life.” 600
Abomean domestic architecture by maintaining a relationship with the pre-colonial past
utilizes the cohesive qualities of tradition to mold a post-colonial identity for the
Abomeans.
599 Juhani Pallasmaa, “Animal Settlements: Ecological Functionalism of Animal

Architecture,” in Structure and Meaning in Human Settlements, ed. Tony Atkin and
Joseph Rykwert (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthrolopolgy, 2005):23.
600 Ibid.
194
To claim that contemporary domestic architecture of Abomey has patterned itself
to be a microcosm of the pre-colonial royal past may be an overstatement; however it to
deny any connection to it would be equally unfair. The perpetuation of architectural
forms and ceremonies associated with the palace by collectivities is in part an
acknowledgment of the palace’s cultural importance to the city, the display and
manipulation of royal imagery solidifies the notion that the Royal Dahomean Dynasty
plays a relevant role in shaping the identity and homes of the Abomean residents. In
short, there is a reciprocal relationship between the palace and the collectivities.
The historical presence of the pre-colonial kings can be found outside of the
central palace complex, in the urban architecture of Abomey. They have a legacy in the
city plan, the agbodo, and the crowned prince’s palaces all of which function not only to
preserve history, but to allow, through restorations the shaping of history and identity.
Residential architecture in the form of collectivities likewise draws from and alludes to
royal history and architecture. The process of reworking and reevaluating the past
through such structures manifests the importance of this pre-colonial history in the lives
of contemporary Abomeans.
195
CHAPTER V: RELIGION, ROYAL HISTORY, AND ARCHITECTURAL SPACE
In pre-colonial Dahomey religion and politics were inseparably interconnected.
Even military exploits took on spiritual purposes as humans were claimed for religious
sacrifices and foreign gods as booty. According to Suzanne Blier, “gods, shrine
paraphernalia, and priests who knew the appropriate rituals” were considered among the
most valuable plunder.601 The Vodun religion’s inclusive nature allowed for this increase
of deities which also transpired through royal marriages; the most famous case, discussed
in greater detail below, being the marriage of King Agadja to Hwanjile, who introduced
the Yoruba gods Gu (god of iron and war), Lisa (god of heavenly light), and Age (god of
the forests). 602 The royal control over the acquisition of the supernatural bolstered the
power of the monarchy and allowed for the king’s manipulation of the vodun in order to
benefit his reign.603
Not only did the king maintain certain control over the religious acquisitions and
practices of the kingdom, he was considered a deity. Royal architecture reinforced this
notion through its adulating bas-reliefs and by setting him apart from the population. In
part, this mysterious power stemmed from the inherited traits received from the leopard,
Agassou. Throughout each reign and continuing posthumously, the supernatural power
of kings enabled them to significantly influence the kingdom’s course. After his death,
the funeral ceremonies known as the Grand Customs included the building of his djeho
601 Suzanne Preston Blier, “Vodun: West African Roots of Vodou,” in Sacred Arts of
Haitian Vodou, ed. Donald J. Cosentino (Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of
Cultural History, 1995), 76.
602 Ibid., 77.
603 For the purpose of this dissertation, Vodun, with a capital “V” refers to the primary
religion of the pre-colonial Dahomey which continues to have a strong presence in
contemporary Abomey; vodun with a lower case “v” denotes its deities.
196
and tomb. The palace served and continues to serve as the site for the annual ceremonies
overseen by the king, and space for such ceremonies is divided and utilized to
communicate and bolster the political and religious authority of the king and his
ministers. The religious nature of the palace largely gives it purpose in post-colonial
Abomey.
The pre-colonial kings of Dahomey demonstrated administrative influence in the
religious sphere of the kingdom. In addition to being endowed with supernatural powers
themselves, the kings were able to influence religious life of the kingdom through their
political capacity – by emphasizing or disregarding certain deities through ceremonies.
Under Tegbesu’s reign alone, significant changes in religious practices, in the hierarchy
of vodun, and in the funding and management of vodun sects were made. Among the
most lasting of these changes was the establishment of the tohosu sect.
In Dahomey, those who stood apart from the general population, such as
foreigners, twins, orphans, albinos, the handicapped and others with unusual
circumstances, were regarded as having mysterious, supernatural powers.604 Eventually,
among the most powerful and politically supportive to the king were the spirits of royal
children who were born with physical abnormalities. They were set-apart as vodun called
tohosu. The worship of kings and of the kings’ physically handicapped, and thus
spiritually empowered, descendants has its counterparts in the religious repertoire of the
collectivities. In addition, the participation of heads of households in royal ceremonies
attests to the importance of royal history in the religious lives of the Abomeans.
604 Blier, “Vodun: West African Roots of Vodou,” 65.
197
Outside of the palace, the temples related to royal history, the private palaces,
markets, and sacred springs likewise continue to be of importance to post-colonial
religious practices. Ceremonies performed at these places keep them relevant to the
religious lives of the contemporary residents of Abomey and function to shape memory.
Finally, the domestic, religious life and architecture of contemporary Abomey allude to
and draw from Dahomey’s pre-colonial palace for spiritual reinforcement.
The religious practices of Abomey have been integrated into the purpose and
meaning of Dahomean royal architecture, while reciprocally, the architecture perpetuates
royal related religious practices for the population. This occurs as the central and private
palaces provide venues for royal ceremonies, through the residence in the central palace
of women set apart as spiritual wives of the pre-colonial kings, and through the practices
and architecture of the tohosu and nesuwhe congregations which have their counterparts
in Abomey’s collectivities. The religious objectives of these sites largely give them
meaning for the people of Abomey.
Religious Purposes of the Pre-colonial Palace: Funerary Architecture and the
Grand and Annual Customs
The central palace's architectural arrangement demonstrates a spiritual
interdependence among the pre-colonial kings. The living monarch, as director of his
predecessor's funeral rites and of the annual ancestral customs, was spiritually sustained
by his forefathers. Tombs and djeho contributed to the visual remembrance of a past
king's reign. Having the deceased kings actually buried within the ruling palace likewise
increased the potency of the connection between past and present reigns and allowed the
palace complex to function, in a sense, as a family cemetery.
198
The rites performed at a king's death, known as the Grand Customs, were so
elaborate the successor would often postpone them until he had acquired enough wealth
and resources for their execution.605 Time was required obtain the trade goods, food, and
sacrificial victims, to train the musicians and performers, and to make sure exterior
relations were peaceful so that all the court's efforts could focus on these events.606 The
Grand Customs, lasting as long as two years, consisted of the king's funeral and the
investiture of his successor; it was a ceremonial transference of power. 607 According to
Edna Bay, these rites "linked the new king spiritually to the dynasty and ensured the
kingdom's continued growth and prosperity. It was only after the completion of [the]
Grand Customs that a king was believed to be legitimate in the eyes of his ancestors."608
The new king received certain regalia that likewise tied him to past kings. The throne
and sandals he received as part of his coronation supposedly had been passed down
through the line of monarchs since King Huegbadja, the first Dahomean king in
Abomey.609 For a Dahomean king, gaining legitimacy in the eyes of one’s predecessors
likewise meant legitimacy in the eyes of the living court and larger public. The palace
served as the site for these funeral and installation rights, and therefore became a sacred
and symbolic backdrop for the transference of royal authority.
605 Richard F. Burton, A Mission to Gelele, 343.
607Ibid., 55.
608 Ibid., 12.
609 Robin Law, “’My Head Belongs to the King’: On the Political and Ritual
Significance of Decapitation in Pre-Colonial Dahomey,” Journal of African History 30,
no. 3 (1989): 400.
199
It was important that the ceremonies accompanying the Grand Customs be
sufficiently elaborate in order that the king's authority be recognized by both the living
and the dead. When King Glele, the successor of Guezo performed the Grand Customs
in his behalf, Europeans who perceived the large number of human sacrificial victims as
a return to the "savagery" of previous reigns heavily criticized him. However, on July 10,
1862, two years after the performance of these customs, an earthquake hit Abomey. The
Dahomeans, attributed the natural disaster to the displeasure of King Guezo, as the
number of sacrifice performed for him during his funeral rights were, by their reckoning,
too few.610 This episode illustrates the Dahomean understanding of the relationship
between the living and dead. There was, as Bay puts it, "a mutual interdependence
between the spirit and the visible worlds."611 Each relied upon the other for their success
and prosperity. Rituals performed on a yearly basis provided the dead with their needs in
the afterlife. Reciprocally, when the dead were satisfied, they could aid the living with
military successes and economic endeavors.
The construction of a deceased king’s tomb and djeho were essential to the Grand
Customs and sacred obligations and restrictions were rigidly maintained in regards to
their erection. The construction of religious structures, then and now, must commence
with an offering of an animal and when such buildings are complete it is imperative that
one remove his shoes before entry. Kings are reportedly buried within their tombs on a
bed with precious objects in a large dug pit called dohowe, or house of riches.612 Once a
611Ibid., 66.
612 Bachalou Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 11

July 2013, Abomey.
200
king was interred, a second bed was included above ground as a resting place for his
spirit and a reminder of what lay underneath.613 Adjacent to the bed, on the floor of a
tomb, are two shallow holes with raised ridges. These function as plates or bowls used
for the deposition of offerings and libations for the deceased (fig. 69). Such offerings
occur every five days in conjunction with the market cycle.614 It is important that the
drink and food be placed directly on the earth, allowing the dead access to them from
below.615 Tombs are generally tucked away in the initial part of the third courtyard or
honga of each kings’ portion of the palace.
The djeho, literally “house of pearls,” incorporated material such as water from
certain rivers, beads, blood, and palm oil into its elevation materials.616 These materials
added spiritual potency to the building which serves as a dwelling place for the king's
soul.617 Each king's djeho was built after his death in his palace's ajalalahennu which
was consequently sometimes referred to as the djehohennu. The ajalala changed in
purpose from being a place where political concerns were reconciled to a stage for the
royal ceremonies. Before his enthronement, the rising king spent a night in his
613 Ibid.
614 Libations are offered on the Zogbodo market day (the main market of Bohicon)
which occurs according to a five day cycle, opposite that of the Hounjlo market days (the
main market of Abomey). If Monday were a Hounjlo market day, Wednesday would be
the day to make offerings to the kings, and Friday would be the Hounjlo market day
again.
615 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 11 July 2013,
Abomey.
616 Blier, “Vodun: West African Roots of Vodou,” 101. Bachalou Nondichau, in
discussion with author, 11 July 2013, Abomey.
617 Blier, “Vodun: West African Roots of Vodou,” 101.
201
predecessor’s djeho.618 Interestingly, King Guezo, whether at his request or as an honor
to him by his son Glele, has multiple djeho; two are in his own palace portion.619
Additionally, there is one in each of the portions of his predecessors.620 The current
rhetoric among Abomeans for this anomaly is that Guezo renewed the kingdom
economically and politically, and as restorer needed manifest continuity with the past.
His architectural presence in his forefathers’ palaces functions to legitimize his usurped
reign from Andandozan and further link the generations of rule.
The Annual Customs, or Xwetanu, were in many ways an extension of the Grand
Customs and date back at least as far as the reign of Agadja.621 These were likewise
performed within the palace, and concerned themselves with, not just the most recently
deceased king, but all of the past Dahomean rulers and their reign-mates.622 During these
occasions, the palace became much more accessible to the outside world. This was a
time for the king to collect taxes, distribute and display wealth, revel in military power
and successes, and perform ceremonies for the ancestors.
Human sacrifices played an important role in the Annual Customs. The humans
offered often received a charge before their deaths either to relay messages to the dead, or
618 Bachalou Nondichau, in discussion with author, 11 July 2013, Abomey.
619 There are actually three djeho in Guezo’s ajalalahennu. One of the djeho is small and
round and is dedicated to Glele’s mother. Within an oval outer wall, the two other djeho
represent two different aspects of king Guezo: his personality and his royalty. (Bachalou
Nondichau, in discussion with author, 9 June 2013, Abomey.)
620 This includes one in the joint palace space of Agadja, Tegbessou, Kpengla and
Agonglo, one in Akaba’s palace, and one in Huegbadja’s. These in addition to the two in
his own palace portion make a total of five djeho.
621 Burton, A Mission to Gelele, vol. 1, 345.
622 Or kpodjito.
202
act as servants for specific deceased individuals.623 In Richard Burton's words, the
sacrifices supplied "the departed monarch with fresh attendants in the shadowy world."624
These sacrifices likewise nourished the Dahomean deities who, like the ancestors, would
reciprocate by means of aid in war and prosperity. Furthermore, sacrifices displayed
economic and political power. The ability to kill off potential slaves demonstrated
prosperity and, as the victims were often war captives, it also sent a message of
dominance over neighboring kingdoms.625 Forbes provides an extensive account of the
proceedings of the Annual Customs. He describes the "watering of the graves" custom
during which singers and court fools performed, speeches were made, meat (from animal
sacrifices) was strewn across palace courtyards, and humans were offered at deceased
individuals' tombs.626 The Annual Customs, and the palace's role in them, conveyed to
those in the present and the past that the kingdom was whole and prosperous. "The
message of Customs," according to Bay," was that the well-being of the royal line and the
well-being of the kingdom were synonymous."627 Such practices maintained the king's
authority as they tied him to the lifeline of past authority and provided his sovereignty
with religious credibility.
The Annual Customs made the palace accessible to the general public.
Nineteenth century kings used the exterior palace forecourt known as the Simbodji
623 Bay, Wives, 66.
624 Burton, A Mission to Gelele, vol. 1, 345.
625 Bay, Wives, 66.
626 Forbes, vol. 2, 128-136.
627 Bay, Wives, 21.
203
Square (named after Guezo’s storied entrance hall which towered behind it) for some of
the Customs’ proceedings.628 This area allowed for huge gatherings of population of the
city and visitors come to witness the events. Inside of the palace, rites were and continue
to be performed at the religious buildings described above. According to Antongini and
Spini, “The royal ceremonies, which take place . . . in the interior of the palace . . . have
continually remade sacred the ajalala, the tombs and the djeho in redrawing the original
scheme which sees the palace as the center of the universe.”629 The sacred ceremonies are
a way for the palace continually to renew its purpose and identity. While changes in the
ceremony have occurred due to the imposition of colonial mandates, most notably being
the end of human sacrifices, (and there was a period during the 1970s and 80s while
Marxist/socialist leadership Mattieu Kérékou was in power when religious ceremonies
were suppressed) the Annual Ceremonies have survived through the generations and
provide the people of Abomey spiritual bolstering and a connection to the royal history
and its architecture.
The most elaborate and all-encompassing ceremony performed at the royal sites is
the Gandaxi which traditionally occurred every three to seven years. Before I can
provide a description of the proceedings and uses of architecture of this three to four
month ceremony, I must expound upon the religious worship, practices, and architecture
of the tohosu and nesuwhe sects and their role in the royal history and contemporary lives
of Abomeans. It is also necessary to understand the role of women who currently live in
the palace complex who hold the religious title dadasi.
628 Monroe, “Power,” 377.
629 Giovanna, 13.
204
Tohosu and Nesuwhe
The king had both the authority and financial resources to adjust the hierarchy of
vodun worship by determining which vodun sects would be most significant during his
reign. Though, kings were in one sense subject to the supernatural powers of vodun, in
another sense, kings controlled, or at least influenced which Vodun deities had power by
emphasizing certain gods, disregarding others. This orchestration of religious power, to
the king’s political advantage, is made obvious through an examination of the period of
Tegbesu’s kingship.
During Tegbesu’s reign, 1740-1774, several religious innovations of great
consequence took place. In addition to the establishment of the tohosu sect, which will
be discussed at length below, this period saw an emphasis of new gods, the rise of vodun
who could foresee the future, and a shift to greater royal financial support of vodun.
Hwanjile, Agadja’s wife and Tegbesu’s mother and kpodjito or reign mate, through her
introduction of Gu, Lisa, and Age and lead to the creation of a shrine complex known as
Djena, dedicated to all three.630 Hwanjile became the religious administrator of the
vodun congregationss of the court and kingdom. Vodun, including the newly recognized
tohosu, and their priests answered to her, and were under her stewardship.631
On an economic level, Tegbesu and Hwanjile strove to make the vodun worship
more financially dependent upon the monarchy. By contributing chapter houses for the
priests and paying the expenses of elaborate ceremonies, Tegbesu was able to ensure
631 Bay, Wives, 94.
205
closer control over the religious dealings of the priests and congregations.632 This, in
combination with Hwanjile’s administrative stewardship, put the vodun practices in close
alignment with the monarchy’s dealings, thus giving him greater religious authority.
The establishment of the tohosu sect, significantly changed the power structures
among the vodun in very lasting ways. Outside of deceased kings and kpojito they were
the first royal descendants to be worshipped as vodun.633 According to historian Edna
Bay, “Though far from central to religious life in Tegbesu’s time, the tohosu were the
harbingers of religious changes that would begin to focus attention and religious control
specifically on the royal lineage.”634 As the reign of Tegbesu has demonstrated, though
kingshad significant power to influence the Vodun practices of the kingdom, the vodun
likewise had influential power as seen below through the tohosu sect’s influence on the
kings of Dahomey.
The History and Political Influence of Tohosu
In contemporary Abomey, the Vodun deities worshipped can be grouped into two
categories: popular vodun and royal vodun. Popular vodun includes deities such as the
afore mentioned god of iron, Gu, the god of thunder, Hevioso, and the messenger god,
Legba; the majority of whom were acquired through political expansion and thus have
counterparts with neighboring peoples.635 Their worship is organized into congregations
632 Bay, Wives, 93.
633 Ibid.
634 Ibid., 94.
635 Ibid., 19-21.
206
lead by a pair (male/female) of priests. Royal vodun, however, consist of deified
members of the royal family known as nesuwhe and tohosu.
The tohosu consist of the deified members of the royal family who were born with
abnormalities. When a royal, malformed child was born, he or she was killed at the
waterside and thus entered the realm of godhood.636 Only when deformities were minor,
was a child considered partial tohosu and was permitted to live.637 Among the first of
these tohosu to be recognized was the son of King Akaba, Zomandonou, who was said to
be born with six pairs of eyes, teeth, hair, a beard, and a growth on his buttocks that
would drag when he walked.638 Tohosu, as Edna Bay explains, are associated with the
watery realm, and are said to possess power from an ancestral group of water spirits,
including the ability to speak at birth, control the will of men, and overpower sorcerers,
giants and kings; they are “exacting, and not easily placated, but capable of
demonstrating spectacular powers in battle on behalf of the kingdom” and “are regarded
as among the most powerful ancestral forces.”639 Being associated with the powers of
royalty, the watery realm and the physically deformed makes their powers especially
potent.
As mentioned above, the tohosu sect began to be actively recognized in the mid-
eighteenth century. However, even before the reign of Tegbesu, the tohosu vodun
demonstrated an ability to intimidate the kings of Dahomey. A narrative collected by
636 Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits, Dahomean Narrative: A Cross-Cultural

Analysis (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1958), 31.
637 Ibid., 31.
638 Bay, Wives, 22.
639 Ibid., 31.
207
anthropologists Melville and Frances Herskovits reports that the successive kings Akaba,
Agadja, and Tegbesu were all aware of the tohosu, but feared to sanction a congregation
for them because they knew “how difficult it would be to appease them.”640 They
therefore tried to ignore them, but found this impossible when under Agadja the tohosu
killed a whole army of Dahomean soldiers, and under Tegbesu, they set the city of
Abomey on fire, and then followed the king to Kana “to torment him.”641 Finally, the
tohosu kidnapped Homenuvo, a prince of Tegbesu and brought him to their chief,
Zomandonou, who threatened to “destroy all Abomey if a sect for himself and other
ancestors like himself were not started.”642 The narrative ends with Tegbesu’s
endorsement of the sect, and Zomandonou’s specifying that the location of a temple for
him should be built, behind Hwanjile’s house and in the vicinity of the temples of Lisa,
Mawu, and Age, not far from Akaba’s portion of the central palace.643
Once sanctioned, the tohosu dieties proved powerful allies of the kingdom in both
the political and spiritual realms. According to another narrative, King Glele called upon
Zomandonou to prosper a war he was about to open against the Meko people.644
Zomandonou, however, appeared to him in a series of dreams where he explained that
Glele should postpone the expedition for a year, and when commenced, he would not
need to arm his soldiers. When the battle was lead the following year, the tohosu, under
640 Herskovits, Dahomean Narrative, 306.
641 Ibid., 306.
642 Ibid., 306.
643 Ibid., 307. Agonglo played an important part in further instituting the cult of
Zomandonou (Piqué, Palace Sculptures, 29).
208
the command of Zomandonou, miraculously appeared on the battlefield, won the battle,
and brought the enemy captives to the Dahomean army saying, “go to Glele and deliver
these slaves to him.” In return, Glele enlarged the temple of Zomandonou.645
It is significant that both stories end in either the construction or enlargement of
tohosu temple architecture. As the royal palace of Abomey functioned as a visual
manifestation of the power of the kings of Dahomey, the temples dedicated to tohosu
functioned as a visual display of their growing power in the Dahomean world.646 Tohosu
affiliation with royalty meant their influence in the political and military realm grew in
significance. In fact, the title tohosu indicates royalty: to meaning river, marsh, or lake,
and ahosu means ruler or king.647
In a very political capacity and as reciprocity for the royal endorsement of the
tohosu sect, these vodun helped solidify the reigning authority of the Dahomean kings.
Bay explains,
By the end of the eighteenth century, the royal dynasty was far beyond
being easily dislodged. . . . Its own position and its own conception of its
power were expressed through the growing importance that it placed on
the tohosu, the monstrous and dangerous royal spirit children headed by
the tohosu child of Akaba, Zomandunu.648
This sect was so closely tied to the monarchy, that its growing significance in the
religious life of the kingdom helped solidify and reinforce the power of the kings.
645 Ibid., 308.
646 From Akaba to Agoli-agbo, each king had a temple dedicated to his tohosu
descendants. These are the temples described in chapter four generally located in the
vicinity of the crowned prince’s palaces.
647 Bay, Wives, 93.
648 Bay, Wives, 157
209
Though in service to the monarchy for a time, the tohosu, proved able to outlast the
political entity it once supported.
During the colonial period, after the Dahomean kings fell from political power,
the tohosu continued to play a significant role in the political history and the Vodun
worship of the nation. In the Herskovits’ efforts to collect narratives of Dahomean
history and mythology, they noted the conviction with which individuals discussed the
tohosu,
Neither in the tales about tohosu, nor the myth-chronicles, where political
incidents are given, nor in general discussion, have we heard skepticism
expressed about the reality of such powers. On the contrary, the defeat of
the native kingdom was in 1931 explained to us as the result of the anger
of the tohosu toward the royal house that had failed for generations to
undertake the costly and spiritually dangerous duty of reopening a training
center for the ancestral cult. It is worth noting that in 1953 such a cult
center had been established, and initiatory rites were under way.649
In contemporary Abomey, the worship of the tohosu continues to thrive.
From Akaba to Agoli-agbo including Hangbe, there have been one or more
tohosu associated with each of the kings of the Dahomean dynasty.650 The rapport
between the monarchy and this branch of Vodun has implications in tohosu temple
architecture. Since the time of Zomandonou’s specifying his own temple location,
temples have been built for them throughout the city of Abomey in the vicinity of the
650 Akaba’s tohosu is, of course, Zomandonou; Hangbe’s is Semangblon; Tegbesu’s

tohosu temple is associated with his children Adamou and Adanhounzo; King Kpengla’s
tohosu son is Donouvo; Agonglo’s tohosu is Huemu, Guezo’s tohosu temple, called
Zewa, is dedicated to his children Zahon, Nudayi, and Godjeto; Glele’s is dedicated to his
son Semassou, Behanzin’s with Totohennu, and Agoli-agbo’s with Wenmasse. (Tomasse
Semassounon (priest of Glele’s Semassou tohosu temple), in discussion with author, June
2011, Abomey). As other sources note a total of fourteen tohosu temples, this is probably
not a comprehensive list.
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crowned prince’s palace of the king from whom they descended.651 Each tohosu temple
is assigned a male and female priest to oversee ceremonies. The head of these is the
Zomandonou priest, Dah Mivede. Grand ceremonies, such as the Gandaxi, discussed
below, and the Yidji ceremony, which occurs every two or three years and consists of the
“feeding” of the tohosu, while overseen by these priests, were and are organized under
the authority of the king.652 In this way, the pre-colonial hierarchy, where priests are
under the religious authority of the king still exists today.
In addition to these ceremonies, yearly sacrifices of a bull, goat and chicken are
made before the temples, and every January the offering of drinks to the tohosu occurs.653
When a temple houses more than one royal descendant, separate sacrifices must be
offered to each.654 Beyond their spiritual functions, these ceremonies fulfill social needs
and further emphasize the importance of royal history and its architecture to
contemporary identity. On such occasions, the descendants of each king gather to their
respective forefather’s tohosu temple, and in this way proclaim their identity in relation to
their royal ancestry and to each other. After a bull is sacrificed in front of the tohosu
temple, its head is carried to the king’s private palace, spatially linking royal architecture
by means of religious ties.655
In outward appearance, the tohosu temples bear resemblance to palatial
architecture. Similar to royal ajalala from the exterior, the tohosu temples follow a
651 If a king has multiple tohosu descendants, they share a temple.
652 Dah Zewa, in discussion with author, July 2, 2011, Abomey.
653 Ibid.
654 Ibid.
655 Ibid.
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rectangular plan, have an overhanging roof, and have a façade composed of square
columns or panels. These parallels in structure further indicate the interdependence
between the religious sect and the political sphere of the pre-colonial kingdom.656 The
temples and associated structures include motifs specific to the religious nature of the
tohosu, such as repeated circles or spirals, which allude to water, and the symbol known
as Gononfohoue, a bird with a fish in its mouth, which is a reference to Zomandonou’s
ability to lift us out of the river of life and set us back down in the place that would be
most profitable. In addition, they include the symbol of the king from whom the tohosu
descended.657 The Zomandonou temple, as home of the chief of the royal tohosu portrays
the symbols of each of the eleven pre-colonial kings on the dynastic list (fig. . By
including symbols that range the entire dynasty of rulers, this temple conveys that the
tohosu vodun stemmed from a royal lineage, and consequently, through them, the royal
dynasty maintains significance despite its current loss of political power. Reciprocally,
they exhibit the religious attributes of the once reigning, now worshipped kings.
Restoration of these temples has been funded privately by wealthy citizens of
Abomey.658 As with the restoration and maintenance efforts of the kings’ private palaces,
tohosu temples have evolved physically with the changing materials and visual
preferences of the time. The temple of Kpelu, tohosu of King Agadja, is ornamented
656 As entrance into the temple’s interior is restricted to initiates, it is impossible for me
to speak to parallels between palatial architecture and the temple interior.
657 According to Dah Zewa, decorative painting on the temple facades is a modern
phenomenon. He claims that decoration was limited to the king’s symbol in order to
indicate with which king the temple was associated. (Dah Zewa, in discussion with
author, July 2, 2011, Abomey).
658 The most recent restoration of Guezo’s Zewa temple was funded by the current Dah
Zewa, priest of the temple in circa 2008. (Dah Zewa, in discussion with author, July 2,
2011, Abomey).
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with raised reliefs which according to historian Gabin Djimasse is contrary to the
mandates of tohosu architecture which was confined to two-dimensional decoration (fig.
71).659 While white, the color traditionally associated with tohosu worship, remains the
primary color of the temple facades, kaolin as a pigment has been replaced with modern
paints. Cement has been used as plaster or in tersta mixtures to increase the longevity of
the structures. As Dah Zewa, tohosu priest and funder of King Guezo’s temple
restoration explains the core of this temple’s walls is earthen, but as “the world evolves . .
. we reinforce the exterior with cement.”660 Here Dah Zewa acknowledges the change
from the traditional red earth, but justifies it as part of the evolution of modernization.
The restoration of Kpelu’s temple, which was funded by a wealthy family named
Adandejan approximately two decades ago, used a mixture of cement and earth, also for
the sake of longevity.661
In addition to temple layout and decoration, the ceremonial attire of the tohosu
priests functions as a visual manifestation of the overlap of political and religious
agendas embodied in this branch of Vodun. Over time the role of the Zomandonou
priest, Dah Mivede, grew in importance. As a powerful religious leaders the attire of Dah
Mivede and associated priests and priestesses referenced the regalia of the king. Blier
explains,
Women and men priests dedicated to Tohosu are distinguished by their

elaborate attire, which include not only rich textiles, metal canes, and
659 Gabin Djimasse, in discussion with author, Summer 2011, Abomey.
660 Dah Zewa, in discussion with author, 2 July 2011, Abomey.
661 The Adandejan family had called on the tohosu Kpelu for aid, and when he
answered, they decided to fund the restoration of his deteriorating temple. (Dah Kpelu, in
discussion with author, Summer 2011, Abomey).
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scepters recalling Dahomey’s rulers, but also elegant beaded and silver
jewelry. Together the Tohosu religious forms reinforce the wealth
refinement, and beauty of the court and its sponsoring deities.662
Due to the sect’s pre-colonial financial dependence on the monarchy, its lavish costuming
acted as a display of royal wealth and grandeur. Simultaneously, the similarity in dress
and accessories to the king implied political influence of this religious sphere. In present-
day Abomey, on the rare and spiritually significant ceremonies when Zomandonou is said
to possess Dah Mivede, he dresses in expensive cloth, uses a cane, and long pipe (similar
to the one used by the nineteenth century , pre-colonial kings), and is accompanied by an
appliqued parasol (fig. 72). The tohosu sect thus asserts visually a powerful role in
contemporary Abomey while harkening back to the political influence these vodun
exerted in the pre-colonial kingdom. The commonality in attire of the tohosu priests and
kings as well as the temples through structural form and decorative content attest visually
to the intersection of religious and political powers that the tohosu sect embodied.
Nesuwhe veneration, like tohosu worship, belongs to royal Vodun. Both constitute
the worship of descendants of the pre-colonial kings and are therefore referred to by the
people of Abomey as being brothers of “the same house.” This “house” denotes both the
family and the temple. Each congregation of nesuwhe is linked with a particular king
and his entourage.663 These were leaders of good character and venerated ancestors of
the people of Abomey; sometimes they are simply referred to as the princes and
663 Bay, Asen, 21. Edna Bay explains, “Each branch of Nesuhwe is linked to the
associates of a particular king and may include twenty to thirty deified princes and
princesses.”
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princesses. Royal nesuwhe are housed in the same temple as tohosu.664 The temple of
Guezo, for example, is dedicated to his tohosu descendants Zahon and Gudjeto, but also
to a venerated son who was not tohosu named Nudayi; he is worshipped as nesuwhe.665
Tohosu and nesuwhe worship have moved beyond the historic, royal temples to
find a place at the level of the collectivity. These domestic compounds include familial
tohosu temples where the physically handicapped, and thus spiritually empowered,
descendants of their particular head of household are called upon for assistance and have
offerings made to them.666 Like the temple of Guezo, they also house nesuwhe. The
presence of tohosu/nesuwhe temples within the collectivities highlights two important
facts: that the collectivity functions as a spiritual microcosm representing the larger
universe, and that practices of Royal Vodun have found a meaningful place within that
microcosm.
Within each collectivity, in addition to the spiritually important spaces of the
ajalala, asenho, and adoxo, are shrines or miniature temples to all of the major Vodun
deities including: Legba, the messenger god, Sagbata, the god of the earth, Lisa, the
goddess of heavenly light, Gu, the god of Iron, Dan, the rainbow python, etc.667 This
simultaneously gives the inhabitants of the collectivity easy access to the vodun, and
draws on the spiritual powers of these deities to religiously bolster the home. That tohosu
664 Understanding whether or not this is always the case will require more research on
my part.
665 This particular temple, though dedicated to three spirits, is named after none of them,
but is rather named Zewa, meaning “everyone can come.” (Dah Zewa, in discussion with
author, July 2, 2011, Abomey.)
666 Ibid.
667 Ibid.
215
and nesuwhe have been included as standard members of this pantheon, even when a
family does not claim royal descent, is a testament to the extent royal history has
influenced the religion and culture of Abomey.
While the collectivity tohosu temples are more prone to vary in form and
decoration than their royal counterparts, there are general similarities among them which
parallel the kings’ temples. Domestic tohosu temples are found on the exterior of the
collectivity, in a forecourt area not far from the hounwa. They tend to be rectilinear,
large enough to enter, and painted white. Similarly, the royal tohosu temples are found
outside of the kings’ private palaces and assume a corresponding shape and color. Often
both royal and collectivity temples are often decorated on their sides and posterior with
red and black circles and either lines or dots (fig. 73).668 These divide the house in two,
with the circles, referencing tohosu on the right when facing a temple, and the dots/lines
alluding to nesuwhe on the left. The facades, when a collectivity can afford it, are
decorated in painting or raised reliefs often with a family symbol juxtaposed with the
tohosu symbol of the bird with a fish in its mouth, in the center, flanked with depictions
of the family’s tohosu on the right and nesuwhe on the left (fig. 74).669 These depictions
are often labeled with their names and show them lavishly dressed in ceremonial attire
with the tohosu holding a cane and nesuwhe carrying a makpo or scepter. While these are
meant to represent the tohosu and nesuwhe, they also invite the participation of family
members who dress similarly on ceremonial occasions to represent them. Thus the
significance of the tohosu priests’ courtly dress is thus further emphasized by the use of
668 Sometimes this decoration is found on the façade as well.
669 The bird with a fish in its mouth is called Gononfohoue.
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such attire among family initiates into the congregation, and their depictions on
collectivity temple walls.670
In contemporary Abomey, the worship of the tohosu and nesuwhe continues for
the royal temples and in the domestic collectivities. While its lasting influence is in part
due to the memory of pre-colonial kings, it simultaneously reinforces that memory. As in
the pre-colonial period, the kings of Dahomey and the sect of tohosu maintained an
interdependence for their lasting existence. Visual manifestations of the overlap of the
religious and political realms can be found, through the structure and decorative content
of the tohosu temples, and through the regalia like ceremonial garb worn by tohosu and
nesuwhe officials. These fortify the continued memory and significance of the kings as
well as the validity of the supernatural entities of the tohosu and nesuwhe.
The Dadasi
One of the most significant ways in which the Royal Palace of Dahomey remains
a living and religiously significant site, is through the permanent residence of designated,
female, royal descendants of the kings in a centrally located section of the complex called
the Dossoémé. Each of these women, entitled dadasi (wife or follower, asi, of the king,
dada), was designated through fa divination to serve as the “wife” of her particular royal
ancestor.671 In accepting this call, she commits to live in the palace, to perform the rituals
associated with the altars located in the Dossoémé, and to participate in royal ceremonies
including some in which she possesses the spirit of the king and performs in his behalf.
670 According to Blier, “portrayals of persons in elaborate courtly attire are an especially
frequent subject of the latter [tohosu] temple paintings.” Blier “Vodun: West African
Roots of Vodou,” 73.
671 Thierry Joffroy, Leonard Ahonon, andGabin Djimasse. Palais Royaux d’Abomey:
Les Dadasi du quartier Dossoémé (Grenoble: CRAterre-ENSAG, 2013), 10.
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The Dossoémé contains the altar of Adjahounto, the Hueli of the entire palace,
and treasury items which escaped Behanzin’s 1892 fire (fig. 75). Anyone entering this
space must remove their shoes and any head covering. Dedicated to the ancestor who
fathered the Dahomean line (the offspring of Aligbonon, the princess of Tado, and the
panther or leopard) the Adjahounto altar is guarded by the by the dadasi associated with
Agassou who makes regular offerings of water and palm oil.672 As described in chapter
four, Hueli is the deity which spiritually legitimizes a home, and is usually situated in a
central location, often the ajalalahennu of a collectivity. As the royal palace contains
multiple ajalalahennu, the Hueli’s location in the Dossoémé allows it to function as a
spiritual core for the entire complex. Additionally, the treasury items which escaped the
fire set by King Behanzin in 1892 are said to have been buried within the Dossoémé. For
this reason, it is strictly forbidden to dig holes in the earth within this section of the
palace.673 Historian Nondichau claims that the position of dadasi was created in the early
colonial period as a way to protect these spiritual and physical treasures.674 Whether the
dadasi existed since the foundation of the Dossoémé, which is believed to date back to
the reign of King Agadja, or were created to guard the spiritual core of the palace with
the onset of colonization, they were firmly established as residents of the palace by the
time Waterlot visited 1911. He noted, “The palace was no longer inhabited except by
672 Ibid., 14. Joffroy also mentions another altar “dedicated to Assidaho, the ‘grand
woman,’ symbol of the nourishing mother and more generally of femininity, which
receives part of the offerings.” (Ibid., 8).
673 Bachalou Nondichau, in discussion with author, 1 March 2013, Abomey.
674 Ibid.
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some old women” who “devoutly watch over the sacred objects which escaped the fire
that took Abomey.”675
The Dossoémé located in the ambiguous, probably shared, third courtyard space
of the kings, has a north and south entrance. The plan is divided into two sections along
the axis which connects these hounwa: the Tota to the west, which is the residential
quarter of the dadasi associated with kings Gangyehessou, Dakodonou, Huegbadja,
Akaba, Agadja, Tegbesu, Kpengla, Agonglo and Agoli-agbo, and the Hounli to the east,
where reside the dadasi of Guezo, Glele, Behanzin, Agassou and Aligbonon (fig. 76).676
The Dossoémé therefore functions as a sort of convent, a religiously charged, exclusive,
female space. While these women may marry and have families, their husbands are
forbidden to sleep within the Dossoémé, reminiscent of the pre-colonial restrictions
concerning gender and space imposed on this same inner portion of the palace.
Dadasi are permitted to leave the Dossoémé for periods of time on grounds of
health and pregnancy, but are not allowed to travel a great distance.677 Once set apart in
the spiritual calling, their daily clothing consists of no shoes and a paigne, or rectangular
piece of fabric, wrapped around the body and tied under the armpit.678 For certain
ceremonies they dress in elaborate robes, jewelry, canes, parasols, and have their heads
bound with white fabric. While for the purposes of ceremonies, it is only necessary to
have one dadasi for each royal ancestor (the twelve dynastic kings and the founding
675 Waterlot, 3. He also mentions the residence of women with the title kpodjito, which
would have represented the deceased queen mothers/reign-mates of the pre-colonial
kings.
676 Joffroy, Les Dadasi du quartier Dossoeme, 8.
677 Ibid., 10.
678 Ibid., 12.
219
ancestors Aligbonon and Agassou), it is possible to have as many as four dadasi
designated to each king; two assigned to the royal ancestor, one for his kpodjito, or queen
mother, and one for his djoto, or ancestral protector.679 Currently, there are more than
twenty women who reside in the palace as dadasi.
The Dossoémé has undergone recent restoration efforts with the funding and
support of CRAterre-ENSAG and the city of Albi. In 2008, the outer walls of the
Dossoémé had deteriorated to the extent that the security of the site was jeopardized. A
daytime theft of goods from the Dossoémé left the dadasi feeling vulnerable to the point
that some threatened to abandoned the palace.680 The mayors of Abomey and Albi joined
resources to first repair and rebuild portions of the surrounding wall.681 After this,
attention moved to the interior, where structures were repaired, reroofed, and where
needed reconstructed. Consistent with Waterlot’s early colonial account of the
Dossoémé, the buildings remain unadorned with reliefs or paintings (fig. 77). 682
Unlike restoration efforts of other sections of the palace, the Dossoémé contains
inhabitants who have been the impetus for modernizations to the site. Efforts have been
made to improve water access and sanitation and to introduce electricity.683 Albi has
given additional funds as micro-credit to help the dadasi start their own businesses.684
680 Ibid., 20.
681 Ibid., 20
682 Waterlot, 5.
684 Thierry Joffroy (CRATerre affiliate), in discussion with author, Fall 2012, Grenoble,
France.
220
The Dossoémé’s most recent restoration project has therefore worked to balance
architectural restoration with facilitation of the perpetuation of the dadasi’s residence. In
so doing, Albi has helped to perpetuate the religious purposes of the palace. The
culmination of religious activity for the palace and for other royal historic sites is the
Gandaxi.
The Gandaxi
The ceremony known as the Gandaxi, literally meaning to plant or establish, do,
the gong, gan, in the market axi, is the most elaborate and least frequent of the regular
royal customs since the pre-colonial period. This ceremony, as its name implies, uses
place and space in order to connect the king to his subjects – to connect the palace to the
market. While the Gandaxi was traditionally held every three or seven years, government
restrictions, leadership disputes and lack of resources have caused a thirty-two hiatus
before it could be resumed in 2012-2013.685 The revival of this ceremony was
accompanied by an increase in restoration efforts to palatial and other religious structures
and the reinstallation of religious leaders whose positions have been left unfilled. Its
resumption functions in contemporary Abomey to meet spiritual needs, revive memory,
and unite the community, thus emphasizing the religious role of kings and royal history
in contemporary Abomean architecture and identity.
The Gandaxi is divided into of six phases, which collectively last about three to
four months. Architecture and urban space are emphasized through procession, through
the building of temporary structures to facilitate certain ceremonies, and through the
utilization of existing, historic, royal architecture including each of the sections of the
685 The most recent Gandaxi lasted from November 23, 2012 to March 18, 2013.
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central palace, the crowned prince’s palaces, and the royal temples. Many of the smaller
ceremonies which make up the Gandaxi also occur during the Annual Customs or other
occasions. Throughout the duration of the Gandaxi, in the morning, afternoon, and
evening, the double royal gong, or kpalingan, was played before the hounwa of King
Glele while the musicians sing praises to the kings (fig. 78).
The first phase of the Gandaxi was short and introductory and for the purposes of
the 2012-2013 ceremony, it was conducted in the Glele’s portion of the central palace
complex. It began with the Houndida, or an invitation to the drummers.686 Houn
translates as both drum and heart in Fongbe. Interestingly, the drum is used to mobilize
the vodun, which means religion and gods as well as blood. It therefore seems
appropriate that just as the heart mobilizes blood, many of the Gandaxi’s rituals, and in
this case the entire ceremony, included drumming as a means to call upon and mobilize
the spirits of the royal ancestors.
After the Houndida came the Ganmevo, a ceremony which constitutes the
offering drinks, food, and the sacrificial blood of bulls, goats and chickens to the pre-
colonial kings (fig. 79). The Ganmevo in connection with the Wohon which always
follows it traditionally takes place numerous times throughout the Gandaxi, either for the
kings collectively or individually. During the 2012-13 Gandaxi, the Ganmevo was
performed fifteen different times in various locations and usually took between four and
six hours to conduct. As it was recurrent, important and used the space of the
ajalalahennu in very specific ways, I will explicate this ceremony in detail. This first
performance was dedicated to the kings collectively.
686 Houn means drums or heart and di da is to marry or invite.
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For this, as well as for many of the Gandaxi ceremonies, the current king, Agoli-
agbo Dedjalani sat in the center of the ajalala on the ground, not raised on a stool or
throne, to demonstrate respect for the ancestors for whom the ceremony was performed
(fig.80). The heads of households began the ceremony on the ajalala steps with the dah
to the king’s right and the nan to his left, with the wives of the king, to his immediate left.
The king’s ministers, gbonugan, sat flanking the king, perpendicular to and jetting out
from the ajalala. The asen, or royal ancestral staffs which function as a repository or
resting place for the spirits of the deceased kings when called upon, were set up in front
of King Glele’s djeho, facing his ajalala, and were shrouded in fabric (fig. 40).
The living king was the first to approach the asen, but upon his arrival a fabric
curtain was held up to conceal of him as he presumably removed the asen’s coverings
and poured libations to his ancestors.687 After the king made his offering, the general
emphasis shifted from the ajalala and living king to the djeho and asen. The gbonungan,
or ministers followed the king in offering drinks to the asen, then sat down perpendicular
to the djeho in front of and flanking the asen. The heads of household then prostrated
themselves before the asen, offered drinks and settled themselves around the djeho with
the nan to the left of the asen and the dah to the right. The drummers sat in the courtyard
in front of the nan and the vodunon, or religious leaders situated themselves behind the
dah. Only the living king, his wives, queen mother, and female ministers remained at the
ajalala for the duration of the Ganmevo.688
687 This use of fabric to shield the king is reminiscent of Burton’s description of his visit
to King Guezo, who was shielded by fabric while drinking described in chapter 1. So
too, the current king was shielded while offering drinks to his predecessors.
688 Bachalou Nondichau, in discussion with author, July 6, 2013, Abomey.
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The parallel arrangement of the participants first around the ajalala and living
king, and then around the djeho and asen, spatially exhibits the parallel worlds of the
living and dead. This is further demonstrated through the lengthy process of offering
drinks described above, followed by the distribution of a variety of foods, first to the
asen, and then to the ceremony’s participants. During this segment of the Ganmevo, the
male ministers and dah repeatedly call out “zanko, zanko,” meaning “it is night” or “it is
death.” After the completed distribution of first the drink and then the food, the men
yelled “ay yi goun!” which means “it is hot” or “it is day.”689 At this point, the nan
exited to the kpodoji where they ate the food they had received. During their absence, the
animals were sacrificed, and their blood was both spilt at the base of the asen and painted
or poured on top. The chanting of “it is night” and “it is day,” the physical sharing of a
meal between the living and the dead, and the sacrifice of living animals each reinforce
the liminality between the worlds of the living and the dead and the connection of the
past and the present.
After the offering of the animal sacrifices, the ministers offered more alcohol to
the asen, the vodunon bowed down before the living king, and the nan then reentered the
ajalalahennu by first going to the corner of the ajalala where they raised one hand and
collectively prayed, then they repeated this in front of the asen and finally in front of the
living king. At this point the asen were once again shrouded in fabric, and a procession
of select ministers and drummers moved around the courtyard, circled the djeho, bowed
down before the asen, moved to the corner of the ajalala, and then finished by bowing
down to the living king. The movement of the nan, ministers and drummers through the
689 Ibid.
224
courtyard shifted the emphasis back to the living king who concluded the ceremony by
offering gifts to the drummers.
The Wohon a ceremony which always follows the Ganmevo, constitutes the
offering of the prepared meat from the sacrifices of the night before along with pâte, a
cornmeal paste and a staple food of the region. This ceremony functions as a compliment
and completion of the Ganmevo and, as far as I understand it, one is never performed
without the other. For both of these ceremonies, the food offered to the asen and then
served to the participants is stored in the ajalala and delivered by designated women. The
physical motion from the ajalala to the djeho by these women, and then later from the
djeho to the ajalala through procession and prayers of the nan, ministers, and drummers
described above demonstrate spatially that sustenance for the dead comes in physical
form from the living, and returns from the dead to the living in spiritual blessings.
Also included in this first phase of the Gandaxi were ceremonies of
announcement; a royal dance (complete with a dance by the current king and court fool
performance), a procession of the king in his royal hammock through the town to the
temple of Agassou and back to the palace, and a trip of the kpalingan, or royal gong
players, to the market’s Ayizan, which constituted the name-sake of the larger Gandaxi
ceremony.
The Gandaxi’s second phase, also brief, was set apart for the construction of the
attoh, the raised platform used during a later phase for sacrifices and the distribution of
wealth. This, the first of the temporary structures built for the ceremonies, was done in
front of Glele’s palace, adjacent to his lise tree and Ayizan. The same families, Tavi,
Agugu, Kpakpa and Tokpa, responsible for the pre-colonial attoh were called upon to
225
oversee this construction. The construction began with a ceremony which empowered the
structure spiritually. The king poured water on the earth, and then put the calabash to his
lips, he then repeated this with a ceremonial gin known as bechwe. He held a cord to the
ground and called the names of the families overseeing the construction of the building,
“Tavi! Agugu! it is here that we take the measurements of the attoh.” The structure’s
length and width were paced out and marked with stakes. Next to the stake holes were
dug for the placement of the exterior wall beams. In these holes, the king poured gin,
beer and Sprite, then he called on overseers of the construction to include corn, beans,
cowries, cornmeal, and oil. These comprised an offering, a request for permission from
the earth to build and for assistance from the ancestors. Then the king placed his hands
on the post, said a prayer, and moved the wood back and forth from the hole to the earth
several times before he “planted” the beam. This was repeated with the second beam.
When these two were raised, the spectators place money between the two posts to help
fund the construction. Two weeks were set aside for its building.690
The attoh was built of roughly hewn beams held together with nails and wire. It
consisted of a platform raised about seven feet off the ground, floored with wooden
planks and palm fronds, partially roofed with grass thatch and partially left open to the
sky. It had two portaled stairwells, one for entering and the other for exiting (fig. 81).
The entire structure was walled with thin wooden mats known as kplakpla. The attoh’s
roughness testified to its impermanence. It, like the other temporary architecture of this
Gandaxi, did more to facilitate religious ritual and revive the traditional roles of certain
690 Although designated families are responsible for the construction, the king ultimately
overseas everything that happens during the Gandaxi. After the attoh, was completed in
just a few days, the king declared it was too small, and demanded that it be enlarged. The
families obliged.
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families in relation to the royal ceremonies, than demonstrate craftsmanship or
permanence.
The third phase of the Gandaxi focused on the royal sect of tohosu, and
consequently utilized the royal tohosu temples. Several of the ceremonies, including the
Houndodji, a ceremonial dance of the tohosu priests which happened twice during this
phase, the Alitagbo, which involved the sacrificing of goats to the royal tohosu, and the
Adanhoun, which used the interior of the temples, cycle through all of the accessible
temples in order of the kings’ reigns.691
These ceremonies utilized the temple exteriors, interiors, roofs and forecourt
spaces. For the Houndodji, the tohosu priests and their assistants after praying in the
temple, exited and bowed before the temple and the drummers. 692 Then, followed by the
drummers, they circled the exterior of the temple three times, again bowed before the
temple façade and commenced with singing and dancing. At the close of the dancing,
they prostrated themselves again before the drummers and before the temple, and moved
to the next temple to repeat the process. For the Alitagbo, the sacrificial goat was
repeatedly lifted onto the low pitched roof and put back on the ground before being killed
in the forecourt (fig. 82). Blood from the animal was taken into the temple interior and
presumably offered to the tohosu spirits. Dah Legonou, a head of household whose line
traditionally performed in this ceremony, lifted the slain goat in four opposing directions.
After this a woman danced with the goat and carried it to the four corners of the forecourt
691 Houndodji means the drum is planted on high, while Adanhoun means drum of furry.
692 This is the initial ceremony of this phase, proceeded only by preparatory ceremonies
which include animal sacrifices, from which blood and feathers are put on the drums.
There is also the playing of the drums before the Zomandonou temple that day.
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where it was touched by priests. Tohosu initiates also performed elaborate dances in the
forecourt during this and the Adanhoun ceremony (fig. 83). These ceremonies interacted
with the temple architecture and forecourt space through procession, prostration,
offerings, prayers, and dances, and in the processes both paid homage to the tohosu
spirits and revitalized the space spiritually.
Other ceremonies in this phase of the Gandaxi used processions to simultaneously
assemble representatives of Abomey’s many collectivities and revive the religious
significance of historic places in the memories of the participants. Each of the
processions in this phase began at one or more of the tohosu temples. The first of these
progressed from the Zomandonou temple to the sacred Didonou Spring, the site where
the tohosu first made themselves manifest.693 Here the asen of the kings as well as the
asen of the founding members of each participating collectivity were brought out of their
asenho, shrouded in fabric, and laid before the Zomandonou temple on mats (fig. 84).
Each family sent a female representative to carry their asen around the temple and then
barefoot to the Didonou Spring where the asen were washed in its holy water (fig. 85).
Similarly, women carried their collectivity’s asen for the Afoun-foun ceremonies which
visit Abomey’s historic markets.694 For these the female bearers of asen, the tohosu
priests, and nesuwhe and tohosu initiates gathered at the tohosu temple closest to their
home from where they walked via the other tohosu temples until all met up at the
designated market. The main crux of this ceremony took place at the markets’ Ayizan,
693 Dah Kpelu (tohosu priest), in discussion with author, Summer 2011, Abomey. This
ceremony is called Toyiyi.
694 The three markets visited were the still active Hounjlo market as well as the formerly
active, pre-colonial markets Adjaxi and Agbojennegan.
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its deity of peace. The presence of collectivity asen with the royal asen in this phase of
the Gandaxi helps to parallel the past and present as well as the collective and the familial
aspects of royal Vodun worship. Through ceremony and procession this phase spiritually
revitalized temple architecture, the historic markets and Didonou Spring and connected
these places to each other and to the people the people of Abomey.
During the fourth phase, the Gandaxi’s ceremonies took place at central palace on
a grand scale. At its commencement a white flag was raised on the attoh announcing that
all other ceremonies in Abomey’s homes must cease until the flag was lowered just over
a week later (fig. 81). Likewise, bound bundles of sticks painted white and including the
names of the pre-colonial kings were planted at the palace’s and attoh’s entrances to
consecrate these spaces for the ceremonies to follow. This phase contained celebrations
of music and dance involving the playing of the funerary pottery percussion instruments
called zenli (fig. 86). It also included the Golito ceremony, the procession of the king’s
hammocks, animal sacrifices and the distribution of wealth on the attoh, the firing of the
guns and cannons ceremony, a ceremony of the dadasi in a temporary structure, and a
major procession of “the woman with 41 paignes” and the deity Soglabada.
Processions in this phase of the Gandaxi commenced from the central palace and
drew large crowds of spectators. The Golito ceremony, named after the small pots carried
on the heads of those participating, consisted of a procession of women from each of the
collectivities from the central palace to the Didonou Spring (fig. 87). There they filled
their golito pots with the sacred water and then return to the palace by way of circling the
main market. At the palace their offering of sacred water was deposited at Glele’s djeho.
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The procession of the kings’ hammocks consisted of two parallel components
which took place in the morning and evening respectively. The first of these was the
procession of the kings’ hammocks to the main market. With the exception of the one
carrying the current king Agoli-agbo Dedjalagni, these were empty, consisting only of
each of the pre-colonial king’s hammock’s cross bar covered in fabric and shaded by
royal parasols (fig. 88). The hammocks functioned, like the asen, as a receptacle for the
spirits of the kings. Correspondingly, the evening portion of this ceremony consisted of
the dadasi making a similar procession from the central palace to the market and back
(fig. 89). Like the hammocks, they were shaded by royal parasols and functioned as
human receptacles of the deceased kings’ spirits. These as well as the other processions
of this phase commenced and concluded at the central palace and visited Abomey’s main
market en route.
The following evening the attoh was used for the sacrifice of animals and the
distribution of wealth to the people. This ceremony, traditionally part of the Annual
Customs, is perhaps the most frequently documented by pre-colonial European visitors,
in part because human sacrifices were used during that period. The animal sacrifices took
place on the attoh’s raised platform, shielded from view of the immense crowd of
spectators. Then ministers and princes on the attoh commenced throwing items of value:
coins, fabric, cola nuts, etc. to the gathered crowd. After the close of this ceremony, the
white flag was lowered and the attoh immediately dismantled, its purpose having been
served. The materials were reused for a different temporary structure used for a secret
ceremony performed by the dadasi shortly thereafter.695 This phase ended with the
695 While I found it interesting that the materials of the attoh were reused for the
temporary structure used by the dadasi, I was later told by Dah Kpakpa that this recycling
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Ganmevo and Wohon ceremonies performed in Glele’s palace with the added component
of the dadasi’s participation described below.
The fifth and longest phase of the Gandaxi used each portion of the central palace,
as well as each of the available crowned prince’s palaces and consisted of a repeated
cycle of ceremonies at each location: the procession of the king in his hammock from one
ceremonial site to the next and the Houndida upon his arrival, the Ganmevo, the Wohon,
and a royal dance performed by the dadasi. This phase began at Glele’s palace as a point
of departure and moved to each portion of the central palace complex: Huegbadja’s,
Akaba’s, Agadja’s, Guezo’s, Glele’s, Behanzin’s, and Agoli-agbo’s. From Agoli-agbo’s
portion of the central palace, the cycle continued in the private palaces of: Tegbesu,
Kpengla, Agonglo, and Guezo. The departure to Glele’s private palace marked the
beginning of the sixth phase and became the main venue for that portion of the Gandaxi.
Throughout this and other phases the king’s transport by hammock functioned to
connect historic sites and to acknowledge history through place along procession routes
(fig. 90). Certain people, who were enthroned to the responsibility of his transportation
via hammock, delegated the carrying, the body guarding, and shielding of the king with a
veil of fabric during his ascent into or descent from the hammock. The body guarding
consisted of a group of men forming a human chain around the him in order to keep
people from getting to close to the king, especially when the king would pause at places
of significance along a given route to pour libations and for the firing of cannons. These
stops functioned to revive and maintain memory of royal history via location. For this
of materials was purely economic and had no spiritual implications. Traditionally, the
materials of the temporary structures were burned. (Dah Kpakapa (one of the heads of
household responsible for the construction of these temporary structures), in discussion
with author, Abomey, 2013.)
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phase, when the king arrived at a palace site, his hammock carriers circled the lise tree
and Ayizan before entering the palace. Once inside a shield of fabric concealed his
descent. At this point a woman approached the djeho where she sang a prayer and the
drummers played before the hounwa. These acts collectively called upon the ancestral
spirits for their attendance in the ceremonies that followed in that location.
On the following night the Ganmevo, described in detail above was performed.
However, at the finish of the Ganmevo, the dadasi approached from the Dossoémé
following kpalingan players who announced their arrival. When in the central palace,
they entered via the third courtyard, rather than from the hounwa, indicating their ready
presence and connection to the palace and the pre-colonial kings. At the close of the
Ganmevo, they lined up before the ajalala, and the current king stood up and joined them
demonstrating connection and continuity of the past with the present. A female court
minister shouted salutations, the dadasi and king processed in a circle front of the ajalala,
entered it, came out, and then the female minister yelled, “people of Dahomey . . we
depart but will come back.” They circled the courtyard once more and left.
The dadasi returned on the third night of each cycle, for a Royal Dance in which
they performed. The performance, which was repeated at each location, included
collective dances in which they formed a circle in the courtyard, group dances of four
across the ajalalahennu, and solos in which individual dadasi performed with the current
king’s makpo, or scepter. For most sites, the dancing lasted one night, however, in the
case of Akaba’s palace, it was repeated four times for Gangyehessou, Dakodonou, Akaba
and his kpodjito, or queen mother, each of whom have a djeho present in that palace.696
696 It is unclear to me why the Royal Dance only took place one night in Agadja’s palace
which has the djeho of Agadja, Tegbessou, Kpengla, and Agonglo.
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Architecture was used during these ceremonies to relate and revive the histories of
the various monarchs. For example, when the departure from Agadja’s palace took place,
there were bottles of European alcohol hung before each of the djeho and from a central
pole in the courtyard. They alluded to Agadja’s role in bringing the kingdom in direct
contact with the European traders and were taken down and drunk by the ceremony’s
participants before the hammock’s departure. In this same vein there was a firing of
cannons ceremony dedicated to Guezo in front of his private palace and a hunting
ceremony for Glele in front of his, each referencing the religious developments of their
respective reigns.
The sixth phase wrapped up the Gandaxi as a culmination of the previous phases.
It included a Golito ceremony, this time from Glele’s private palace, dances which
included the dadasi as well as the tohosu priests, possessed by the spirits they represent,
and the Ganmevo and Wohon ceremonies performed first at Glele’s private palace and
then finally at his portion in the central palace. In this way the Gandaxi made full circle
in terms of place and purpose.
Though considerable, the cost of the Gandaxi ceremonies was undertaken almost
exclusively by the people of Abomey without external aid.697 The king, princes, and
ministers who organized it capitalized on Fon cultural mores and expectations. For the
fifth phase, for example, as the ceremony moved to various locations they assigned
specific families of royal lineage to act as host for the ceremonies that took place in their
ancestor’s palace. As hosts are expected to be gracious and generous, this created a
healthy competition among the descendants of each king. Some provided drinks for the
697 Dah Langafin, in discussion with author, April 27, 2013, Cana.
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spectators and the number of animals sacrificed changed depending on the funds the host
could secure. Glele, who has by far the most descendants in Abomey, had an astonishing
eleven cows donated for his Ganmevo. As in Fon culture it is rude to not give when
asked, but it is not expected that a full amount be offered, the organizers asked for
donations from wealthy citizens in amounts far above what they expected to receive (in
the range of 3,000 USD) and were able to receive a portion (400-1,000 USD) from each.
The organizers then asked of people too poor to give monetary donation, for donations
relevant to their occupation: food stuffs and livestock from farmers and herders, etc.
Donations continued after the ceremony began by impressed spectators.698
The types of ceremonies and their location were influential in determining
attendance. The Ganmevo, Royal Dances, large processions, and distribution of wealth
drew great crowds while the Wohon was consistently sparsely attended (fig. 91).699
Foreign observers were few.700 Descendants of a given king tended to be present in
greater numbers at ceremonies dedicated to their ancestor. While this was naturally to
pay homage to their progenitor and to support the hosting family, as the ceremonies
moved through the crowned prince’s palaces, these were also conveniently located within
the city quarter where a concentration of respective descendants resides.
Religious ceremonies have always been an occasion for the restoration and
upkeep of the royal architecture. In preparation for the Gandaxi, the hounwa of king
698 Ibid.
699 Even the king missed his share of Wohon ceremonies.
700 Museum conservator Urbaine Hadanou lamented that the Gandaxi ceremonies were
not better advertised and marketed to bring in more foreign spectators. (Urbaine Hadanou
(conservator of the Historic Museum of Abomey), in discussion with author, 2013,
Abomey). The fact that it wasn’t attests that it was done for and by the local population
for religious purposes.
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Tegbesu’s private palace was rebuilt, Agonglo’s private palace was newly plastered and
painted, and additional roofing was added Kpengla’s private palace. The most dramatic
restoration effort took place in Agoli-agbo’s portion of the central palace including the
addition of interior walls and the rebuilding of an ajalala which had been reduced to
ruins. Perhaps the fact that the current king, Agoli-agbo Dedjalani shares both name and
lineage with this monarch accounts for the flamboyance in which it was “restored.” The
newly built ajalala exterior has been adorned with flamboyant, multi-color bas-reliefs of
historic and religious scenes, as well as symbols of Agoli-agbo including the broom that
sweeps away his enemies, the foot tripping over the rock and the fist that will not
unclench despite the flame growing beneath it (fig. 43). These are each painted in vibrant
commercial paints on metallic backgrounds. As this palace portion was restored in
conjunction with the Gandaxi, it is likely that was undertaken as an autonomous project
of the royal family and was not monitored by UNESCO or its affiliates, thus allowing
room for modernization of style and materials.
Buildings that did not undergo restoration efforts due to time or means were
completed temporarily for the purposes of the ceremony. Agadja’s portion of the central
palace, for example, has only had the hounwa and djeho restored. For the Gandaxi,
however, underbrush was cleared and two, open aired tents were erected to create the
ajalala and tasinonho – where the nan could gather before the start of the ceremony and
again for the sacrifices during the Ganmevo. Temporary mat walls (kplakpla) were
added to create an outer wall to the ajalalahennu, a logodo and an interior space in the
ajalala. Tegbesu’s private palace likewise underwent a similar temporary restoration, but
in addition to the tents and outer-wall, a sinutin was constructed out of kplakpla before
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which the asen were placed for the ceremony (fig.701 The use of temporary architecture
for ceremonial purposes reinforces the notion that physical appearance remains secondary
to religious purposes.
The 2012-13 Gandaxi had its share of complications. As ceremonies cycled
through the royal tohosu temples, exceptions were made for Tegbesu’s temple which is in
ruins and Hangbe’s temple which is small; for these formalities were performed in the
adjacent collectivity responsible for the maintaining the spiritual welfare of these tohosu.
Due to current discord between Behanzin’s descendants and the rest of the royal family,
ceremonies could also not be performed at his tohosu temple or his private palace.
Consequently, during the second phase of the Gandaxi the priests summoned Behanzin’s
tohosu spirits, named Totohennu and Tokpa, to Glele’s temple in order that they could
participate in the ceremonies there. The Ganmevo performed for Behanzin at his portion
of the central palace satisfied the need of feeding his spirit. In this way, leaders were able
to compensate with existing architecture for what lacked or was inaccessible.
The Gandaxi through the involvement of the citizens of Abomey, through the use
of space and place, and through the religious revitalization of royal architecture helped
contribute the shaping of memory and identity of the city and people of Abomey. By
inviting representatives of each collectivity to join in processions, by reviving the
religious assignments of specific families, and by coupling their religious participation
with an emphasis on royal history, Abomeans were asked to connect with each other and
701 Palaces that were mostly restored still had temporary adjustments for the purpose of
the Gandaxi. Kpengla’s private palace, for example, having undergone a recent
restoration (see chapter 3) had all the necessary buildings intact, but the ajalalahennu’s
exterior wall had breaks in it, and so they were supplemented by kplakpla walls which
filled the gaps. Apparently, while it is not necessary for the kpododji to have enclosed
walls, it is for the ajalalahennu.
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with their own family lineage, and with the pre-colonial history on a religious level. The
revival of the Gandaxi after three decades depended on the input of historians and elders
of the town. In some cases, it also necessitated the filling of positions that had been left
unfilled sometimes for years, such as Dah Mivede, priest of the Zomandonou temple. By
utilizing the royal temples, the crowned prince’s palaces, the markets, the sacred Didonou
Spring, and the Royal Palace of Abomey, and by connecting these historic sites through
processions, this ceremony renewed the religious significance of these places and
structures for Abomey.
To a certain extent the pre-colonial kings of Dahomey simultaneously controlled
and were controlled by the religious practices of their kingdom. Vodun practices were
utilized by the pre-colonial kings to further legitimize their various reigns, while the
kings’ political and financial endorsements of particular vodun helped to augment the
power and influence of religious entities in the kingdom. The kings of Dahomey
increased in religious authority through the generations while simultaneously vodun,
especially the royal sect of tohosu increased in political power. In addition the worship of
past kings through the Grand and Annual Customs helped to sustain the current monarch
through spiritual and temporal support. The interplay of the religious and political is
manifest in the royal architecture including the tohosu temples, and the djeho and tombs
of the deceased kings which continue to both legitimize the kingdom historically and
perpetuate the religious worship associated with it long after the political decline of the
Dahomean kings.
During the colonial period the power of the king was diminished to ceremonial
functions. Religious events were permitted, and even encouraged by some French
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colonials who took an interest in the royal ceremonies, their dances and the textiles
associated with such events. For these festivities, the king held the power to call the
heads of households and village heads to participate in the Annual Customs and other
ceremonies.702 The residence of the dadasi who protect the spiritual core of the palace,
its central altars and interred items that escaped Behanzin’s fire, helped preserve the
spiritual identity of the palace throughout this period.
In the post-colonial moment, Royal Vodun worship has taken on an additional
level of meaning. Ceremonies simultaneously function as an outward declaration of non-
European identity, and to meet inward spiritual needs. These preserve and perpetuate
what existed pre-colonially. Royal architecture, to a certain extent depends on the cycle
of religious ceremonies to ensure upkeep and restoration.703
Royal Vodun worship also has made profound manifestations in Abomey’s
domestic sphere. Collectivities, by their very foundation, are spiritual in nature; they
require a towhiyo, or mystical ancestor, are built around a Hueli, and contain shrines to
both popular vodun deities and to towhiyo and neshuwe members of their lineage. The
continuation of Royal Vodun worship on both private familial and public levels has
helped to give meaning and purpose to the history of the pre-colonial kingdom in the
lives of contemporary Abomeans.
702 Bachalou Nondichau (traditional historian), in discussion with author, 2011,

Abomey.
703 According to Thierry Joffroy, “We have been able to observe that the various sites
.and buildings are always extremely reliant on the religious worship still practiced and
that technical interventions . . . are always strongly rhythmed by the grand ceremonies.”
Joffroy and Moriset, 9.
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CHAPTER VI: BEYOND THE PALACE:
ROYAL DAHOMEY AND POST-COLONIAL BENIN
In Place Goho, the square at the entrance of Abomey, now stands a monumental
statue of King Behanzin; draped in regalia, he leans slightly forward, one hand is
clutching his makpo or royal staff at his side while his other hand is raised in a halting
gesture (fig. 92). The statue, framed by a stone post and lintel structure, includes on its
base, Behanzin’s words: “I will never sign a treaty that could alienate the independence
of the land of my ancestors.”704 Through both text and sculpture, this monument
heroically commemorates Behanzin’s historic, though ultimately failed, resistance against
the French colonial army. Place Goho, the spot where Behanzin is said to have
encountered General Dodds in the latter’s conquest of Abomey,705 is visually prominent
as it faces the direction of Bohicon, and a crossroad for two of Benin’s most substantial
highways, and therefore the source of the majority of Abomey’s traffic.706 Almost a
century after the onset of French colonization, this monument, erected with funds from
the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in March, 1979, demonstrates that the pre-
colonial kings have remained an integral part the city’s character.707 It also reveals the
underlying approach Abomeans have taken when examining and expressing their post-
colonial identity.
In Accra, Ghana, at the memorial center of the first independent Ghanaian
president and advocate of Pan-Africanism, Kwame Nkrumah, stands a statue similar in
704 In French it reads: “Je n’accepterai jamais de signer aucun traite susceptible d’aliener
l’independence de la terre de mes aieux.”
705 Place Goho marks the site where King Behanzin and General Dobbs met in 1894.
706 Bohicon is located nine kilometers to the east of Abomey.
707 Kawada, 2.
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size, stance, and material to Behanzin’s monument (fig. 93). Nkrumah’s slack arm ends,
not in a makpo, but in a clenched fist, while his raised arm points upward and outward
along with his gaze. Both of these statues were erected several decades after
independence and commemorate political heroes who determinedly resisted European
colonial rule of their homelands. Whereas Nkrumah’s pointing gesture and forward
lunging stance indicates a focus on the future beyond the years of colonial rule,
Behanzin’s tries to inhibit their infiltration. In a parallel way, the advocates of Pan-
Africanism and Negritude surrounding the decades of independence of the West African
nations emphasized the similarities between African ethnicities and other blacks globally
in movements that were variously political, racial, and cultural.708 In contrast, the cultural
production of Abomey has emphasized distinction, stressing its specific history and
religion in order to develop a post-colonial identity that is markedly its own. While
advocates of Pan-Africanism and Negritude likewise drew from specific cultural
developments – Kwame Nkrumah was famous for dressing in Kente cloth, a richly
woven textile of the Asante people of Ghana - their political rhetoric looked to a
collective black identity; Nkrumah spearheaded the Organization of African Unity
708 L. Gray Cowan. The Dilemmas of African Independence (New York: Walker and
Company, 1968), 68. The Negritude movement was instigated by Aime Cesaire, Leopold
Senghor Leon Damas and other black intellectuals in Paris in 1934. Pan-Africanism, also
dating to the 1930s found advocates in Nnamdi Azikikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo. Both
movements emphasized the need for social and political progress in contemporary Africa,
but where Negritude was mostly a francophone movement, Pan-Africanism was mostly
Anglophone. For a concise explanation on the development of these two, related
movements, see Okwui Enwezor, Chinua Achebe, Museum Villa Stuck; et al. The Short
Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994. New York:
Prestel, 2001.
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(OAU) which eventually became the current African Union.709 Abomey, while aware of
and affected by the philosophical rhetoric of independence has through its emphasis on
royal architecture, through its religious practices, and through its cultural production
principally defined itself in relation to its royal history.
Cultural production and religious worship are central to Abomey’s psychological
and economic makeup, and both maintain ties to the pre-colonial kingdom. This chapter
explores some ways in which the pre-colonial kings manifest themselves beyond
architecture. Visual arts, exhibitions, literature, political symbols, and festivals have
given new purpose to the kingdom’s pre-colonial history and have contributed to the
construction of the post-colonial identity of Abomey, and to some extent the larger
nation.
Behanzin as a Post-colonial Symbol
As demonstrated by the placement, size and prominence of the heroicized statue
depicting him in Place Goho, Behanzin has become a symbol of preserving the culture
and denying colonial imposition. During his lifetime, his name and image appeared in
foreign publications including full-page portraits in Le Journal Illustré in 1892 and Le
Petit Journal in both 1892 and 1893, making him arguably the best known of the
Dahomean kings abroad. As the last fully independent pre-colonial Dahomean king, he
has become an icon beyond the realm of Abomean pride.
709 Claudius Fergus, “From Prophecy to Policy: Marcus Garvey and the Evolution of
Pan-African Citizenship” The Global South, vol. 4, no. 2, Special issue: The Caribbean
and Globalization. (Fall 2010): 29-48, 39.
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Paul Hazoumé’s essays in the first half of the colonial period helped to redefine
Behanzin’s role in history by portraying him in a sympathetic light.710 Late pre-colonial
and early colonial representations of Behanzin in the French press and public expositions
often characterized him as one in a line of blood-thirsty despots. In addition, there are
indications that some of the royal family did not support his kingship. Paul Hazoumé’s
essays, including his “Journal de voyage de Cotonou à Dassa-Zoumé” published in 1926,
worked to discover Behanzin’s history in full.711 In his writings he argues that members
of the royal family secretly plotted with the French to enthrone Agoli-agbo in his
place.712 As Edna Bay explains, Hazoumé facilitated a “reworking of memories of
Dahomey that would turn the kingdom into a heroic representative of the sentiments of
colonized Africans.”713 As an integral part of that agenda Behanzin eventually became a
“hero of African resistance.”714 This reputation was solidified in the post-colonial period
through the aid of literature and the visual arts.
710 Interestingly, Hazoumé was from Porto-Novo, not Abomey. He also espoused the
idea that French colonization was a blessing and gained French citizenship in 1919.
George Alao and Kamal Salhi, “Discourse in the Periodicals of Twentieth-Century
Benin,” in Francophone Studies: Discourse and Identity: Critical Essays, ed. Kamal
Salhi, (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2003), 26.
711 Alao, 28. Hazoumé is most famous for his 1928 novel, Doguicimi, which also deals
with the Dahomean kingdom’s history, but is set in the reign of King Guezo (Bay, Asen,
85).
712Ibid.
713 Bay, Asen, 85.
714 Ibid., 85.
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Jean Pliya’s play Kondo le Requin (1966) recounts the history of Dahomey in the
years leading up to colonization, 1889-1894.715 Pliya, who served in the government as
Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Minister of Information and
Tourism, wrote this play to serve both political and literary ends. It chronicles the major
political events of this period in the life of Behanzin, including the death King Glele,
Behanzin’s enthronement, encounters with Jean Bayol, and the conquest battle for
Abomey.716 It portrays Behanzin as a noble and determined king who eloquently spoke in
proverbs.717
This was one of several African plays produced during the 1960s which served
the purpose of expressing “an African identity that could free the stage from European
conceptualization.”718 According to Sylvie Chalaye, Kondo le Requin, along with plays
like Aimé Césaire’s Une saison au Congo, or Seydou Badian’s La mort de Chaka, served
to create “theater that could reconstruct national and cultural identity and rewrite the
history of Africa from an African perspective.”719 In fulfilling that purpose, Kondo le
Requin has not only played successfully in Benin, but also to audiences in Togo and
Nigeria, and won the Grand Prix Litteraire d’Afrique Noire in 1967.720 It has since been
715 John Conteh-Morgan, Theatre and Drama in Francophone Africa: A Critical

Introduction, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994), 164. Kondo was
Behanzin’s name as prince, and le Requin, or the shark, was his royal symbol.
716Conteh-Morgan, 166.
717 Ibid.
718 Sylvie Chalaye, Donia Mounsef and Christy Wampole, “Contemporary Francophone
Drama: Between Detours and Deviations,” Yale French Studies (no. 112, The
Transparency of the Text: Contemporary Writing for the Stage, 2007), 147.
719 Chalaye, 147.
720 Conteh-Morgan, 164.
243
translated into Fongbe and is in school supply shops in Abomey; Despite his government
service, Jean Pliya is primarily remembered among the Beninois as a playwright.
Having been exiled to Martinique, Behanzin also became incorporated into the
literary scene of the Caribbean. Maryse Condé’s novel Les dernier rois mages (1992)
and the film L’exil du roi Behanzin (1994), scripted by Patrick Chamoiseau fictionally
explore the domestic life of the banished king.
Behanzin’s importance has not waned in the last decades. In 2006, Cotonou’s
Fondation Zinsou in conjunction with the Paris’ Musée du quai Branly organized an
exhibition to mark the centennial of King Behanzin’s death. The Fondation Zinsou had
opened the year previously as a gallery for contemporary African art, and has since
grown to include mini-libraries, educational programs, and publications.721 For this
exhibit, 30 objects were loaned from Paris, the most notable of which was Behanzin’s
throne; other pre-colonial, royal items included a carved door from the palace, an asen,
divination items and weapons.722 In addition, it showcased paintings by Abomean artist
Cyprien Tokoudagba, and image reproductions from Le Petit Journal. In conjunction
with the exhibit, a catalogue was published including additional photographs, paintings,
newspaper excerpts to demonstrate “different visions of King Behanzin’s reign and the
context of time.”723
721 The Fondation Zinsou is a private entity run by the Zinsou family, which partners
with European museums, businesses, and individuals, to meet the Foundation’s
educational and cultural goals. “Foundation Zinsou,” accessed June 5, 2014,
http://www.fondationzinsou.org/FondationZinsou/About_us.html.
722 “Behanzin, King of Abomey,” accessed June 3, 2014,
http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/collections/the-life-of-collections/outside-the-
museum/evenements-passes/behanzin-king-of-abomey.html.
723 Ibid.
244
While this exhibition took place in Cotonou, eighteen canvases of printed
photographs, sketches and engravings were displayed in Behanzin’s portion of the central
palace in Abomey (fig. 36).724 These displays further contributed to the glorification of
Behanzin only three years after the restoration/completion of Behanzin’s portion of the
palace complex, financed by the Japanese government during the years of 2002-2003
described in chapter 3.725 The UNESCO document published in conjunction with that
restoration effort describes the importance of the architectural space in relation to his
resistance to Behanzin’s colonial rule. According to government official Ayari Rachida
de Souza, Behanzin’s portion of the palace
. . . represents an active and itinerant resistance in the eye of the Beninese

general public and the local communities. It represents and incarnates the
bravery and heroism of prince Kondo, who seized power in 1889, under
the name of Gbehanzin. . . He had to face the French troops in order to
defend the sovereignty of his kingdom and resist to the colonial influence
over a period of several years.726
Thus the palace space dedicated to Behanzin, though built by his father and not used by
Behanzin during his reign, has come to contribute to his growing status as a hero of
integrity, unwilling to compromise with the colonials who eventually exiled him. As the
mythical status of Behanzin has developed, anything associated with him has come to
contribute to it. As Edna Bay explains, “Behanizin ultimately came to embody Dahomey
itself and to symbolize the legitimate yearnings of a nation stripped of its autonomy.”727
724 Ibid.
725 Kawada, 9. The amount of funds given for this restoration was US$ 416,932.
726 Ayari Rachida de Souza, “Restoration of the Palace of King Gbehanzin: an example
of dynamic partnership in the valorization and development of local know-how,” in The
Restoration of King Gbehanzin’s Palace: Royal Palaces of Abomey, ed. Junzo Kawada
(Grenoble, France: CRATerre-ENSAG, 2007), 12-13.
727 Bay, Asen, 85.
245
Royal History in Local and National Politics
In addition to Behanzin’s contemporary role as political symbol, there are other
instances when the pre-colonial Dahomean royal iconography surfaces under political
guises during the post-colonial period. Dahomey’s transition from colonial to
independent state was fraught with political and economic instability. By 1970 the nation
had undergone four government overthrows and had been ruled by eight heads of state.728
This was followed by several decades of Marxist-Leninist rule under Mathieu
Kérékou.729 While the nation has seen greater stability in more recent years, there is
continued wariness of government corruption. In some cases, citizens have organized to
work for national integrity and to create and maintain unity. Interestingly, one such
organization has appropriated iconography from pre-colonial Dahomey as its logo.
The Beninois alliance of political parties known as UN, l’Union fait la Nation,
has adopted as their symbol the jar with many holes (fig. 94). This image originated with
King Guezo, who stated “our freedom can be compared to a jar with many holes, which
cannot hold water. If each one of you, the sons of this nation, can put your finger in one
hole, the jar will hold water.”730 Glele later adopted the symbol in honor of his father.731
This organization strives for greater national unity, to keep in check the current
government and advocates for greater transparency and freedom.
728 Challenor, 21.
729 Matthieu Kérékou was in office from 1972-1991, and then again from 1996-2006.
730 Piqué, Palace Sculptures of Abomey: History Told on Walls, 30.
731 Ana Lucia Araujo, Public Memory of Slavery: Victims and Perpetrators in the South
Atlantic (Amherst, New York: Cambria Press, 2010), 285.
246
The manifestation of pre-colonial Dahomean iconography in the sphere of current
politics is especially apparent in Abomey where the government buildings, the office of
the mayor and the administrative offices, are both surrounded by walls adorned by raised
reliefs exhibiting the dynastic line pre-colonial kings’ via their symbols. Even the crest
of Abomey, displayed in these buildings, is framed by two makpo and includes the
symbols of Huegbadja and Glele as well as a royal stool (fig. 95). In preparation for the
Independence Day 2013, renovations were made to add a wall with bas-reliefs of the
kings’ symbols around Place Goho(fig. 96). Large political rallies with stages adorned
with the Beninois flag are often set up in the open space of the Palace of Dahomey which
was the Hall of Amazons.
Just as royal symbols and palace space are utilized for contemporary political
purposes, political symbols surface during religious and historic events. During the the
Gandaxi 2012-2013, national flags were displayed on a stage outside of Glele’s private
palace to welcome the royal family to this space during the fifth phase. Though during
the religious festivities, Abomey’s mayor was invited to and present for many of the
Gandaxi’s proceedings. In these ways, the line between the royal historical past and the
political contemporary moment becomes somewhat blurred. Though examples are less
concentrated outside of Abomey, allusions to Dahomean royal history in festivals and
political symbols propagate the past as a means of defining national, post-colonial
identity. In turn, these have further promoted pride and cultural production in Abomey.
“Ouidah ’92,” which incidentally began in February of 1993, comprised a cultural
celebration which conflated political purposes with Dahomean royal history in the form
of a national festival with international implications. Like the Festival Mondial des Arts
247
Negres, put on by Senegal in 1966 to showcase the arts of Africa and the diaspora and
FESTAC, the Festival of Arts and Culture (1977, Lagos, Nigeria), this event was meant
to promote the culture of a nation and its importance at home and abroad. For this, the
Beninois government chose to focus on the spread of the religious practices and culture
of Vodun for Ouidah ‘92: Festival mondial des culture vaudou: retrouvailles Ameriques-
Afriques, Ouidah ‘92: World Festival of voodoo culture: Reunion of Africa and the
Americas.732 It was a positive way to acknowledge the spread religion and culture that
occurred with the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the Caribbean, Brazil and the United States
without focusing on the weightiness of the slaving history. Critics worried that defining
the nation and its history by the religious practice of Vodun was disingenuous to those
who were not Vodun believers; however proponents saw it as a symbol of the growing
religious freedom and as a way to encourage the participants of the descendants of slaves
and slave merchants who may otherwise avoid association.733
Although not centered in Abomey, the city supported the promotion of a history
and religion in which it played an integral part. The festival emphasized the way in
which religious practices spread through the trans-Atlantic slave trade; Abomean Nan
Agontimé, wife of Agonglo and mother of Guezo who was sold by Adandozan into
slavery is said to have been responsible for the introduction of Vodun to Brazil’s
northeastern state, Maranhão.734
732 Araujo, 144.
733 Ibid., 144-145.
734 Ibid., 145.
248
Abomean artists made substantial contributions to the festival. Four sites were
used in the city of Ouidah: the residence of the head priest of Vodun in the city, the
Sacred Forest, the House of Brazil, and the Slave Route.735 For the festival an installation
of approximately one hundred sculptures and memorials by artists including Dominique
Kouass, Théodore Dakpogan, Calixte Dakpogan, Fortuné Bandeira, and two artists from
Abomey: Cyprien Tokoudagba and Yves Kpede marked the Slave Route, the three mile
course from the former slave market to the beach.736 In addition, the Vodun temples
along this route were painted by artists from Nigeria, Togo, Haiti and Brazil.737 Among
the statues, the majority of which were painted, reinforced, cement sculptures set up on a
2-4 foot cement base, were bound slaves and representations of popular Vodun such as
Legba, the messenger god, Hevioso, the god of thunder, and Dan Ayidowhedo, the
rainbow python. Interspersed with these, in no apparent order, were statues of Amazon
warriors and the symbols of the pre-colonial Dahomean kings.738 This mixture of slaves
and Amazons with both royal and popular Vodun deities indicates that the royal
Dahomean history is considered as significant to the nation’s identity as the slave-trade
and popular vodun worship. The sculptures were left as a permanent memorial of the
festival and its purpose. Although many have since been abandoned and have
deteriorated, their original production caused a renewal of artistic production for the city
of Abomey.739
735 Ibid., 148.
736 Araujo, 148.
737 Ibid., 148.
738 Ibid., 165-66.
739 Ibid., 158.
249
According to Yves Kpede, an artist among the contributors of the sculptures along
the Slave Route, “Ouidah ’92” spurred a new flourishing of the visual arts with historic
and religious subjects in Abomey. Images of the kings’ symbols in cement sculpture,
bas-relief form and paintings have become commonplace on the facades of homes, the
public market and hotels making the town, “like a museum – with the genealogies and
histories are written on the walls.”740 The subject matter, however, varies according to the
audience. Commercial establishments sometimes include bas-relief sculptures or
paintings of their goods: motorcycles, prepared foods, etc. The public market, hotels and
restaurants in and around Abomey commonly include the dynastic line of pre-colonial
kings. The dynastic symbols demonstrate to their tourist customers the importance of the
pre-colonial history to the identity of Abomey, while simultaneously acting as a didactic
tool to verse them in that history. Interestingly, a hotel and restaurant called Togauh,
located between Abomey and Bohicon includes in its dynastic list both Hangbe and
Adandozan, the rulers that are often excluded by members of the royal family (fig. 97).
Private homes, while also often including the dynastic list, will also include depictions
specific to their family history, including portraits of the head of household. The in the
ajalala of the collectivity Agbalou and Ahoponou, bas-reliefs by Eusebe Adjamale show
the lineage of the heads of households in its own dynastic tradition (fig. 98).
According to Yves Kpede, “The Kingdom of Dahomey is important to the
national identity of Benin because it is the foundation of the republic.” While the
northern half of the country may take issue with this statement, the people of Abomey
certainly make efforts to reinforce it. Not only in the rise of relief sculpture but also in
740 Yves Kpede (artist), in discussion with author, July 2011, Abomey.
250
the perpetuation of other traditional art forms and in the subject matter of Abomey’s
contemporary artists.
The Persistence and Dissemination of Pre-colonial Art Forms and Themes
The onset and later fall of colonization caused change in both function and
content of the pre-colonial art forms of iron work and appliqué. Edna Bay, in her book
Asen, Ancestors, and Vodun: Tracing Change in African Art explains that under Agoli-
agbo I’s reign, because of the onset of colonial rule, the king’s income dropped
substantially from an estimated 150,000 to 10,000 francs per year.741 In addition, new
colonial laws forbade payment in the form of human captives. Consequently “the former
royal artisans felt the drastic decline in income.”742 Metal smiths, who had previously
produced goods exclusively for the king, began to look to outside of the palace for
patronage.743 This led to “a kind of democratization of the creative arts, people of all
social levels became consumers of objects newly adapted or invented for secular and
sacred needs.”744 Asen, for example, began to be disseminated among collectivities
leading families to focus on their own spiritual roots, on the worship of their ancestors.
In contemporary Abomey, makpo are often made of metal or a combination of wood and
metal for the heads of households. The dissemination of metal goods indicates new
leadership and the spiritual purposes of the home and family compensating, in part, for
the decline in power of Dahomean kings.
741 Bay, Asen,78.
742 Ibid.
743 Ibid., 79.
744 Ibid., 79-80.
251
In pre-colonial Dahomey, the king maintained a royal monopoly on the art form
of appliqué, controlling the production and use of its form.745 Melville J. Herskovits,
whose anthropological research on Dahomean life and tradition was published in 1931,
relates the royal significance of art form of appliqué,
In the days of the kingdom, the . . . sewers of appliqué cloths were

essentially retainers of the monarch. . . . These men bent their efforts to
embellish those objects which the King employed, and to make figures
which would enhance the surroundings in which the King moved. Their
products, often dictated as to symbolic content by the King himself, were
at the disposal of the monarch who often impressed envoys from
neighboring kingdoms by a display of these riches.746
The king used appliquéd cloth in royal objects of wall hangings, umbrellas, tents,
pavilions, flags, and worn cloth. Appliqué sewers worked in a compound located
immediately outside the royal palace. Whatever appliqué was found outside the city had
been exported from Abomey.747 Both in form and symbolic content, appliquéd objects
served as visual legitimization of the king’s reign.
Like the smiths Bay traces, textile workers were affected by the onset of
colonization and eventually sought patronage outside of the palace to supplement their
income. Without royal funds, large-scale appliqué projects, like the forty-foot tall tent
recorded by Englishman Frederick E. Forbes during his 1850 visit have diminished over
time, but like the smiths, the wider patronage has also led to a broadening of themes and
increased autonomy of the appliqué artists. 748 Tourists, as patrons, have helped solidify
745 Monni Adams, “Fon Appliqued Cloths,” African Arts 13, no. 2 (February 1980): 28.
746 Herskovits, Dahomey, an Ancient West African Kingdom , 315.
747Ibid.
748 Forbes, vol. 2, 34-35.
252
appliqué as a defining cultural feature of the nation and have helped to perpetuate pre-
colonial themes as subject matter for appliquéd goods.
In pre-colonial Dahomey, the kings’ symbols were used in appliquéd goods as
visual indicators of royal power. Today, they are used decoratively and didactically,
commonly arranged in a dynastic list, labeled with their names and reign dates.
Additionally, one can buy smaller wall hangings or even purses, aprons, and pillow
covers appliquéd with an individual king’s symbol. Themes such as maps of Benin and
Africa, safari animals, or scenes of African life have become more prominent in response
to tourist consumption. Such souvenirs are practical for foreigners with little luggage
space.
Appliqué also remains an important part of the living culture of Abomey. It is
commonly used on ceremonial clothing of vodun initiates as well as on the parasols of
heads of households. Appliqué and other once-royal crafted goods are available for sale
outside of the palace compound, and even outside of Abomey and are consumed by the
local and tourist populations alike. Though the people of Abomey may see more spiritual
purpose in their production, their sale to tourists has helped fuel the local economy and
has become a source of pride in the artistic production of the region.
Pre-colonial media and themes are prevalent in Abomey’s art scene beyond the
artistic production for the tourist and religious venues. Yves Kpédé, in addition to
painting, sculpture and even furniture making, has worked extensively in the traditional
media of applique and bas-relief. Among his various sources of inspiration, which
include Henri Matisse and Senufo masks, are themes of royal history, Dahomean culture,
and vodun. He has created bas-reliefs depicting women performing the Golito ceremony
253
and serving as Amazon warriors, and has arranged appliqués with complex compositions
and the inclusion of new materials such as sequins (fig. 99). Recently deceased and
internationally recognized Abomean artist Cyprien Tokoudagba’s canvas paintings
likewise often allude to royal history and vodun cosmology. Cyprien and his children
Damien and Elizabeth Tokoudagba have aided in bas-relief production for palace
restorations. Lucien Klo, former apprentice to Damien Tokoudagba, has painted tohosu
and the kings’ symbols and royal thrones on canvas. Along with Kpédé, Klo, and the
Tokoudagbas, there are numerous relief artists such as Constant Gangyehessou, Eduoard
Vodumbo, Eusebe Adjamale, and Luidas Djakpo who fulfill public and private
commissions.
Contemporary artist Molimé Gamelé Gladis uses palace architecture as a theme.
In his work, Adoxo, 2009, he constructed a royal tomb approximately four feet high and
three feet wide (fig. 100). Recycled tomato sauce cans constitute the elevation while
smaller tomato paste and sardine cans comprise the roof. The red labels, singed to
provide variation, allude simultaneously to the red earth of Abomey and the blood of the
ancestors.749 He aims to make a model of the entire Royal Palace out of recycled
materials.750 In addition, he has constructed abstracted figures out of found wood,
aluminum cans and plastic caps to represent a wife of a king, an amazon warrior and
vodun spirits.
These and other artists provide visual reminders that the pre-colonial past that has
become an interwoven part of Abomean post-colonial identity.
749 Molimé Gamelé Gladis (artist), in discussion with author, Summer 2011, Abomey.
750 Ibid.
254
Conclusion
On the surface, the comparison of Abomey’s approach to post-colonial identity
to the varied approaches of advocates of Negritude and Pan-Africanism seems a simple
juxtaposition of focuses: the former emphasizing individual culture and the past while the
latter focuses on collectivity and the future. However, I assert that Abomey’s approach is
more than a simple hearkening to the past, but a transformation of it. It is more a renewal
than recreation. The restoration efforts of the palace, the inclusion of kings’ symbols into
domestic and public spaces and the erection of Behanzin’s statue reveal more about the
needs of contemporary Abomey than they do about its history. George Kubler compares
historians to astronomers as, “both deal with past events perceived in the present.”751 For
Abomey, the history of kings is not a closed chapter, but is utilized to fulfill present-day
cultural and religious needs, as an aspect of its residents’ identity.
Under colonization, the French, as the dominant political authority, took it upon
themselves to frame and interpret Abomey’s history and culture. Now in the post-
colonial moment, Abomeans have reclaimed the strands of culture that the French
highlighted, and infused them with a new sense of purpose. This occurs most obviously
through the Historic Museum of Abomey. As Adedze so aptly states,
If colonial museums were to the glory of the colonialists, after

independence they were transformed to the glory of the colonized. In
response to the cultural, economic, and political domination of France and
Britain in West Africa, there emerged ideological movements in the
various territories to promote the unique culture and history of Africans.752
751 George Kubler, The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things (New Haven
and London: Yale University Press, 1962), 19-20.
255
The Historic Museum of Abomey provided Abomeans immediate proof of a history and
culture that they could claim as distinctly theirs. It also preserved architecture and
artifacts that may have been otherwise lost during the colonial period. The palace
encapsulates the pre-colonial culture in a way that has provided further exploration of it
on artistic and religious levels in the post-colonial moment. It provides cultural continuity
without stifling innovation.
Abomey’s flourishing of culture abetted an international consciousness of
Abomean history. The Royal Palace’s inscription on the UNESCO’s World Heritage and
Sites in Danger Lists facilitated various architectural restoration efforts.
The tangible elements of the architecture exist to embody the spiritual and cultural
core of what the palace means to the people of Abomey. The kings’ symbols in appliqué
textiles, tohosu temple decoration, the main market’s façade, hotel courtyards, and
residential collectivities affirm the importance of pre-colonial history and identity in post-
colonial Abomey. The continuation of religious ceremonies in the central palace and
other royal architecture are not reenactments of the past, but fulfill present-day spiritual
needs and secure blessings from the deified kings. In reference to the pre-colonial
architecture of Dahomey, Monroe explains,
the built environment provides an important tool for framing [social]

identities in reference to deeper memories of community origins. Space is
thus a central component in the construction of social identity itself, an
insight with significant implications for our understanding of the
relationship between space, history, and power in the past.753
The Royal Palace of Dahomey and other royal related architecture have played a
significant role in perpetuating and renewing the history of the pre-colonial kings for the
753 Monroe, “Belly,” 772.
256
people of Abomey. In the post-colonial moment, this continues in the form of religious
worship, in the promotion of history for the tourist industry, and in the efforts made to
restore and maintain these sights. Senegalese writer and Negritude advocate Alioune
Diop, in his introduction to the published proceedings of the second congress of Negro
Writers and Artists in 1959 explained,
It is not sufficient for our peoples to escape from imperialism; it is equally

necessary that they should express themselves, that they should express
their souls . . . By thus freeing our personality from the stranglehold of
the West we meet a positive need; that of enriching and humanizing men’s
consciousness of themselves.754
Abomeans look to the palace as a venue for contemporary religious events, as the
residence of the current dadasi, and as the home of a national museum that shares with
school children throughout the nation and tourists from around the world their history.
By engaging with pre-colonial history in the post-colonial moment in religious and
artistic ways, and by incorporating aspects of it into their domestic lives, Abomeans
enrich their “consciousness of themselves.”
754 Hargreaves, France, 271.
257
Figure 1: Plan of the Palace Complex, from Giovanna Antongini and Tito Giovanni
Spini’s Les Palais Royaux d’Abomey, 1995.
Figure 2: Hounwa, or covered entrance, of king Huegbadja (r. 1645-1685). Author’s

photo, 2011.
258
Figure 3: Kpodoji, or first courtyard, of King Glele (r. 1858-1889). Author’s photo,
2011.
Figure 4: Logodo, second entrance, of King Glele (r. 1858-1889). Author’s photo, 2011.
259
Figure 5: Ajalala of King Guezo (r. 1818-1858). Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 6: Honga, or third courtyard, of King Huegbadja (r. 1645-1685). Author’s photo,
2011.
260
Figure 7: Tomb of King Agonglo (r. 1790-1797). Author’s photo, 2013.
Figure 8: Photograph showing King Guezo’s palace with its wide-eaved, thatched roof.
Photographed by E. G. Waterlot, 1911.
261
Figure 9: Exterior wall of the Akaba’s palace, northwest corner, Royal Palaces of
Dahomey. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 10: The Gun Custom. From J.A. Skertchly’s Dahomey As It Is showing the palm
rib divider across the courtyard space.
262
Figure 11: Tomb of King Glele’s Queen Mother. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 12: Ruins of Akaba’s two storied building. Author’s photo, 2011.
263
Figure 13: Adandozan’s hounwa currently adorned with Agonglo’s symbols.
Figure 14: Plan of the palaces of Guezo and Glele from Paul Mercier and J. Lombard’s
Guide du Musée d’Abomey, 1959.
264
Figure 15: Guezo’s zinkpoho, treasury or throne room. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 16: Guezo’s simbo, or storied entrance hall, as viewed from the interior. Author’s
photo, 2011.
265
Figure 17: Guezo’s djeho, or soul house. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 18: Glele’s adejeho, or house of courage. Author’s photo, 2011.
266
Figure 19: Amazon Warriors. Photographed by Edouard Foà, c. 1890.
Figure 20: Henri Meyer, “The French Flag Entering Abomey” showing smoke from the
burning palace and city in the background, published in Le Petit Journal, December 10,
1892.
267
Figure 21: “Proclamation of the new king of Dahomey,” published in Le Petit Journal on
February 19, 1894.
268
Figure 22: Plan of the Royal Palace of Dahomey from Em. G. Waterlot’s Les bas-reliefs
des bâtiments royaux d'Abomey, published in 1926.
269
Figure 23: Victor Ballot’s residence, built in 1901. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 24: Colonial administration building situated in the palace. Author’s photo, 2011.
270
Figure 25: Illustration published in the Petit Parisien on March 16, 1890.
271
Figure 26: Entrance to the Dahomey Village at the Columbian Exposition, 1893,
Chicago.
Figure 27: Dahomey exhibit at the 1900 World’s Fair, Paris.
272
Figure 28: Sculptures of Glele and Behanzin as lion and shark respectively, Sossa Adede.
Figure 29: Museum display published in Eva Meyerowitz’s article “The Museum in the
Royal Palaces at Abomey, Dahomey,” 1944.
273
Figure 30: Museum display published in Eva Meyerowitz’s article “The Museum in the
Royal Palaces at Abomey, Dahomey,” 1944.
Figure 31: Photograph of Guezo’s zinkpoho, or throne room, from the museum guide by
Th. Constant-Ernest d’Oliveira in the 1970s.
274
Figure 32: Photograph of Guezo’s logodo, or second entrance, from the museum guide
by Th. Constant-Ernest d’Oliveira in the 1970s.
Figure 33: Tomb of King Huegbadja (r. 1645-1685). Author’s photo, 2011.
275
Figure 34: One of the bas-reliefs from Glele’s ajalala stabilized and preserved through
the joint efforts of Benin government and the Getty Conservation Institute.
276
Figure 35: Plan from J. Crozet’s “Dahomey: Etude de la restauration et de la mise en
valeur des palais royaux d’Abomey,” 1968.
277
Figure 36: Roofed interior walls of Behanzin’s palace. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 37: Plan of Behanzin’s Palace as published in The restoration of King Gbehanzin
Palace, edited by Junzo Kawada.
278
Figure 38: An exhibit in Behanzin’s Palace. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 39: Thatched roof of Huegbadja’s logodo. Author’s photo, 2011.
279
Figure 40: On the right side of the photo are the djeho in Huegbadja’s ajalalahennu
covered in kplakpla instead of thatch. This photo also shows the commencement of the
Ganmevo ceremony with the asen still shrouded in fabric. Photo by Thierry Joffroy,
2013.
280
Figure 41: The hounwa shared by kings Agadja, Tegbessou, Kpengla, and Agonglo.
Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 42: Akaba’s ajalala. Author’s photo, 2011.
281
Figure 43: Agoli-agbo’s ajalala. Author’s photo, 2013.
Figure 44: The gift shop and bar currently located in Glele’s kpododji. Author’s photo,
2011.
282
Figure 45: Abomey city wall and moat as seen from the city’s exterior. Published in
Frederick E. Forbes’s Dahomey and the Dahomans, 1856.
Figure 46: Plan of Abomey and Palace. Published in Edna G. Bay’s Wives of the
Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey, 1998.
283
Figure 47: Cathedrale Saint Pierre Paul, Abomey. Author’s photo, 2013.
284
Figure 48: The two hounwa in Glele’s private palace. Author’s photos, 2008 and 2013.
285
Figure 49: King Agonglo’s private palace ajalala built on a cement base. Author’s
photo, 2011.
Figure 50: Public toilets in King Agonglo’s private palace. Author’s photo, 2011.
286
Figure 51: Artisan workshops in King Agonglo’s private palace. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 52: Gazebo-like structure in King Agonglo’s private palace. Author’s photo,
2011.
287
Figure 53: Weaver’s workshop in King Guezo’s palace at Agbangnizoun. Author’s
photo, 2013.
Figure 54: Arolando with a display of his work in King Kpengla’s private palace.
288
Figure 55: King Kengla’s private palace hounwa as it appeared in 2008. Author’s photo,
2008.
Figure 56: King Kpengla’s private palace hounwa as it appeared in 2011. Author’s
photo, 2011.
289
Figure 57: The hounwa in King Tegbessou’s private palace. Author’s photo, 2013.
Figure 58: The temporary structure used as Agadja’s ajalala for the 2012-13 Gandaxi.
290
Figure 59: Hounwa of the the Tokoudagba Collectivity. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 60: Ajalala of at the Kpelu Collectivity. Author’s photo, 2011.
291
Figure 61: Djeho in the Toffa collectivity. Author’s photo, 2013.
Figure 62: Bas-reliefs adorning King Glele’s ajalala. Photographed by Eva Meyerowitz,
1937.
292
Figure 63: Bas-reliefs by Eusebe Adjamale on the Collectivity Sossa Dede showing the
dynastic list of pre-colonial kings. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 64: Portrait of the dah in the collectivity Mehou Tomandaho by Lucien Klo.
293
Figure 65: Relief sculpture of Dah Ahossin and King Guezo by Lucien Klo. Author’s
photo, 2011.
Figure 66: The ajalala of the Metchonoussi Collectivity, the image of the katakle is
partially blocked by the artist, Lucien Klo. Author’s photo, 2013.
294
Figure 67: Relief sculpture of King Behanzin by Eusebe Adjamale in the collectivity
Zewa-Nudayi. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 68: King Behanzin as published on the cover of Le Petit Journal, 23 April 1892.
295
Figure 69: Interior of Agonglo’s tomb in his private palace showing the bed and place for
libations. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 70: The Zomandonou temple, Abomey. Author’s photo, 2008.
296
Figure 71: The Kpelu temple, Abomey. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 72: Dah Mivede in priestly attire. Author’s photo, 2013.
297
Figure 73: The façade and back of a tohosu temple of a collectivity in Abomey showing
red and black circles and dots.
298
Figure 74: Tohosu temple in the Tokoudagba Collectivity, reliefs remade by Damien
Tokoudagba. Author’s photo, 2013.
Figure 75: Adjahounto altar. Photo published in Joffroy’s Palais Royaux d’Abomey: Les
Dadasi du quartier Dossoémé, 2013.
299
Figure 76: Plan of the Dossoémé published in Joffroy’s Palais Royaux d’Abomey: Les
Dadasi du quartier Dossoémé, 2013..
Figure 77: Interior of the Dossoémé. Author’s photo, 2011.
300
Figure 78: The playing of the kpalingan before Glele’s hounwa at the central palace.
Figure 79: Women bringing food into the ajalala of Guezo’s private palace before the
start of the Ganmevo ceremony. Author’s photo, 2013.
301
Figure 80: The seating positions for the start of the Ganmevo ceremony in Glele’s private
palace ajalalahennu. Author’s photo, 2013.
Figure 81: The attoh built for the Gandaxi with its white flag raised. Author’s photo,
2013.
302
Figure 82: The Alitagbo ceremony performed at the Zomandonou temple, Abomey.
Figure 83: Tohosu initiates performing dances in the forecourt of the Zomandonou temple
during the Alitagbo ceremony. Author’s photo, 2012.
303
Figure 84: The asen of the collectivities laid before the Zomandonou temple. Author’s
photo, 2012.
Figure 85: Procession of the asen to the Didonou Spring. Author’s photo, 2012.
304
Figure 86: The playing of the zenli during the Gandaxi. Author’s photo, 2013.
Figure 87: Women lined up in Glele’s ajalala at the start of the Golito ceremony.
305
Figure 88: Procession of the kings’ hammocks during the Gandaxi ceremony. Author’s
photo, 2013.
Figure 89: Procession of the dadasi during the Gandaxi. Author’s photo, 2013.
306
Figure 90: The Procession of King Agoli-agbo Dedjalani in his hammock as he is
transported from Agoli-agbo’s palace to Tegbesu’s private palace.
Figure 91: The crowd gathered to witness the procession of “the woman with 41 paignes”
and the deity Soglabada. Author’s photo, 2013.
307
Figure 92: Statue of King Behanzin, Place Goho, Abomey, erected 1979. Author’s photo,
2013.
Figure 93: Statue of Kwame Nkrumah at his mausoleum and memorial park, Accra,
Ghana.
308
Figure 94: UN, l’Union fait la Nation, has adopted as their logo the royal Dahomean
symbol of jar with many holes.
Figure 95: One of many relief sculptures displaying the Dahomean kings’ symbols on the
fence surrounding Place Goho. Author’s photo, 2013.
309
Figure 96: Crest of Abomey, Eduoard Vudombo. Author’s photo, 2011.
310
Figure 97: Dynastic list on the façade of the hotel Togauh, Artist Eusebe Adjamale.
Figure 98: The in the ajalala of the collectivity Agbalou and Ahoponou, bas-reliefs by
Eusebe Adjamale
311
Figure 99: Yves Kpede relief sculptures of Amazons and the Golito ceremony at Chez
Monique. Author’s photo, 2011.
Figure 100: Molimé Gamelé Gladis, Adoxo, 2009. Author’s photo, 2011.
312
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The Royal Palace of Dahomey: Symbol of A Transforming Nation The Royal Palace of Dahomey: Symbol of A Transforming Nation

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The Royal Palace of Dahomey: Symbol of A Transforming Nation The Royal Palace of Dahomey: Symbol of A Transforming Nation

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University of Iowa

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Theses and Dissertations

The Royal Palace of Dahomey: symbol of a transforming nation

Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd

Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons

Copyright © 2014 Lynne Ann Ellsworth Larsen

This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2234

Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd

Lynne Ann Ellsworth Larsen

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

Thesis Supervisor: Professor Christopher D. Roy

This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of

Lynne Ann Ellsworth Larsen

has been approved by the Examining Committee

Thesis Committee: ___________________________________

ceremonies, a center for political struggle, and a symbol of non-European identity. It

investigates the palace as a center for political struggle, as a symbol of non-European

had on the local identity and domestic architecture.

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii

I. THE PRE-COLONIAL PALACE ..................................................................10

The Palace’s Plan, Fabric and Function .........................................................11

II. THE COLONIAL PERIOD: THE PALACE BURNED, RESTORED,

Franco-Dahomean Conflict: Leading up to Colonization ..............................78

III. INDEPENDENCE AND RESTORATION: THE PALACE AND

Independence: Reclaiming the Palace in the Post-Colonial Moment ...........119

IV. ROYAL ARCHITECTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF ABOMEY ...............160

VI. BEYOND THE PALACE: ROYAL DAHOMEY AND POST-

Behanzin as a Post-colonial Symbol ............................................................241

2. Hounwa, or covered entrance, of king Huegbadja (r. 1645-1685). Author’s

3. Kpodoji, or first courtyard, of King Glele (r. 1858-1889). Author’s photo,

4. Logodo, second entrance, of King Glele (r. 1858-1889). Author’s photo,

5. Ajalala of King Guezo (r. 1818-1858). Author’s photo, 2011.. ............................260

9. Exterior wall of the Akaba’s palace, northwest corner, Royal Palaces of

13. Adandozan’s hounwa currently adorned with Agonglo’s symbols. .......................264

17. Guezo’s djeho, or soul house. Author’s photo, 2011.............................................266

18. Glele’s adejeho, or house of courage. Author’s photo, 2011. ...............................266

19. Amazon Warriors. Photographed by Edouard Foà, c. 1890. .................................267

21. “Proclamation of the new king of Dahomey,” published in Le Petit Journal

26. Entrance to the Dahomey Village at the Columbian Exposition, 1893,

27. Dahomey exhibit at the 1900 World’s Fair, Paris. .................................................272

33. Tomb of King Huegbadja (r. 1645-1685). Author’s photo, 2011..........................275

35. Plan from J. Crozet’s “Dahomey: Etude de la restauration et de la mise en

36. Roofed interior walls of Behanzin’s palace. Author’s photo, 2011.......................278

37. Plan of Behanzin’s Palace as published in The restoration of King Gbehanzin

38. An exhibit in Behanzin’s Palace. Author’s photo, 2011........................................279

42. Akaba’s ajalala. Author’s photo, 2011. ................................................................281

43. Agoli-agbo’s ajalala. Author’s photo, 2013. .........................................................282

52. Gazebo-like structure in King Agonglo’s private palace. Author’s photo,

53. Weaver’s workshop in King Guezo’s palace at Agbangnizoun. Author’s

56. King Kpengla’s private palace hounwa as it appeared in 2011. Author’s

61. Djeho in the Toffa collectivity. Author’s photo, 2013. .........................................292

62. Bas-reliefs adorning King Glele’s ajalala. Photographed by Eva Meyerowitz,

67. Relief sculpture of King Behanzin by Eusebe Adjamale in the collectivity

70. The Zomandonou temple, Abomey. Author’s photo, 2008. ...................................296

71. The Kpelu temple, Abomey. Author’s photo, 2011. .............................................297

72. Dah Mivede in priestly attire. Author’s photo, 2013. .............................................297

74. Tohosu temple in the Tokoudagba Collectivity, reliefs remade by Damien

77. Interior of the Dossoémé. Author’s photo, 2011. ...................................................300

82. The Alitagbo ceremony performed at the Zomandonou temple, Abomey.

83. Tohosu initiates performing dances in the forecourt of the Zomandonou

90. The Procession of King Agoli-agbo Dedjalani in his hammock as he is

96. Crest of Abomey, Eduoard Vudombo. Author’s photo, 2011. ................................310