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European Models and West African History. Further Comments on the Recent Historiography of Dahomey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

David Ross
David Ross*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
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Extract

Pre-colonial Dahomey's two most recent historians, Isaac A. Akinjogbin and John C. Yoder, have argued that Dahomey was a progressive nation that had much in common with the states of the modern West. Akinjogbin and Yoder have laid particularly heavy emphasis on this point when describing the kingdom's system of government. Their account of that system appears to be generally accepted. It has, at any rate, been repeated in the more important textbooks and works of synthesis.

Akinjogbin argues that, when it was founded in ca. 1620, Dahomey was organized on principles which “ran very close indeed to the modern European idea of a national state.” The kingdom was, it seems, from the very first governed by a line of monarchs who exercised absolute control over the lives and activities of their subjects. Early Dahomey's monarchy “was a strongly centralised institution, controlled all the appointments and dismissals of the chiefs and had a standing army.” In Dahomey every citizen had to “serve and be subservient to the king.”

Dahomey's various eighteenth-century absolute rulers were, Akinjogbin notes, men whose aims and ambitions were at least as admirable as the aims and ambitions of any of Europe's contemporary enlightened despots. Agaja, (ca, 1708-1740), the conqueror of the Aja coast, was for example a monarch who attempted “to stop the slave trade” and who “could be unpredictably generous, magnanimous in victory and endowed with that sense of humor which men of great heart possess.” Tegbesu (1740-1774), Dahomey's best known eighteenth-century monarch, we are told, was a ruler who “greatly enriched both the monarchy and the general populace” and who created “an orderly contented community.”

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 10 , 1983 , pp. 293 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1983

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References

Notes

1. Akinjogbin, Isaac A., Dahomey and its Neighbours 1708-1818 (Cambridge, 1967).Google ScholarYoder, John C., “Fly and Elephant Parties: Political polarisation in Dahomey, 1840-1870,” JAH, 15 (1974), 417–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Aklnjogbin's interpretation of the Dahoman state is repeated in Rodney, Walter, “The Guinea Coast” in The Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 4, ca. 1600-ca. 1790Google Scholar, ed. Gray, Richard, and in the same author's, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (London 1972).Google Scholar Akinjogbin himself repeated the argument in “The Expansion of Oyo and the Rise of Dahomey, 1600-1800” in History of West Africa, I, ed. Ajayi, J.F. Ade and Crowder, Michael.Google Scholar An examination of Akinjogbin and Yoder's claim that Dahomey was a progressive “Anti-slave trade” state will be found in Ross, David, “The Anti-Slave Trade Theme in Dahoman History: An Examination of the Evidence,” HA, 9 (1982), 263–71.Google Scholar

2. Akinjogbin, , Dahomey, 25.Google Scholar

3. Ibid., 62.

4. Ibid., 25.

5. Ibid., 108-09.

6. Ibid., 140.

7. Ibid., 118.

8. Ibid.

9. Yoder, “Fly and Elephant Parties,” 419n9.

10. Ibid., 422.

11. Ibid., 419.

12. Burton, R.F., A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahomey (2d. ed.: London, 1966), 201Google Scholar, noted that the yearly customs formed “continuations of the Grand Customs, and they periodically supply the departed monarch with fresh attendants in the shadowy world. They are called by the people Khwe-ta-nun.” Burton noted further that the term means “the yearly head thing, Khwe (year) ta (head) nun (things).” Yoder, “Fly and Elephant Parties,” 418n6, remarks merely that he has used the term Xwetanu because he has been informed that Xwentanu is the proper Fon term for “an event generally described by the Europeans as Annual Customs.”

13. Yoder, , “Fly and Elephant Parties,” 418, 419.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., 419.

15. Asante's most distinguished historian, Wilks, Ivor, in Asante in the Nineteenth Century. The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order, (Cambridge, 1975)Google Scholar, argues that nineteenth-century Asante had a system of government that was very similar to that of any of the constitutionalist states of nineteenth-century western Europe. That Yoder's Dahomey has a system of government very similar to that of Wilks' Asante has, of course, not only made Yoder's (and indeed Akinjogbin's) account of Dahomey seem all the more reasonable but, by reciprocity, reinforced Wilk's interpretation of Asante.

16. Yoder, , “Fly and Elephant Parties,” 418.Google Scholar

17. It is after all of minor significance that Akinjogbin considers eighteenth-century Dahomey a European-style absolutist monarchy whereas Yoder considers nineteenth century Dahomey a European style constituitonal monarchy; the two interpretations could be totally reconciled “merely” by presenting the palace coup of 1818 as a West African “Glorious Revolution.”

18. Akinjogbin, , Dahomey, 25.Google Scholar

19. Akinjogbin, Dahomey, 25n1, has sought to give his account of the tradition an aura of authenticity by stating that both M.P. Mercier and Prince Justin Aho confirmed that the elusive tradition truly existed. He does not claim, however, that either of these authorities confirmed that the tradition referred to the ideas of the founding fathers.

20. Burton, , Mission, 239–40.Google Scholar

21. Skertchly, J.A., Dahomey As It Is (London, 1874), 254.Google Scholar

22. Akinjogbin consulted the published slaver accounts of Dahomey in the T70 series in the Public Record Office and the C6 Sénégal Ancien series in the Archives Nationales. The T70 series contains most, if not all, of the financial reports made by the English Whydah traders but very few letters, or written reports, from Whydah. Although the records of the French Whydah traders are less full, the Sénégal Ancien series contains more letters from Whydah. Between them the French and English archives contain only one really major eighteenth-century account of Dahomey, that by the Abbé Bullet. See A.N.C. 6/27bis, Abbé Bullet, Reflections sur Juda, 1 Juin 1776. The abbé's work does not appear to have been intended for publication; it contains a description of Dahoman public life and Dahoman government that is very similar to the description to be found in the well-known published slaver accounts of the kingdom. Other, less important, unpublished slaver documents show, if only by implication, that their authors also took much the same view of Dahomey as did Bullet and the better-known published slaver authors. Akinjogbin has also consulted a good deal of Portuguese slaver material. This evidence is, it appears, precisely the material published in Verger, Pierre, Flux et réflux de la traite des nègres entre le golfe de Bénin et Bahia de todos os santos (Paris, 1968).Google Scholar

23. Norris, Robert, Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee (London, 1789).Google ScholarDalzel, Archibald, The History of Dahomey (London, 1793).Google Scholar An account of Dalzel's career will be found in Akinjogbin, I.A. “Archibald Dalzel: Slave Trader and Historian of Dahomey,” JAH, 7 (1966), 67–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24. Dalzel, , History, 26.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., 166.

26. Ibid., 97.

27. Norris, , Memoirs, 128.Google Scholar

28. Dalzel, , History, 172–73.Google Scholar

29. The only “tradition” oriented work which Akinjogbin used extensively is Dunglas, E., “Contribution à l'histoire du Moyen Dahomey,” Etudes Dahoméennes, 19–21 (1957–1958).Google Scholar Since Dunglas did not simply reproduce the traditions he gathered, but attempted instead to write a general history, it is often impossible to identify the sources of his information. When describing Dahomey's eighteenth century, Dunglas himself appears to have relied very heavily on the works of the slaving fraternity. Akinjogbin has paid little attention to the information to be found in the excellent collection of oral material made by Herissé, A. Le, L'Ancien royaume du Dahomey (Paris, 1911).Google Scholar Akinjogbin has dipped into the records of the Church Missionary Society and the Methodist Missionary Society. The C.M.S. did not work in nineteenth-century Dahomey; Akinjogbin has done very little work in the Methodist archives, nor does he appear to have made even a selective search of the great nineteenth-century collections of unpublished “Dahoman” source material noted in note 37; he has even ignored the detailed information to be found in the various published nineteenth century works he lists in his bibliography.

30. See Waldman, Loren K. “An Unnoticed Aspect of Archibal Dalzel's The History of Dahomey,” JAH, 6 (1965), 185–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31. Norris, , Memoirs, vi.Google Scholar

32. A description of the way in which Akinjogbin has dealt with slaver references to this dignitary is offered here rather than a description of the way in which he has dealt with slaver references to the king because the extracts from the slavers' works that have already been quoted make it obvious that the slavers did not portray Dahomey's monarchs as enlightened despots.

33. Akinjogbin, , Dahomey, 118.Google Scholar

34. Dalzel, , History, 66-67, 120–21.Google Scholar

35. Accounts of the Migan's duties are to be found in a whole series of non-slaver sources. This evidence shows that the Migan was, among other things, the leader of the right wing of the Dahoman army, an important Dahoman magistrate, the Dahoman community's chief priest-executioner and the Dahoman dignitary in charge of the province of Aliada. For a survey of this evidence see Argyle, W.J., The Fon of Dahomey (Oxford, 1966), 71–72.Google Scholar

36. Yoder has used Freeman, Thomas B., Journal of Various Visits to the Kingdoms of Ashanti, Aku and Dahomey in Western Africa (London, 1844)Google Scholar; Freeman, Thomas B., “Life and Travels on the Gold Coast,” Western Echo, 16 July to 31 December 1887Google Scholar; Duncan, John, Travels in Western Africa in 1845 and 1846 (London, 1847)Google Scholar; Forbes, F.E., Dahomey and the Dahomans (London, 1851)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Burton, Mission; and J.A. Skertchly, Dahomey. Forbes and Burton's books are published versions of very similar unpublished reports contained in the PRO FO 84 Series. All references here are to the published versions.

37. Because of Britain's anti-slave trade activities, the years 1840 to 1865 are, with the 1880s and early 1890s, the best reported period in Dahoman history. The very considerable mid-nineteenth century British material is to be found mainly in the PRO, London, FO 84, CO 96 and CO 147 series. The FO 84 series, Slave Trade: General Correspondence, contains most of the 1845-1865 Dahoman material (the years 1849-52 are particularly well covered). Vital information is to be found in the volumes holding Whydah, Fernando Pó, and Lagos consular correspondence and in the volumes holding Bight of Benin reports forwarded to the F.O. by the F.O. and the Admiralty. Almost as important is the merchant correspondence in the volumes headed “Domestic Various.” The CO 96, Gold Coast Original Correspondence Series, is most useful for the 1840s, before British Consuls were placed in Whydah. The CO 147, Lagos Original Correspondence Series, is the most fertile English post-1865 source of information on Dahomey.

The French archives contain fewer detailed mid-nineteenth century reports on Dahomey. Most of the French material is in the Archives Nationales, Section d'Outre-Mer, Paris. The most useful series are Afrique, I, 4-10, Letters to and from the Officer Commanding the Naval Division (1842-54); Afrique, IV, 9-11, The Kingdom of Dahomey (1845-88); Senegal, III, 5b, Voyage of the Maloume, 1837-40; Senegal, IV, 42, Correspondence concerning Whydah, 1818-1850; Gabon, IV, 3, b,c,d, Territorial Expansion; Porto Novo and Cotonou 1865-88; Gabon, XIII, 2, Commerce, Porto Novo, 1859-66.

The Society of African Mission Archives, Rome, contains useful 1860s material. The Bight of Benin mission correspondence is classified under the general reference 12/80200. The relevant series is Dahomey, Old Vicariate 1861-71.

38. The most useful of these are de Brue, A., “Voyage fait en 1843 dans le Royaume de Dahomey,” Revue Coloniale (1845)Google Scholar; de Monléon, M., “Le Dahomey en 1844,” Revue Coloniale (1846)Google Scholar; Bouet, A., “Le Royaume de Dahomey,” Illustration (July, 1852)Google Scholar; Vallon, A. “Le Royaume de Dahomey,” Revue Maritime et Coloniale 1 (1861)Google Scholar; Guillevin, , “Voyage dans l'intérieur du Dahomey, Nouvelles Annales des Voyages (Paris, 1862)Google Scholar; Gelle, , “Notice sur Porto Novo;” Revue Maritime et Coloniale, 4 (1864)Google Scholar; Béraud, M., “Note sur Le Dahomey,” Bulletin de la Société de Geographie, 5/12 (1866), 371–86Google Scholar; Borghero, F.S., “La Guinée et Le Dahomey,” Annals of the Propagation of the Faith (1862, 1863, 1864, 1867).Google Scholar

39. Although he mentions Le Herissé's and Dunglas' works in his footnotes, Yoder has made no real use of oral tradition.

40. Yoder, , “Fly and Elephant Parties,” 419.Google Scholar

41. Forbes, , Dahomey, 2: 243–46Google Scholar, Appendix E. Names of the Ministers and Officers of the Dahoman Kingdom who received the royal bounty, 7 June 1849, with the amount given to each.

42. Yoder, , “Fly and Elephant Parties,” 419.Google Scholar

43. Ibid., 419nn12, 13, 14.

44. Forbes, , Dahomey, 2: 213–14Google Scholar, Appendix A; Procession of the King's Wealth, May 30th, 1850; 224-26, Appendix B; Appendix to the Review of First of June. Number of Armed Men in Each Regiment and Names of the Owners or Generals.

45. Forbes, , Dahomey, 1: 15.Google Scholar

46. Yoder, , “Fly and Elephant Parties,” 419.Google Scholar

47. Forbes, , Dahomey, 1: 1, 3, 7, 14, 19.Google Scholar

48. Burton, , Mission 107, 264n25.Google Scholar

49. Skertchly, , Dahomey, 444.Google Scholar

50. Forbes, , Dahomey, 1: 15.Google Scholar

51. Yoder, , “Fly and Elephant Parties,” 418.Google Scholar

52. Burton, , Mission, 232–36Google Scholar; Skertchly, , Dahomey, 178–93.Google Scholar Burton and Skertchly both emphasize that earlier European travelers had circulated grossly exaggerated accounts of the Customs. Both attempted to set the record straight by presenting a careful, detailed analysis of Dahoman sacrificial practices.

53. Forbes, , Dahomey, 1: 32.Google Scholar

54. Burton, , Mission, 201, 232.Google Scholar

55. Skertchly, , Dahomey, 180–81.Google Scholar

56. Burton, , Mission, 235.Google Scholar