User:AbstractIllusions/sandbox/Dahomey

*NOTE: THIS PAGE IS A MESS WHILE I PLAY AROUND WITH INFORMATION

Kingdom of Dahomey

 * "The kingdom's social system was guided by two basic principles: an ancestor cult and a communal kinship structure. The first can be considered a vertical line of relationship connecting people to their real or mythical ancestors, and the second a horizontal line of relationships fusing the living into a social unit...Serpos Tidjani, a noted Dahomean ethnologist, explains, "Individualism, as it is known in Europe, did nto exist in Black Africa.  Each man was part of a collectivity....the biggest kinship group is that of people united in the cult of the same mythical ancestor; this is the Ako of the Fon that one can translate as tribe."
 * The tohwiyo is the diving person or mythical founder which linked all living members and ancestors together. for Fon religion.
 * 1644, Breton Capucins founded mission at Ouidah, but this failed. 1660 mission of Capucins eleven went to Allada when the king Toxonu requested help. They left after about a year because of hostility by the king. Thomas Birch Freeman visited Guezo in 1843 and 1847 to secure permission for a mission in Ouidah founded in 1854. 1861 roman catholics started missions. Fetishists resisted and forced them to leave in 1871, not to return until 1884.

French Dahomey

 * France gained sovereignty over Cotonou in treaties with Glele in 1868 and 1878. 1882 treaty with Porto Novo making it into a protectorate. Glele and Behanzin then refused to recognize the control over Cotonou.
 * Becasue of treaty of Paris, French major concern was constant control of the coast. Occupation of North did not happen until 1893 and northern Bariba country was not occupied until 1900.  1904, Dahomey became part of AOF.
 * Dodds statement "Nothing will be changed in the customs and institutions of the country...The chiefs who submit immediately and in good faith...will keep their positions."
 * Although they declared intention to maintain current administrative subdivisions, they immediately "restored independence of Allada." Administrative divisions in 1894: Ouidah and Cotonou with direct French rule. Abomey and Allada, and Porto Novo with independence, and territories of political action. (i.e. the North
 * Agoli Agbo was exiled, and in his place a notable was put in charge as "the guardian of the royal palace." When kings of Porto Novo and Allada died, their successors were similarly given lesser titles as "superior chief"