CHAPTER 5. PALACES : DAHOMEY

DAHOMEYThe most prominent testimony of the old Dahomean kingdom is the earthen royal palaces in and around Abomey, dotting the landscape in particular at Kana (Fig. 4.1; Plate 13; cf. Catalogue 1). The main royal complex, located at the very centre of Abomey and enclosed by tall clay walls, has been a protected UNESCO World Herit-age site since 1985. It was opened to the public in 1944 to become the most important museum of Dahomey/Bénin (Antongini & Spini 1997). It is constantly being rebuilt and undergoing restorations.

The central palace still maintains the spirit of the Dahomean kings and priests, amazons and royal wives, ministers and courts, reinstalled through annual ceremo-nies under the presence of royal descendants as well as their reincarnations (Fig. 5.1). BDArch’s interests in the geographical location and chronology of the palaces were generated by an attempt to understand the palaces in rela-tion to the subterranean man-made structures, or “caves” (cf. Chapter 7). Very early on it was noticed that reference to Dahomean kings was being made during interviews,

Fig. 5.1. Gathering of rulers at the royal ceremony of Gnidjiyiyi at the Semassou temple in December 2005. From left: Agoli Agbo Dedjalagni (considered the true king), Prefect of the department of Zou-Collines, Béhanzin Houédognin (rivalry king). Behind - wives of Agoli Agbo.

linking the caves either to a particular king or to a particu-lar period of rule. Therefore, attention and some survey energy were aimed at understanding how these two phe-nomena relate in space and across time. How to under-stand a landscape marked by such oppositions - palaces, built to be seen and highly assertive, and caves, made to be hidden and secretive7?

A royal palace is a large walled complex, which can be attributed to a particular king. Structurally, a palace is subdivided into three main spaces or courtyards, which each contain a number of structures (Antongini & Spini 1997; UNESCO 2007) (Fig. 5.2). Honnuwa and logodo are the gates; rectangular gatehouses are leading both into the palace compound and into the second courtyard. The

7 BDArch has benefi ted from the superb research carried out by C. Monroe on palaces in Kana (Monroe 2005; 2007). Great inspiration is derived from S. Blier’s investigation of urban development in Abomey (refs. and pers. comm.). Important sources of information were found at the museum of Abomey in Director L. Ahonon and Curator C. Biah, and not least with our own royal collaborator of the King Agonglo line, A. Akoha.

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few entrances made it easy to control movement, for in-stance of slaves (Plate 13.9). Outsiders were not expected to get access beyond the sphere of the fi rst courtyard, unless invited by the king: “The inner apartments (…) were only several large courts, communicating with each other; generally square or oblong, encompassed by mud walls. (…) I never passed the limits of the courts, except once at Abomey, when the old King Ahadee [Tegbessou] was sick, and would see me in his bed-chamber” (Norris 1789, 7f.).

Royal palaces were also founded outside Abomey, as well as princely palaces for descendants of ruling kings (Fig. 4.1). Other palaces fulfi lled functions such as bar-racks and prisons, for instance the camp of Amazons at Zassa, likely founded by King Agadja and thereby dem-onstrating his authority in a particular way. In fact, each

courtyard between the two gates is called kpodoji. It usu-ally contains a jonoxo or house for foreigners, a tassinoxo or house for priestesses, and a légédéxo or house of con-ciliation. The second courtyard (jalalahenou) is reserved for a reception house, adjalala, and for the jexo, a shrine for ancestral cults dedicated to the previous king and supposed to shelter his spirit. The third courtyard is the agodomen, which holds the adoxo structures, symbolic mausoleums for the king and royal wives accompanying him in death. Structures intended for other functions are found too. In fact, Monroe has demonstrated that the pal-aces at Kana grew in complexity during the 18th Century, perhaps refl ecting both social segmentation and increas-ing bureaucratisation (Monroe 2007).

Such complex structures were both protective and provided privacy for the kings. The tall walls with only a

Fig. 5.2. Plan of the Royal palace in Abomey, now the Historical Palace Museum. After Antongini & Spini 1997, Fig. 1, with modifi cations.A - Gate of King Glélé (Glélé honnuwa), B - Gate of King Agonglo (Agonglo honnuwa), C - Singbo - Gate and Palace of King Guézo, D - Gate of King

Agoli Agbo, E - Plaza Singbodji, F - Courtyard of the Amazones (Wenkpalinu).1 - Kpodoji, 1st courtyard of Guézo, 2 - Gate separating the 1st and 2nd courtyard of Guézo (logodo), 3 - Adjalala of Guézo, hall of assens, 4 - Zinkpoho, hall of thrones, 5 - Jexo of Zognidi/Zaindi, Guézo’s mother, 6 - Jexo of Guézo, 7 - Boho, house of charms, 8 - Tomb of 41 wives of Glélé (Ahosi hue), 9 - Tomb of Glélé (Glélé adoxo), 10 - Store (previously colonial administration), 11 - Store of maintenance items, 12 - Workshop of restoration, 13 - Ajalala, hall of jewellery of Glélé, 14 - Adanjexo, hall of arms, 15 - Jexo of Glélé, 16 - Gate leading towards the courtyard of artists (Glélé logodo uniting Glélé jalahennu ) (western courtyard) with Glélé kpodoji (eastern courtyard)), 17 - House of foreigners (Jonoxo), now workshops of traditional artists (Jononho), 18 - Gate leading towards the tombs of Guézo and Agonglo/Kpengla (different versions exist), 19 - Tomb of 41 wifes of Guézo, 20 - Tomb

of Guézo (Guézo doho), 21 - Tomb of Agonglo (or Kpengla?) (Agonglo adoxo).

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ogy and function of subterranean structures. Initially, the idea was nourished that cultural materials used as temper in the walls of dated palaces would help establish local chronology. However, nothing is less static than the pal-aces, being constantly re-built and repaired.

The oldest surviving palace is located at Huawé, half-way between Abomey and Kana (Fig. 5.3). The palace is said to have been founded by the fi rst traditional Daho-mean king, Dako Donou, even though some claim that the present palace was built during the reign of King Teg-bessou (Monroe 2007). The palace seems to be the most authentic one among the surviving complexes and carries an ambition to preserve its status as the cradle palace of the region. At the centre stands the largest baobab tree in the whole of Bénin. Pottery found in numerous shrines in the palace demonstrates a signifi cant age, as sustained by parallels from dated graves (see Chapter 8). Lions and crocodiles are kept within the compound (but in a miser-able state), and royal regalia are not yet replaced by mod-ern derivatives. Unfortunately, the young generation has discovered the advantage of concrete over clay, using the former for ongoing restoration work.

Abomey and Kana played the roles of supreme politi-

king established both his own palace and his own dy-nasty, with descendants continuing to occupy the palace, maintaining it as a ritual focus for a particular royal line.

Compounds adhering to palace status have no doubt been more frequent than currently known. Offi cials of the royal administration and local chiefs were echoing the king through palace construction, but very little has sur-vived above the surface. We learn from Burton that the Yevogan (Yovogan), or “captain of the Whites”, a kind of minister for foreign affairs, had a farmstead in his heredi-tary village of Dokon (Burton 1864, 157), about two kilo-metres north of Abomey. Lamb(e), during his detention in Abomey, observed in 1724 that King Agadja had two impressively large chiefl y palaces in Abomey (existence of yet other palaces is presupposed), and at least eleven palaces outside the town (Smith 1744, 169f.).

36 walled palace structures have been identifi ed on the plateau of Abomey, including modern ones legiti-mised through tradition and memory (Fig. 4.1). Strange landscape alterations and sudden loops in a major road may reveal new additions to the list. As noted, record-ing of palaces, like major ritual sites, was not the primary focus of BDArch but an element in establishing chronol-

Fig. 5.3. Huawé. Entrance gate to the royal palace with the composite shrine of the overall function of Legba. Note the bas-reliefs of monkeys in association with the shrine.

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Current archaeological research has revealed that the area east and northeast of Kana saw intensive settling and a large production of iron for several Centuries. The river Koto with all its tributaries was a stable water source, even during the period of droughts in the mid-19th Cen-tury (cf. Forbes 1851). The Sodohomé survey (Chapter 10 below) indicates that territorial consciousness was very much in action and long-term bonds were kept with particular places, resulting in continuous occupation of the same area for several Centuries. Therefore, it can be predicted that Abomey was also occupied before the Dahomean arrival, even though excavations so far have only revealed traces of occupation (in two phases) during the13th Century AD.

A short survey of toponyms indicates that at least dur-ing the period of Gbe-speaking populations the region in question saw much forest, since the area between Kana and Abomey, and the area east of Bohicon just north of Kana have numerous locations with “zoun” - forest. So far, there is no available evidence on pre-Dahomean strata in Kana, but its fi eld of gravity, attracting palaces and shrines, speaks for a long-established importance. Kana’s importance is also attested by the incorporation

cal and ritual centres in the Dahomean kingdom. Hence, royal power was connected with the construction of pal-aces at both locations. Kana is known to have had an im-portant position since the very beginning of the kingdom. Kana is also perceived to be the true spiritual capital of Dahomey. Travellers described it as “the straggling beau-tiful city with a pretty brook, situated in a picturesque bosquet” (Forbes 1851, 64). In the 18th Century it con-tained at least four royal palaces, inhabited by wives, amazons, and slaves of the king (Forbes 1851, 66). The king used to stay in Kana during summertime, and moved to Abomey in the winter (Burton 1864).

Kana is also an important location for the descendants of the Guédevi people, who suffered from the intrusion of the Fon in the 17th Century. The sacred forest of Guédevi is located near Kana. Thus, inhabitants of Kana perceive themselves as the “autochthonous” population of Daho-mey.

Royal control was not absolute without both Abomey and Kana, but the historical link between the two remains uncertain. Abomey lies at the edge of the plateau, seem-ingly a less favourable condition, while Kana is in the middle, thus likely the most important centre as of old.

Fig. 5.4. Kana. The royal palaces in Kana. After Kelly 2007, 116 Fig. 4.7. Between palaces Gbengamey and Kpohon, close to the road, are the ruins attributed to King Agadja: not showed on the map.

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Fig. 5.5. Aerial photo of the ruins of the Glélé palace near Wankon/Guédéhoué settlement at Kana, one of the smaller Kana-palaces (12 ha).

View from NE (Photo taken 10.03.2007).

distance to one another. The tall walls of the rural palaces have no (or only a very few) defensive properties, and few quite simple gates, as mentioned, excellent at con-trolling movement, for instance of slave labour.

There are many accounts that even wives of kings were expected to support themselves through agriculture and commerce (Bay 1998). Thus, behind the main royal palace at Abomey was the large Queen’s Market - Ag-bojanangan, where the king’s wives were trading goods; only women were allowed to attend this market (cf. Ap-pendix 4). Royal wives presumably held monopoly over production of certain types of pottery, perhaps the black manganese-impregnated wares (Skertchly 1874, 408), as well as coloured textiles (Forbes 1851, 71). Also produc-tion of tobacco clay pipes was considered “one of the many monopolies of the royal wives” (Burton 1864, 239).

Burton describes the annual schedule of activities of King Glélé as follows (Burton 1864, 346), “(…) the King purposes to set out on his marauding expedition in Feb-ruary, and to return in March or April. He then lodges at the Jegbe Palace [Djèbgé], (…), gives a banquet, and purchases the captives from his soldiery. The next move is to the country-quarters at Kana, where, about May, he will perform the Oyo Customs, and then take his rest. In November, when the rains are ended, he will summon his chiefs, sleep at the Adan-we Palace, and on the next day make a ceremonious entrance into his capital.”

It is symptomatic that from May till November, dur-ing the main period of cultivation in Southern Bénin, the King prefers to “rest” (from stately duties?), in fact to spend time at Kana as a chief manager of his productive estates. Signifi cantly, the greatest expansion of palace building in the landscape took place in the 19th Century. Following tradition, each king has to establish a so-called princely (or private) palace in Abomey. And each king starting with King Agadja was faithful to this tradition, but the scale changed greatly over time. King Guézo’s princely palace at Abomey is not larger than an ordinary compound, while he built a number of outsized palaces in the countryside, like Allahé, in particular for production of palm oil.

Since large amounts of water were required for the processing of palm oil, it made sense to work on this between the end of March and September, when water was plentiful at Abomey. Slave villages for agricultural production were established early in Dahomey, but pre-sumably preserved the traditional division of labour by

of local “Guédevi” elites into the ruling apparatus of Da-homey. As indicated, in mythical consciousness Kana is a highly sacred place as the spiritual abode of the found-ing fathers of Dahomey, Ganyé Hessou, his brother Dako Donou, and other ancestors (UNESCO 2007) (Fig. 3.1). The Kana area also possesses fertile soils. Bipolarity es-tablished between Abomey, the ritual centre, and Kana, the latter seeing gradual transformation into an economic centre during the 19th Century, was relocated towards the new axis of Abomey-Bohicon, the later being a dynamic hub on the north-south going highway in Bénin and the railroad built by the French.

The true importance of the palaces is diffi cult to com-prehend from plans alone, but a typical countryside pal-ace would enclose an area of 15-20 ha or even more (see Monroe 2007) (Fig. 5.4). By comparison, Savi, the capi-tal of the southern kingdom of Hueda/Ouidah, only oc-cupied 6.5 ha (Kelly 1997). Several villages may fi t into a palace compound (Monroe 2003; 2007) (Fig. 5.5). In fact, we should primarily see the palaces as productive units needed for generation of economic surplus to sustain royal authority, in other words as manor houses, or rather “haciendas”. Also, they are often situated at a rather short

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gender (Bay 1998). Large-scale production of oil-palm products had very high demands on labour, necessitating a change in gender roles. Male captives were possibly being forced to process palm oil, something that was considered women’s work and viewed with contempt by Yoruba-speaking males (ibid).

Construction of rural palaces no doubt refl ects a grow-ing need of control. Written sources give several accounts of the powers of the king and their gradual decrease with

Fig. 5.6. Map of Kétu based on aerial survey undertaken in 1965, IGN 642-200, re-drawn by John Igue. The moat is marked with a zigzag line,

striations indicate built-up areas. 1 - Akaba Idena, the magic door and the shrine palace (Oja Nla), 2 - Missionary station, 3 - Ancient palace (Oje Okere), 4 - Present day

palace, 5 & 6 - Caves/cisterns.Grey bars - stretches of dry moat, arrow - location of the rampart (the moat is towards the centre); the present day width of the moat varies between 2.0 and 6.5 m, being up to 12 m at Akaba Idena, the present day depth varies between 2.5 and 4.0 and up to 7.0 m at Akaba Idena. 5 - 12 caves discovered behind the palace, 6 - 5 caves located between and inside houses. Row of grey arrows indicates the stretch of the moat

shown in Fig. 5.7.GPS mapped stretches of moat indicate some mistakes in the original map by J. Igue of 80-250 m, which may be explained with a fault orientation by 10-15 degrees. Preliminary surveys have also revealed

the existence of an internal moat system west of Akaba Idena.

Fig. 5.7. Aerial photo of the dry moat of Kétu, south-eastern portion of the external moat, view from N. White dashed line is parallel to the southern end of the moat (the location indicated on the map of Fig. 5.6).

Photo taken 10.03.2007.

distance (Herskovits 1967). Not surprisingly, early king-doms rarely exceed 500-1000 km2, similar, e.g., to the size of Danish Early Bronze Age kingdoms of the second millennium BC. The kingdom or rather empire of Oyo must have been exceptional, managing to keep Abomey a dependant state for 100 years, irrespectively of the 300 km, which separated the centres. Oyo’s use of cavalry may have been the key factor.

The area north of Abomey, around Djidja, is known as the land of great cultivators or gletanu (Herskovits 1967). They were owners of land, which could stretch for 15-30 km in length and several kilometres in width; their economy was wholly dependent on slavery. Interestingly, even though the lands north of Abomey were more fertile than to the south, Dahomean royalty did not try to change the balance of established land ownerships, despite the tradition that “all land belongs to the king”. Thus, only a very few royal palaces are found in the northern area.

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At any rate, the high number of large royal palaces in the kingdom of Dahomey is an unusual feature best to be understood in economic terms. At Allada and Savi to the south there is only one main palace (before the Da-homean conquest). The same is the case to the east, at Yoruban Kétu.

KÉTUThe palaces at Allada, etc. were already discussed in the previous chapter on Abomey (Chapter 4). The only re-maining issue is thus the palace at Kétu to the east.

Kétu, the capital of one of the Yoruba kingdoms, is situated 62 km E-NE of Bohicon. It is traditionally con-sidered to be older than any of the other centres in modern Southern Bénin, yet its earliest history is not established. Kétu is also the only place where “caves” were discov-ered outside the borders of the ancient Dahomean king-dom (Fig. 5.6). The old city of Kétu comprises a palace (modern; plus ruins of an ancient one) and a shrine with

the magic door of Akaba Idena, which was surrounded by a moat and a rampart (Fig. 5.7, Plate 13.1-3). Akaba Idena was supposedly the only entrance to the city, and its location on the NE side indicates the direction of men-tal and other ties. Preliminary surveys also revealed the existence of an internal moat system, not hitherto ac-knowledged. The palace is situated in the southern part of the city. 12 caves were discovered in the area between the palace and the moat, ca. 150 m south of the palace. Another cluster (5 caves) was recorded within compound and even inside the houses in the vicinity of a mission-ary station. These “caves” are most likely linked with an eastern tradition of creating cisterns (Shaw 1970).

In Kétu, as in Allada and other ancient centres, it is a matter of one palace only for the king of the realm in contrast with Dahomey, where each new king was build-ing new “manors” for himself and his family. The model for this behaviour is diffi cult to come about; perhaps it is merely a result of the absolutist and exploitative nature of the Kingdom of Dahomey.

Kétu

Bénin Archaeology. The Ancient Kingdoms