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Allada is in between Cotonou and Abomey, and is the ancestral home of the Abomey Kings. We stopped here briefly on route from Cotonou to Abomey. The original King was from Tadu in Togo and was said to be descended from a princess and a leopard. He travelled to Allada with his family and settled there in about 1600. The King had 3 sons and each son wanted a kingdom to rule so the oldest one stayed in Allada, and the others travelled to Porto Nuovo and Abomey to establish kingdoms there.
Allada is also said to be the ancestral home of the Haitians. There is a statue of Toussaint Louverture, the first president of Haiti here. He was a slave, descended from slaves taken from Allada, and he helped to organise the slave revolt that resulted in the slaves taking over Haiti for a short time in the 1790’s.
Written May 12, 2008
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Bohicon is 5km from Abomey and is the main stopping point on the road to the North. It is a bigger town than Abomey and is the commercial centre of the region.
The main language here is Fon, the language of the tribe of the Dahomey Kings who were constantly warring with the Yoruba tribe and capturing them to be sold as slaves. Consequently most of the slaves in Haiti and Brazil are descended from the Yoruba tribe.
In the centre of the road system in Bohicon you can see the statue representing King Guezo. The pot with the holes and the hands around it symbolises the unity required of the people in order to keep the kingdom successful. Many hands are required to stop the holes in the pot from letting the water out.
Written May 12, 2008
Dahomey - Legendary Kingdom of the Powerful Kings
Abomey is the capital of the kingdom that used to be known as Dahomey, in the 17th to 19th centuries, a place with a fearful reputation and as famous as Timbuctu in old Africa, full of Voodoo, magic,...
In January 2003 I, along with our good friend and colleague Bio Gado, took the entire middle school of ASN on a six day journey through the history of Benin, particularly the slave trade history. Our...
Build your own Abomey page
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