Ouidah. Robin Law

Aug. 1730; João Basilio, Ouidah, 20 May 1731, in Verger, Flux et reflux, 153.

      36. Basilio, Ouidah, 20 May 1731, in Verger, Flux et reflux, 153–4; Van Dantzig, Dutch and the Guinea Coast, no. 305: Hertog, Jakin, 2 Aug. 1731; Harms, The Diligent, 151, 202–4, 234.

      37. ANF, C6/25, Levet, Ouidah, 26 Aug. 1733 (lettre de nouvelles): on a visit to Assou in his place of refuge in Popo, Levet reminded him of ‘what I did for him, with Dada [= Agaja], when the English Director wished to furnish canoes to all nations’.

      38. Snelgrave, New Account, 154.

      39. ANF, C6/25, Levet, Juda, 26 Aug. 1733 (nouvelles).

      40. One European account, written in the 1770s, Robert Norris, Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee, King of Dahomy (London, 1789), 40–48, treats it as a personal name; and this is followed by Akinjogbin, Dahomey, 102–3. But after the original Tegan (or, more probably, his successor) was executed in 1743, his successor was also called Tegan: ANF, C6/25, Levet, 20 Aug. 1743. It may represent togan, a generic term for provincial governors.

      41. ANF, C6/25, Levet, Juda, 26 Aug. 1733 (nouvelles).

      42. Norris, Memoirs, 36–8, 40, uses the title Yovogan for the viceroys of Ouidah before 1745; and this is followed, for example, by Akinjogbin, Dahomey, 102–3, 119–20. But, in fact, this is clearly an anachronism. In records of the English fort, the title Tegan was used down to Sept. 1745, while that of Yovogan (‘Evegah’) first appears in Jan. 1746: PRO, T70/703–4, Sundry Accounts, William’s Fort, Sept.–Dec. 1745, Jan–April 1746. Dahomian tradition asserts that the title of Yovogan was created by Agaja, but local tradition in Ouidah says by his successor Tegbesu: Le Herissé, L’Ancien Royaume, 42; Reynier, ‘Ouidah’, 51.

      43. But note that local tradition attributes the foundation of Fonsaramè to the first Yovogan, Dasu, appointed under Tegbesu in the 1740s: Reynier, ‘Ouidah’, 51.

      44. PRO, T70/402, Castle Charges at Whydah, 12 July–31 Oct. 1734.

      45. ANF, C6/25, Levet, Juda, 26 Aug. 1733 (nouvelles).

      46. Agbo, Histoire, 112–14. Agbo says that the title was created by Tegbesu in the 1740s, but other accounts say by Agaja earlier: e. g. Sinou & Agbo, Ouidah, 161. The title of Cakanacou still survives as that of the chief of Zoungbodji; nowadays he claims the status of king (and is sometimes even represented to be ‘king of Ouidah’).

      47. PRO, T70/423, Sundry Accounts, William’s Fort, May–Aug. 1747 [‘Cockracoe’]

      48. E.g. ANF, C6/27, Gourg, ‘Mémoire pour servir d’instruction au Directeur’, 1791 [‘un poste appelé Cakeracou’]; John M’Leod, A Voyage to Africa (London, 1820), 102 [‘Kakeraken’s croom’]. The name Zoungbodji was first recorded in 1797: Vicente Ferreira Pires, Viagem de Africa em o reino de Dahomé (ed. Clado Ribeiro de Lessa, São Paulo, 1957), 28 [‘Zambugi’].

      49. ANF, C6/25, Levet, Ouidah, 21 Nov. 1733; cf. the later account of Norris, Memoirs, 27–9 (who, however, misdates this campaign to 1741). Norris suggests that it was originally intended that this king should rule in the Hueda place of refuge to the west, but the contemporary account indicates that he was set up as king in the Hueda homeland, at Savi.

      50. Norris, Memoirs, 29–30.

      51. Assogba, Découverte de la Côte des Esclaves, 18.

      52. Gavoy, ‘Note historique’, 56.

      53. Reynier, ‘Ouidah’, 47; Merlo, ‘Hiérarchie fétichiste’, 17.

      54. Norris, Memoirs, 35.

      55. PRO, T70/1158, 1160, Day Book, William’s Fort, May–June 1756, 10 Aug. 1769.

      56. Soglo, ‘Les Xweda’, 76–7. However, these traditions do not mention any king called Agbangla.

      57. Law, Slave Coast, 316–18; Gayibor, Le Genyi, 104–13.

      58. Norris, Memoirs, 26, says that the Hueda were ‘incorporated’ with the ‘Popoes’, so that the two became effectively ‘one nation’. Although often, as here, European observers referred to ‘the Popoes’, without specifying whether Grand- or Little Popo was meant, it is presumed that from the 1740s onwards references to ‘Popo’ as allied to the Hueda relate to Little Popo, rather than (as earlier) to Grand-Popo.

      59. Norris, Memoirs, 36–9. This account (recorded a generation after the event) actually gives the titles of the Dahomian leaders killed as Yovogan and Caho, but this is presumed to be an anachronism, as these titles are not attested at Ouidah in the contemporary record until later in the 1740s.

      60. ANF, C6/25, Levet, Ouidah, 20 Aug. 1743.

      61. Ibid.; also Norris, Memoirs, 30–33 (who, however, misdates this incident, placing the capture of the Portuguese fort on 1 Nov. 1741).

      62. Gavoy, ‘Note historique’, 57; Reynier, ‘Ouidah’, 39. The traditions may conflate two persons: Norris, Memoirs, 33, says that the second-in-command in the fort’s defence was captured and executed.

      63. For this wider context, see Law, Slave Coast, 324–8.

      64. ANF, C6/25, Levet, Ouidah, 20 Aug. 1743.

      65. Norris, Memoirs, 40–47.

      66. ANF, C6/25, Levet, Ouidah, 20 Aug. 1743, 31 Jan. 1744.

      67. PRO, T70/423, Sundry Accounts, William’s Fort, May–Aug. & Sept.–Dec. 1747.

      68. Norris, Memoirs, 36; cf. Archibald Dalzel, The History of Dahomy. An Inland Kingdom of Africa (London, 1793), 194.

      69. Burton, Mission, i, 52 [‘Kawo’].