Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190876104.003.0003
F. Fuglestad
Apart from a discussion of the voluminous historiography (due in part to the fascination with the reputedly despotic and tyrannical Dahomey), this chapter addresses the central problem of the abundant but biased – because mainly European – sources. The second problem the chapter addresses is how to write African history with an inadequate Eurocentric conceptual framework, but the only one available so far. Finally, it looks at how the focus on Dahomey has resulted in a somewhat imbalanced historiography. A problem apart is constituted by the oral traditions; in many cases they serve as propaganda, but they provide valuable information about the world outlook, beliefs and fabric of the relevant societies.
{"title":"Historiography, Sources and Epistemology","authors":"F. Fuglestad","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190876104.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190876104.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Apart from a discussion of the voluminous historiography (due in part to the fascination with the reputedly despotic and tyrannical Dahomey), this chapter addresses the central problem of the abundant but biased – because mainly European – sources. The second problem the chapter addresses is how to write African history with an inadequate Eurocentric conceptual framework, but the only one available so far. Finally, it looks at how the focus on Dahomey has resulted in a somewhat imbalanced historiography. A problem apart is constituted by the oral traditions; in many cases they serve as propaganda, but they provide valuable information about the world outlook, beliefs and fabric of the relevant societies.","PeriodicalId":422781,"journal":{"name":"Slave Traders by Invitation","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115366291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0013
F. Fuglestad
The chapter attempts to provide a bird’s eye overview of the period in question. It details the strong rivalry between the Europeans in this period of intense slave-trading, due in part to the arrival of the French (linked to the War of the Spanish Succession, 1702–1714). The rivalry was heightened by the strengthened position of the Portuguese/Brazilians, thanks to Brazilian gold and the famous third-grade tobacco. This climate of rivalry on the European side exacerbated internal tensions among the Africans, and among the main polities: Allada, Hueda (increasingly independent of Allada), Dahomey, but also Glidji and even Akwamu, both of whom tried their luck at times on the Central Slave Coast. One important outcome was the famous treaty of 1703 (to 1794) which guaranteed the neutrality of the “port” of Ouidah-Glehue, converting that place into a safe haven, and triggering the rapid development of the town of Ouidah.
{"title":"The 1680s–1720s","authors":"F. Fuglestad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter attempts to provide a bird’s eye overview of the period in question. It details the strong rivalry between the Europeans in this period of intense slave-trading, due in part to the arrival of the French (linked to the War of the Spanish Succession, 1702–1714). The rivalry was heightened by the strengthened position of the Portuguese/Brazilians, thanks to Brazilian gold and the famous third-grade tobacco. This climate of rivalry on the European side exacerbated internal tensions among the Africans, and among the main polities: Allada, Hueda (increasingly independent of Allada), Dahomey, but also Glidji and even Akwamu, both of whom tried their luck at times on the Central Slave Coast. One important outcome was the famous treaty of 1703 (to 1794) which guaranteed the neutrality of the “port” of Ouidah-Glehue, converting that place into a safe haven, and triggering the rapid development of the town of Ouidah.","PeriodicalId":422781,"journal":{"name":"Slave Traders by Invitation","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125640309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190876104.003.0014
F. Fuglestad
From 1724, dramatic changes took place on the Slave Coast, with the Dahomean conquests of Allada (1724–6) and Hueda/ Ouidah-Glehue in 1727-30/33. It was, all told, a tremendously bloody affair. But those conquests did not go unchallenged; they provoked the intervention of the mighty northern (and Yoruba) polity of Oyo – not quite a newcomer on the local scene, since Oyo had since exported a considerable number of slaves through the Slave Coast. The redoubtable cavalry of Oyo inflicted an apparently shattering defeat on Dahomey in April 1726. Oyo had defeated Dahomey several times but was never able to conquer that polity, and the Dahomeans emerged apparently unscathed each time from the assaults of Oyo. Dahomey had, however, to become a vassal of Oyo and to pay a heavy tribute. Dahomey had also to face slightly later the surprisingly tough resistance of the exiled Huedans who had found refuge in the west. For the Europeans it was a dangerous time; those who opted for what turned out to be the “wrong” side at a particular moment, paid for this error with their lives.
{"title":"The Dramatic and Decisive 1720S","authors":"F. Fuglestad","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190876104.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190876104.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"From 1724, dramatic changes took place on the Slave Coast, with the Dahomean conquests of Allada (1724–6) and Hueda/ Ouidah-Glehue in 1727-30/33. It was, all told, a tremendously bloody affair. But those conquests did not go unchallenged; they provoked the intervention of the mighty northern (and Yoruba) polity of Oyo – not quite a newcomer on the local scene, since Oyo had since exported a considerable number of slaves through the Slave Coast. The redoubtable cavalry of Oyo inflicted an apparently shattering defeat on Dahomey in April 1726. Oyo had defeated Dahomey several times but was never able to conquer that polity, and the Dahomeans emerged apparently unscathed each time from the assaults of Oyo. Dahomey had, however, to become a vassal of Oyo and to pay a heavy tribute. Dahomey had also to face slightly later the surprisingly tough resistance of the exiled Huedans who had found refuge in the west. For the Europeans it was a dangerous time; those who opted for what turned out to be the “wrong” side at a particular moment, paid for this error with their lives.","PeriodicalId":422781,"journal":{"name":"Slave Traders by Invitation","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129770843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190876104.003.0012
F. Fuglestad
The chapter seeks to map what happened west of Allada/Dahomey, on the Western or “Little” (peripheral) Slave Coast. It was conditioned in part by occurrences on the Gold Coast – the center of the European presence in West Africa – among the Twi-speaking Akan. The central event is the conquest on the Eastern Gold Coast of the Ga-Adangbe of Accra by Akwamu in 1677–82. It sent waves of refugees into the Western Slave Coast. Many of these Ga-Adangbe refugees supported themselves as bandits and mercenaries, putting pressure on the local Ewe population. In the region of Aneho-Little Popo the refugees turned into conquerors and established the polity of Glidji which held uneasy relations with Grand Popo. The impact of all this remained fairly limited and the interest of the Europeans remained equally limited. An unresolved question is to what extent and how Akwamu dabbled in the affairs of the Western Slave Coast.
{"title":"Convulsions Further West","authors":"F. Fuglestad","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190876104.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190876104.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter seeks to map what happened west of Allada/Dahomey, on the Western or “Little” (peripheral) Slave Coast. It was conditioned in part by occurrences on the Gold Coast – the center of the European presence in West Africa – among the Twi-speaking Akan. The central event is the conquest on the Eastern Gold Coast of the Ga-Adangbe of Accra by Akwamu in 1677–82. It sent waves of refugees into the Western Slave Coast. Many of these Ga-Adangbe refugees supported themselves as bandits and mercenaries, putting pressure on the local Ewe population. In the region of Aneho-Little Popo the refugees turned into conquerors and established the polity of Glidji which held uneasy relations with Grand Popo. The impact of all this remained fairly limited and the interest of the Europeans remained equally limited. An unresolved question is to what extent and how Akwamu dabbled in the affairs of the Western Slave Coast.","PeriodicalId":422781,"journal":{"name":"Slave Traders by Invitation","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125120456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0002
F. Fuglestad
Apart from the Yoruba in the east and the north, most people of the Slave Coast spoke the Gbe language. The author briefly touches upon the debate about Gbe ‘language’ or ‘languages’, arguing that the people of the Slave Coast spoke ‘what is basically the same language’. There was considerable ethnic diversity. The region corresponds to the Benin Gap – a savanna-type vegetation in what is basically a rainforest zone. It was, above all, an amphibian region with an abundance of lagoons, lakes, rivers and swamplands.
{"title":"The Slave Coast","authors":"F. Fuglestad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Apart from the Yoruba in the east and the north, most people of the Slave Coast spoke the Gbe language. The author briefly touches upon the debate about Gbe ‘language’ or ‘languages’, arguing that the people of the Slave Coast spoke ‘what is basically the same language’. There was considerable ethnic diversity. The region corresponds to the Benin Gap – a savanna-type vegetation in what is basically a rainforest zone. It was, above all, an amphibian region with an abundance of lagoons, lakes, rivers and swamplands.","PeriodicalId":422781,"journal":{"name":"Slave Traders by Invitation","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123578361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0016
F. Fuglestad
Tegbesu, king of Dahomey (1740–74), found himself at the helm of a polity on the brink of implosion and was also faced with formidable external foes. He managed to wade through by accentuating the regime of terror, possibly establishing something akin to a “totalitarian” state, complete with internal purges. Dahomey’s enemies (Oyo, the exiled Huedans, Glidji etc.) were unable to coordinate their efforts. The relationship with (and between) the Europeans remained strained, provoking their slow disentanglement. But Tegbesu did try to mend his relations with the Portuguese-Brazilians, even sending the first of what turned out to be many Dahomean embassies to the viceroy in Brazil.
{"title":"Near Disaster","authors":"F. Fuglestad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0016","url":null,"abstract":"Tegbesu, king of Dahomey (1740–74), found himself at the helm of a polity on the brink of implosion and was also faced with formidable external foes. He managed to wade through by accentuating the regime of terror, possibly establishing something akin to a “totalitarian” state, complete with internal purges. Dahomey’s enemies (Oyo, the exiled Huedans, Glidji etc.) were unable to coordinate their efforts. The relationship with (and between) the Europeans remained strained, provoking their slow disentanglement. But Tegbesu did try to mend his relations with the Portuguese-Brazilians, even sending the first of what turned out to be many Dahomean embassies to the viceroy in Brazil.","PeriodicalId":422781,"journal":{"name":"Slave Traders by Invitation","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121117912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0017
F. Fuglestad
Tegbesu tried to get around his problem of legitimacy by manipulating the ideological-religious sphere. In particular, he promoted the cult of Mawu-Liisa, the Supreme Deity, and tried to link it to the monarchy. But the evidence seems to indicate that the internal opposition, as symbolized by the formally outlawed divinities of the “owners of the land”, especially Sakpata, continued to be significant. If the beginnings of the bocio art (grotesque sculptures of fury), can be attributed to this period, then we might say that we are confronted with a society which suffered from a collective trauma. It is possible that all the members of that society were actually slaves of the king. As for the wider geopolitical picture, we note the increasing importance of the Eastern Slave Coast, due in part to the policy of Oyo. And on the Western Slave Coast, the Danes and especially the new mighty Asante empire of the Gold Coast began to make their impact felt, whether directly or indirectly.
{"title":"More About the Tegbesu Era","authors":"F. Fuglestad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0017","url":null,"abstract":"Tegbesu tried to get around his problem of legitimacy by manipulating the ideological-religious sphere. In particular, he promoted the cult of Mawu-Liisa, the Supreme Deity, and tried to link it to the monarchy. But the evidence seems to indicate that the internal opposition, as symbolized by the formally outlawed divinities of the “owners of the land”, especially Sakpata, continued to be significant. If the beginnings of the bocio art (grotesque sculptures of fury), can be attributed to this period, then we might say that we are confronted with a society which suffered from a collective trauma. It is possible that all the members of that society were actually slaves of the king. As for the wider geopolitical picture, we note the increasing importance of the Eastern Slave Coast, due in part to the policy of Oyo. And on the Western Slave Coast, the Danes and especially the new mighty Asante empire of the Gold Coast began to make their impact felt, whether directly or indirectly.","PeriodicalId":422781,"journal":{"name":"Slave Traders by Invitation","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127791581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0007
F. Fuglestad
The monumental Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database has its limitations. It tells us, however, that of the 12 million (or more) slaves embarked from Africa for America, around 2 million (or more) came from the Slave Coast. Between 1696 and 1730 – that is, before the rise of Dahomey – one-third of all slaves came from the Slave Coast, which was then the leading African supplier. But under Dahomey, and much to the dismay of the new rulers, that coast lost its predominant position. A relative decline set in, as the heavy-handed methods of the new masters of the coast turned out to be counterproductive.
{"title":"The Database and the Slave Trade from the Slave Coast","authors":"F. Fuglestad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"The monumental Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database has its limitations. It tells us, however, that of the 12 million (or more) slaves embarked from Africa for America, around 2 million (or more) came from the Slave Coast. Between 1696 and 1730 – that is, before the rise of Dahomey – one-third of all slaves came from the Slave Coast, which was then the leading African supplier. But under Dahomey, and much to the dismay of the new rulers, that coast lost its predominant position. A relative decline set in, as the heavy-handed methods of the new masters of the coast turned out to be counterproductive.","PeriodicalId":422781,"journal":{"name":"Slave Traders by Invitation","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127410980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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