Annual Customs of Dahomey
The Annual Customs of Dahomey were the main yearly celebration in the Kingdom of Dahomey, held at the capital, Abomey. These ceremonies were largely started under King Agaja around 1730 and involved significant collection and distribution of gifts and tribute, religious ceremonies involving human sacrifice, military parades, and discussions by dignitaries about the future for the kingdom.
Victims for sacrifice - from The history of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom of Africa, 1793.
The Kingdom of Dahomey was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by expanding south to conquer key cities like Whydah belonging to the Kingdom of Whydah on the Atlantic coast which granted it unhindered access to the tricontinental Atlantic Slave Trade.
"Victims for sacrifice" – from The history of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom of Africa, 1793
King Ghezo displayed with a royal umbrella
The reception of the Ah-Haussoo-Noh-Beh in Abomey drawn by Frederick E. Forbes in 1851
In 1894, the last King of Dahomey, Béhanzin, surrendered his person to Alfred-Amédée Dodds