The Dahomi Kingdom

The Dahomi Kingdom

It was founded by the Oyoko clan of Akan speaking people around 1620s in West Africa. Her capital was Kumasi. Its rise and expansion was attributed to the state building genius and military strength of kings like Obir, Yeboa (1717 - 1750)
By the beginning of the 19th century Asante empire had reached the climax of its growth and expanded to include almost the whole of modem Ghana, Ivory coast and Togo land because of it's strong social, political economic set up as seen below.
Political Organisation.
Like Dahomey kingdom, Asante was a centralised state. It had three political divisions each with a distinctive administration but all of them recognising the king of Asante known as the Asantehene. The first political organisation was Kumasi (Metropolitan Asante). This was the Capital City of the kingdom where the Asantehene stayed. He ruled directly over Kumasi, which gave him the title of Kumasihene. He was however assisted by chiefs who originally came to power through hereditary system but because of administrative reforms of three Asantehene namely Osei Kojo, Osei Kwame and and Osei Bonsu, who changed the former hereditary system to appointive system these assistants had to be chosen by elders' council on basis of merit.
The 2nd division was Amanto States. These were states which were located within a radius of 25-40 miles led by "Amanihenes". It should be noted that they were equal to the king of Kumasi whenever they met in the Asante Confederacy Council (A.C.C). Amanihene enjoyed a lot of influence e.g. each Amanihene had a council of hereditary advisors, each amanihene had his own Odwira festival etc. sometimes they mantained their own armies and rose revenue for Asante kingdom by taxing their people of Amanto state. Each Amanihene maintained his own courts of law although the people appealed to the Asantehene in case they were not satisfied at the level of Amani courts.
The Amanihene also owned armies and were responsible for their mobilisation and demobilisation. However in case of national campaigns. the Amanihene would contribute soldiers to the national army whose commander in chief was the Asantehene. Note must be taken that the Amanihene would be summoned to the capital (Kumasi) by Asantehene any time. However it was rare to remove the Amanihene from the office by the Asantebene.
The Amanto states recognised the golden stool, which was created by Osei Tutu as a symbol of unity. They also recognised the Asantebene as their political and religious leader. All the Amanto state leaders took an oath forbidding them from declaring war against one another.
Military service was compulsory for all able-bodied men. It should be however noted that Osei Tutu, a great Asante leader introduced a new military organisation known as square military formation i.e. each state was given a place in one of the four direction at the front line i.e. front, rear, Left and right.
At the end of 19th century Asante had become essentially a military state and it's because her military organisation and strength that she was able to dominate West Africa for sometimes, In fact, the present day Ghana acquired her might from Asante kingdom and she was able to challenge British colonial rule until 1900 when she was fully brought under British rule.
War implements were at first spears but from 1650 onwards following the coming of Europeans on the West African coast, Asante sold slaves to acquire arms and ammunitions for the expansion and defence of the kingdom.
Economic Organlsatlon.
The economy of Asante was basically agricultural where products were mainly for subsistance notable of which were yams.
The empire also depended on trade especially with north Africa. Her main exports in this field were Kolanuts and gold which initially went to north Africa during the period of transaharan trade in exchange for cloth, salt and camels.
However with the coming of Europeans, the Asante extended towards W. African coast in order to have a direct access to European traders. Consquently, trade became voluminous especially gold in exchange for a variety of European goods e.g fire arms and by early 19thcentury trade had become the backbone of Asante's economy.
The Asantehene who was richest man in kingdom controlled all trade.
Social Organisation.
The most important bond of unity was the golden stool which was believed to have descended from heaven in the reign of Osei Tutu. This was sacred institution.
The clan was the basic social, political institution among the Akan speaking people. All the Asante clans originally belonged to one clan (Oyoko clan) whose members were responsible for the formation of Asante kingdom.
It should however be noted that slaves could rise to position of prominence depending on merit i.e. there was social mobility.
The Asante had their own religion which strongly centered on state festival e.g. the Odwira annual ceremony during which disputes were settled, plans for the new year made and prayers for the nation said.
The above discourse is a testimony to the fact that in large measure like many other pre- colonial African centralised societies, Asante had well laid up social, political and economic institution before the colonial interruption.

Dahomey Kingdom:

Dahomey was in the present day Benin country in West Africa. It was one of the most powerful pre-colonial West African kingdoms. Her. power was based on proper political, social and economic organisation. This assisted it to resist the French colonial invasion until 1897. The kingdom is said to have been organised by Aja or Fon clan that mobilised various tribes in the region into centralised leadership. The Aja clan was so strong that it formed the Benin dynasty which remained for many years and was adrmred by the very many African societies as well as European newcomers (colonialists). Her strong position seems to have been maintained because of her small size which was easy to manage.
Political Organisation.
One of the most important factors to explain the success of Dahomey was her proper political set up. In the examination of her political system perhaps the ideal starting point could be the nature of succession to power. Ascendance system in Dahomey was hereditary in nature. This was meant to minimise succession disputes and civil wars that could result into anarchy and political instability.
The successor to the king was always selected from the legitimate sons born to the king by his first wife while in office. This helped to eliminate unnecessary competitions amongst many sons and other distant relatives of the throne. Once one became the king, he assumed all political powers and in most cases he ruled as an absolute monarchy. He was the law and represented the state in all social, political and economic spheres. E.g. the king controlled all political and military appointments in the kingdom and all the population had to be loyal to the king. Examples of the famous kings of Dahomey include; Ghezo, Gelele and Behanzin.
Dahomey also enjoyed the centralised system of administration and a high class of specialisation of activities e.g. she had various ministries headed by cabinet ministers who formed the council of elders. These made major decisions in the society e.g. the prime minister was the king's spokesman, minister in charge of taxes (Meu) ensured the collection and storage of government revenue while the minister of Agriculture (tokpo) ensured that plantation Agriculture brought expected revenue to the kingdom e.g. palm oiland rubber plantations were properly catered for to ensure economic prosperity in Dahomey.
Each of the above ministers had a woman counterpart known as "Naye" who spied on the provincial chiefs to guarantee peace and security in the Dahomey kingdom. The most important 'Naye' stayed at Quida and she ensured that she reported all commercial activities carried out in the region to the king. This power was also shown in the standing army which protected Dahomey as a kingdom. At this point in time the army was the most unique in the whole of West African societies and had women soldiers known as "Amazon" These had a big role to play in the protection of the king as well as the kingdom at large.
The commanders in the army often held high government posts in order to ensure their loyalty to the king. The Migan was the national commander of Dahomey armed forces while the Meu was also the commanderofa big section of the army. The king himself was a respected soldier and was the overall commander of the forces and his title was 'Gao'
Dahomey also enjoyed prerogative power of the king who held the law in his hands. He forbade the formation of secret societies and whoever found was mercilessly punished. In some sectors of political issues the king had to also act within the law in order to ensure democracy in the kingdom. At one time the king Gelele was fined for breaking the law. The highest court of justice "Mingi" had to settle the cases against him although the king was often consulted before major decision concerning crime sentences were made.
Dahomey didn't have established set of rules except traditional customs and norms of the people that assisted in solving most of the problems that would emerge out of indiscipline by the Dahomey natives. In each provincial administration the king established the appointive system and believed in the traditional ruling families of the conquered states in fact the king for this matter enjoyed loyalty from his appointed provincial chiefs because he could dismiss and appoint another one at his will.
Through the policy of Dahomenisation all conquered subjects were totally changed and absorbed into Dahomenian selected social, political and economic systems through learning the language and abandoning previous culture in favour of the Dahomey culture. The provincial governors could be summoned at Abomey. To report what had transpired in their provinces. This made them to work hard as was expected of them and help to ensure loyalty to the king among different provinces.
Economic Organisation.
Dahomey's economic organisation involved the exchange in crop production, animal products, European trade items and well laid out taxation system. Before 1850s slave trade had been the major economic occupation although was not organised. as a result of Dahomey kings who hated the trade in human beings although it was money generating for the kingdom.
Agriculture was also revolutionised by introduction of palm oil plantations which became the main source of income. Dahomey had an outstanding and well organised economy which kept her strong and self sustaining state for quite a long period of time. Economy was largely organised centrally. That the king was forced to instruct the whole population get involved in the exercise of palm oil plantation agriculture which-was the main revenue generating activity. The minister of agriculture (Tokpo) ensured that records of palm oil trees grown are kept well for proper assessment of taxes.
The keeping of animals was closely supervised by the state. People were encouraged to keep animals and grow enough food crops to ensure food self sustainance in the kingdom. The government also set up state granaries where the surplus food could be stored to avoid famine in future. The indiscriminate killing of domestic animals was also prohibited by the government to ensure the maintenance of large stocks of animals. The animal census was regularly done which also helped in proper assessment of taxes to raise the government revenues from the boundaries.
There was also specialisation in agricultural production and keeping animals. Each province was encouraged to produce specific crops e.g. Abomey province specialised in millet, Alladah province specialised in maize and groundnuts. Aja in maize alone, Coastal province produced palm oil however sometimes there were adjustments made especially when a particular province had suffered from natural calamities of drought and floods. There was also some royal monopoly e.g. the production of spices, red and black pepper, ginger, bee keeping. All these were main activities and selected for the royal class because they needed little efforts to produce and attained high profits and had ready market from Europeans.
Taxation also formed the basis of the kingdom revenues. Income tax from different personalities was charged depending on the citizen's rank. Taxation system had considered livestock and crops one had as important yardsticks to explain how much tax one would pay in the government. Hunters, basket weavers and other craftsmen plus grave diggers were taxed to increase the coverage of the government revenues. Apart from taxation, Dahomey also rose government revenues through food crops, palm oil, state and other handcraft materials in kind merchandise was also another sector of trade in which Dahomey rose some income from Europeans who had settled in West African coast by
1830. Dahomey's greatness is partly explained by fantastic trade relations it carried out
with its neighbouring societies as well as Europeans at the coast.
The Social Cultural and Judicial Set Up of Dahomey.
Dahomey existed in stratified social organisation. It was divided into three groups i.e luxury group, commoners' group and servants. The leisured class constituted of the royal or noble group or citizens of Dahomey. They were all relatives of the ruling king. They were known as the leisured citizens because they enjoyed several privileges in comparison to other classes and depended on the work of the other people. Never the less the relatives group of the current king enjoyed more privileges than those related to the previous kings.
A class of commoners was second in importance in Dahomey's social structures. It was the class that provided chiefs and other state workers. In most cases commoners were allowed to marry from the royal class as long as they were economically capable. This made it possible for the children of commoners to get promoted in high ranks in goverment In other words there was freedom of mobility (i.e. social mobility).
at the bottom of social pyramid, there was a servile class that composed of slaves and serfs, It was the social class that worked on plantations and could sometimes be sold into slavery. Nevertheless it should be noted that the social stratification in Dahomey was not very rigid as one citizen was allowed to move- from one lower class to the higher as long
as he satisfied the conditions required for such a high' class.
Dahomey had several religions, different communities worshipped different gods. however the king closely monitored religious affairs of the whole kingdom and he didn't interfere with any religion by his state policies. The newly conquered provinces had freedom to continue with their private religious affairs or at their will they would change
Dahomenians' beliefs. The Dahomenians suspected ancestors who never believed to be society. As a result there were annual ceremonies which were honoured by the people of the great personality. These yearly celebrations had a great unifying role among the people of Dahomey.
Dahomey had a strict legal system involving hierarchy (order) of the courts from the village level to the highest court of appeal, which was presided over by Mingi. (Chief justice) who took major decisions on serious cases. However the king had the power to adjust punishments where possible .
it should be noted that Dahomey had well laid out rules on political, social and economic institutions that made it strong during the 19th century period, a factor that made it able to resist French colonialism until 1897.
Revision questions.
Examine the social, political and economic organisation of Dahomey in the pre-colonial period.
The existence of 19th century African pre-colonial societies much depended on its military.
with reference to any society in West Africa, discuss the validity of this statement.
How was law and order maintained in Dahomey by 1850