Abomey is a town in
BeninBenin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north; its short coastline to the south leads to the Bight of Benin....
, formerly the capital of the ancient kingdom of
DahomeyDahomey was the name of a country in west Africa now called the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state founded in the seventeenth century which survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of...
. The kingdom was established about 1625.
The royal palaces of Abomey are a group of earthen structures built by the
Fon peopleFon is a major West African ethnic and linguistic group in the country of Benin, and southwest Nigeria, made up of more than 3,500,000 people. The Fon language is the main language spoken in Southern Benin, and is a member of the Gbe language group. Closely related cultures include the Ewe, Aja and...
between the mid-17th and late 19th Centuries. One of the most famous and historically significant traditional sites in West Africa, the palaces form one of the
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
World Heritage Sites.
The town was surrounded by a mud wall with a circumference estimated at six miles (
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911), pierced by six
gateA gate is a point of entry to a space enclosed by walls, or an opening in a fence. Gates may prevent or control entry or exit, or they may be merely decorative. Other terms for gate include yett and port....
s, and protected by a ditch five feet deep, filled with a dense growth of prickly
acaciaAcacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in 1773. The plants tend to be thorny and pod-bearing, with sap and leaves typically bearing large amounts of tannins...
, the usual defence of West African strongholds.
Abomey is a town in
BeninBenin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north; its short coastline to the south leads to the Bight of Benin....
, formerly the capital of the ancient kingdom of
DahomeyDahomey was the name of a country in west Africa now called the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state founded in the seventeenth century which survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of...
. The kingdom was established about 1625.
The Royal Palaces of Abomey
The royal palaces of Abomey are a group of earthen structures built by the
Fon peopleFon is a major West African ethnic and linguistic group in the country of Benin, and southwest Nigeria, made up of more than 3,500,000 people. The Fon language is the main language spoken in Southern Benin, and is a member of the Gbe language group. Closely related cultures include the Ewe, Aja and...
between the mid-17th and late 19th Centuries. One of the most famous and historically significant traditional sites in West Africa, the palaces form one of the
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
World Heritage Sites.
The town was surrounded by a mud wall with a circumference estimated at six miles (
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911), pierced by six
gateA gate is a point of entry to a space enclosed by walls, or an opening in a fence. Gates may prevent or control entry or exit, or they may be merely decorative. Other terms for gate include yett and port....
s, and protected by a ditch five feet deep, filled with a dense growth of prickly
acaciaAcacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in 1773. The plants tend to be thorny and pod-bearing, with sap and leaves typically bearing large amounts of tannins...
, the usual defence of West African strongholds. Within the walls were villages separated by fields, several royal palaces, a market-place and a large square containing the barracks. In November 1892,
BehanzinBéhanzin is considered the eleventh King of Dahomey . Upon taking the throne, he changed his name from Kondo. He succeeded his father, Glele, and ruled from 1889 to 1894. Behanzin was Abomey's last independent ruler established through traditional power structures...
, the last independent reigning king of Dahomey, being defeated by French colonial forces, set fire to Abomey and fled northward. The
French colonial administrationFrench West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan , French Guinea , Côte d'Ivoire , Upper Volta , Dahomey and Niger. It was formed from individual coastal colonies which the French had first seized as trading posts in the 17th...
rebuilt the town and connected it with the coast by a railroad.
When UNESCO designated the royal palaces of Abomey as a World Heritage Site in 1985 it stated
- From 1625 to 1900 twelve kings succeeded one another at the head of the powerful Kingdom of Abomey. With the exception of King Akaba, who used a separate enclosure, they each had their palaces built within the same cob-wall area, in keeping with previous palaces as regards the use of space and materials. The royal palaces of Abomey are a unique reminder of this vanished kingdom.
From 1993, 50 of the 56 bas-reliefs that formerly decorated the walls of King
GlèlèBadohou, who took the throne name Glele, is considered to be the tenth King of Dahomey . He succeeded his father, Ghezo, and ruled from 1858 to 1889....
(now termed the 'Salle des Bijoux') have been located and replaced on the rebuilt structure. The bas-reliefs carry an iconographic program expressing the history and power of the Fon people.
Today, the city is of less importance, but is still popular with tourists and as a centre for crafts.
Threats
As reported by
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
World Heritage News, the Royal Palaces of Abomey suffered from a fire on January 21st, 2009, "which destroyed several buildings." The fire was the most recent disaster which has plagued the site, coming after a powerful tornado damaged the site in 1984.
Demographics
| Year |
Population |
| 1860s |
24 000 |
| 1979 |
38 412 |
| 1992 |
65 725 |
| 2002 |
77 997 |
| 2008 (estimate) |
87 344 |
External links