Dahomey’s Export Trade
The development of slavery within Africa begins with the country of Dahomey, which existed from about 1600 until 1904 and now known as the Republic of Benin. These warlike people, the Fon, became a strong regional power in the 18th century and its economy built upon conquest and slave labor. The Fon soon conquered the port of Whydah on the Atlantic coast, from which it exported its slaves to European traders.
“Visitors extensively documented the kingdom which became one of the most familiar African nations known to Europeans, as it became known as a major supplier of slaves. Dahomey was a highly militaristic society organized for constant warfare, taking captives in wars and raids against its neighbors and trading them to Europeans as slaves in exchange for weapons, gunpowder, fabric, tobacco and alcohol. Other captives became slaves for Dahomey royal plantations or died in human sacrifice celebrations known as the Annual Customs of Dahomey.
In the 1840s, Dahomey was in decline due to British pressure to abolish the slave trade, which included the anti-slavery blockade of Africa by the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron. The country was also weakened after crushing defeats by the Yoruba who were migrating south. Territorial disputes with France led to war in 1890 and part of the kingdom became a French protectorate. Renewed fighting led to the end of the kingdom four years later and annexation into French West Africa. French Dahomey gained independence in 1960 with Hubert Maga as its first president, who was deposed in an army coup three years later led by Gen. Soglo, who dismissed the civilian government. Another military coup occurred in late 1967; yet another in 1969, and another in 1972. Between 1974 and 1989 Dahomey embraced socialism and changed its name to the People’s Republic of Benin. In 1990, Benin abandoned its Marxist ideology, began moving toward multiparty democracy, and changed its name again, to the Republic of Benin.”
Its literacy rate in 2010 was recorded to be 42.4%. (Wikipedia)