Armed Women with the King at their Head, Going to War
This engraving depicts the Ahosu of Dahomey, Tegbessou (1740-1774), who is under a large umbrella, which is symbolic of royalty in the Bight of Benin hinterland. Musicians and a legendary army of female warriors followed the king. Many of whom would have been enslaved. Archibald Dalzel (1740–1811) was a Scottish governor at Ouidah (1767 -1770) and twice at the Gold Coast (1792-1798; 1800-1802). He advocated against abolitionism and justified slavery because it saved people from the greater evil of being human sacrifices in the kingdom of Dahomey.
Image Title
Armed Women with the King at their Head, Going to War
RegID
SI-OB-872
Date
1793
Title
Armed Women with the King at their Head, Going to War
Source
Archibald Dalzel, The History of Dahomey: An Inland Kingdom of Africa (London: T. Spilsbury and Son, 1793), facing p. 55.
Language
English
Item sets
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Spatial Coverage
Africa--Western Bight
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
2007; 28-Aug-19
Identifier
B008