Last Day of the Annual Customs for Watering the Graves of the King's Ancestors
This engraving shows a royal ceremony in Dahomey. It depicts the Ahosu of Dahomey, Tegbessou (1740-1774), who is under an umbrella, which was symbolic of royalty in the Bight of Benin hinterland. Europeans are on the platform in the foreground. 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
Last Day of the Annual Customs for Watering the Graves of the King's Ancestors
RegID
SI-OB-873
Date
1793
Title
Last Day of the Annual Customs for Watering the Graves of the King's Ancestors
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
B009