Royal Palaces of Abomey

The Royal Palaces of Abomey certainly were a highlight of my road trip in Benin. I did read about the "no photo" policy but with the help of a few Benin Francs that policy was abandoned very fast. Not with a big camera but with the iPhone I was allowed. Perfect, as the phones make good photos anyway these days.

The palaces are well restored (late 2019) and still some reconstruction was going on. Mainly restoring of the tatched roofs. A visit gives a good look into the Africa before the Europeans came. The tombs are also interesting to visit. The museum has relics from all the kings on display and also shows the history of the kingdoms. There are actually still kings in Benin today but, except some rule over the local community, they have not much to say.

The site is easily combined with a visit to the subterrean housing about 45 minutes away (Village souterrain d'Agongointo-Zoungoudo). A day trip from Cotonou can easily be arranged.

This site provides a sense of the scale and nature of some West African Kingdoms prior to colonial rule. Forget any Europe or Asia-based preconceptions about what the word “Palace” implies and you could find a visit an interesting entree to the region’s history.

What remains is a large complex of 2 palaces – those of the 19th century Kings Ghezo and Glélé who were the 9th and 10th kings of Dahomey (Another 10 palaces were destroyed during the French defeat of the monarchy in the 1890s). The complex consists of large interlinked courtyards each surrounded by rather ordinary single story mud-brick buildings with “tin roofs” (originally of course they would have been thatched) and contains also a few separated structures which were/are tombs and temples. The whole is contained within impressively high walls (legend has it that they were partly made from human blood). Many of the buildings now act as rooms for the National Museum and contain a reasonably interesting range of artefacts relating to the monarchy of Dahomey whose period of greatness spanned the 17th to the 19th centuries (A throne mounted on skulls is particularly memorable!).

The size and strength of the palaces reflects the fact that the Fon of Dahomey were powerful regionally and highly militaristic under an absolute monarchy which owned everything and everybody! The Kingdom had a regiment of all-female warriers – the “Dahomey Amazons”, whose supposed “savagery” was the stuff of French legend as partial justification for their African expansion. Their wealth …