Ghezo
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Ghezo was a king of the Dahomey in Benin in the 19th Century. After Ghezo’s father Agonglo died, Ghezo’s brother Adandozan became king. In 1818, Adandozan jailed Francisco Félix de Souza, a slave trader from Brazil but de Souza escaped and made a deal with Ghezo to launch a coup d’état to force Adandozan to abdicate. Officially, Ghezo was regent for Adandozan’s son Dakpo but then in 1838, Ghezo declared his own son Glele heir apparent. Dakpo and Adandozan decided to fight Ghezo to change this and the fight started a fire which killed Dakpo making Ghezo official king of Dahomey.
War with Oyo
[change | change source]An empire called the Oyo had had the Dahomey pay taxes to them every year since 1730. Then in 1823, Ghezo refused to pay the tax the Oyo wanted. When the Oyo sent an ambassador to Ghezo to change his mind, Ghezo killed him. The Oyo then went to war with Ghezo and the Kingdom of Dahomey. Ghezo defeated and killed the Oyo leader Ajanaku and won the war.
Controversy over the Slave Trade
[change | change source]After beating the Oyo, Ghezo created his own empire which was based on slavery. Ghezo had people captured and enslaved. To escape him, people ran away to the city of Abeokuta. Ghezo started to wage war against Abeokuta to get slaves.
In 1849, Commander William Winniett, governor of the Gold Coast (British colony), sent naval officer Frederick E. Forbes to Ghezo to convince King Ghezo to end the Atlantic slave trade. Instead, Ghezo proposed expanding the trade in palm oil which the slaves could produce in Africa rather than be exported across the Atlantic. He went back to attacking Abeokuta. After he lost in 1852, Ghezo decided to ban the slave trade but he went back to the wars against Abeokuta in 1858.
The effort of the British Empire to end the slave trade made a major controversy. One faction known as the Fly faction said that the Dahomey should end the slave trade like the British wanted. King Ghezo and the Elephant faction said that they should keep the slave trade. Ghezo wanted to continue to sell slaves to Francisco Félix de Souza. In 1852, Ghezo still signed a treaty with the British Empire to end the slave trade. But in 1857, Ghezo brought it back.
Death
[change | change source]In 1859, Ghezo died, either of smallpox or because he was killed by his enemies and his son Glele replaced him as king.