Ouidah. Robin Law
in the Dahomian conquest in the 1720s.40 In Ouidah itself in recent times, it is in fact Hu rather than Dangbe who has been regarded as first in status among local vodun; in contemporary sources, the primacy of the Hunon within the priesthood of Ouidah was first recorded in the 1860s.41 In local tradition, this reordered ranking of the vodun is linked to the Dahomian conquest in the 1720s, the Hunon then being given ‘a special delegation of the royal authority of Abomey’ over the priests of the other cults, including that of Dangbe.42 It seems likely, however, that in this the Dahomians were merely recognizing and confirming the pre-existing local hierarchy, the point of their edict being probably to maintain the local primacy of the Hunon, in spite of the removal of Dangbe’s principal shrine into the town.
The Hula connection might also help to resolve a puzzle about the name of the town, Glehue, commonly explained as meaning ‘Farmhouse’.43 It has been argued that the form of this name is linguistically Fon, rather than Hueda; and this has led to the suggestion that it represents a Fon ‘translation’ of a hypothetical original Hueda name, Single.44 This, however, seems improbable, since, as has been seen, the name Glehue was already in use before the Dahomian conquest, being attested in contemporary European sources from the 1680s onwards; and it is difficult to understand why Europeans should have adopted a Dahomian form of the name, rather than the one current locally. Possibly the name was originally Hula rather than Fon, since names of this form also occur in Hula country;45 however, even if Ouidah was not a Hula settlement, the Europeans, approaching it from the sea and therefore via the Hula, might have employed a Hula version of its name.
The principal local history of Ouidah, by Casimir Agbo, dates the foundation of the town by Kpase to ‘around 1550’.46 This date is evidently based upon an earlier suggestion, by the French administrator Gavoy, that the encounter of Kpase and Kpate with the first Europeans to visit Ouidah occurred around 1580, with an allowance added for Kpase’s rule prior to this event.47 The traditions of the priesthood of Kpate, however, give an alternative and earlier date for his encounter with the Europeans, 1548.48 It may also be noted that the traditions of the Hunon priesthood give a list of eight predecessors in the title prior to the present incumbent, for whom dates of tenure are supplied which indicate that the first took office in 1452; but since this involves an improbably long average tenure of over 50 years each (and a term of office for the first Hunon of over 120 years, 1452–1581), this should evidently be taken symbolically, as an assertion of antiquity (and by implication, priority) of establishment, rather than literally.49 There is no reason to suppose, however, that any of these dates have any firm basis. Gavoy’s date of c. 1580, for example, although sanctified by frequent repetition, was by his own account merely a speculative estimate made on the basis that the last king of Hueda, Hufon, displaced by the Dahomian conquest of 1727, was the third successor to (and great-grandson of) Kpase, on the assumption of an average length of reign/generation of 30 years (though the mathematical calculation is bungled).50 However, it is known from contemporary sources that the king of Hueda recalled in local tradition as the son and immediate successor of Kpase, Agbangla, was reigning from the 1680s, dying in 1703.51 This might be held to suggest that Kpase and his foundation of Ouidah belong rather to the middle of the seventeenth century. But this is surely to take too literalistic a view of traditional history, and in particular of the remembered royal genealogy, which may well be telescoped, even if not in part fictitious.52 All that can be said with confidence is that the settlement at Ouidah predated the beginnings of European trade there in the seventeenth century.
In the long run, it may be hoped that archaeology will provide more concrete evidence on the early history of settlement in Ouidah. But to date no excavation has been undertaken in the town, apart from limited exploratory work within the courtyard of the former Portuguese fort during reconstruction works there in 1992;53 more systematic excavation was concentrated at Savi, the former capital of the Hueda kingdom, rather than at Ouidah itself.54
Environment and economy
The name Glehue, ‘Farmhouse’, is usually explained in local tradition as reflecting the fact that the town was originally established by Kpase as a farm.55 Although this story may be no more than an inference from the name, the suggestion that Ouidah was originally an agricultural settlement is consistent with its location, some distance north of the coastal lagoon, on permanently dry and therefore cultivable ground. However, Ouidah’s proximity to the coastal lagoon clearly also played an important role in its early development, and it is likely that the settlement was sited with this also in mind.
The configuration of the lagoon system is complex and varies seasonally with the level of the water, becoming more extensive during the rainy seasons (April to July and October/November). It has very probably also changed over time, through processes of silting and erosion. In recent times, the only permanently continuous waterway in the Ouidah area has been the lagoon immediately behind the coast, called locally Djesin (‘Salt water’). Early European sources, however, speak of two major ‘rivers’ in the Hueda kingdom. The second (called by Europeans ‘Euphrates’), to the north of the capital Savi, is evidently the more northerly ‘lagoon’ called locally Toho, which runs south-eastwards by Savi before turning east into Lake Nokoué; this is nowadays for most of its length no more than a marshy depression, but was presumably a more substantial watercourse in earlier times.56 In addition, the area between Ouidah and the coastal lagoon is low-lying and swampy and subject to seasonal flooding, temporarily creating additional watercourses. The only significant area of cultivable land south of Ouidah is around the village of Zoungbodji, halfway towards the beach. Tradition suggests that Zoungbodji is of comparable antiquity to Ouidah itself, attributing its foundation to a man called Zingbo (or Zoungbo), who is regularly linked with Kpate in the story of the arrival of the first Europeans; in the usual version, Zingbo fled in fright at their approach, leaving Kpate to make the first contact.57 In contemporary sources, however, the settlement of Zoungbodji is not documented until after the Dahomian conquest in the 1720s, when it became important as the location of a Dahomian military garrison. The only other substantial settlement is Djegbadji, situated on a group of islands in the lagoon to the south-west of Zoungbodji. This was in origin a settlement of the Hula people, although Hueda and later (after the Dahomian conquest of Hueda in the 1720s) Fon elements also settled there subsequently.58
In recent times, the lagoon has been an important source of fish, which are caught in static traps, as well as with lines and nets both from the shore and from canoes.59 In the nineteenth century, it was noted that fish, rather than meat, formed the staple diet of most of the inhabitants of Ouidah; and dried fish was also traded from the coast into the interior, as far as the Dahomian capital Abomey.60 In the late seventeenth century European visitors already noted that the ‘rivers’ in Hueda produced large quantities of fish;61 and there is no reason to suppose that this tradition of fishing did not date back earlier, before the arrival of the Europeans. Although the main centre of fishing in the area was presumably Djegbadji, families in Ouidah itself were also involved: the Déhoué family of Sogbadji, who claim to have been settled there prior to the establishment of the English fort in the quarter (in the 1680s), were traditionally canoemen and fishermen.62 One early eighteenth-century account also noted the existence to the south of Ouidah of salt-works, at which salt was obtained by boiling sea water in jars and was traded into the interior.63 This evidently refers to Djegbadji, which remains a centre of salt production to the present day (as reflected in its name, meaning ‘On the salt marsh’). The reference to the boiling of sea water is inexact since later accounts make clear that salt was extracted in this area from the water of the lagoon.64 Concentrations of salt are formed through the evaporation of shallow pools at the borders of the lagoon by the heat of the sun; earth is collected from these, the salt leached out by straining water through it, and it is the resulting highly saline water which is then boiled to produce the salt.
Although Ouidah’s main commercial function in early times was probably in retailing the produce of the lagoon, fish and salt, overland into the interior, it probably also acted as an intermediary in trade conducted by the lagoon itself, which offered a medium of lateral communication and trade along the coast. In recent times, the lagoon