Talk:Dahomey

Untitled

This article is a rather " black" picture of the kingdom of Dahomey. This reminds me of the justifications that was served my the French in order to dismantel the kingdom (uncivilized, savage etc): once again, an Eurocentric picture of the World.

You should know that Dahomey was one of the highly organized kingdom in Africa at the time. One thing I would like to add is that under Ghezo, Dahomey had terminated its tribute paying to the Oyo after a war that they won. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Senase (talk • contribs) 15:12, 28 September 2006.

Are you aware that Ghezo continued to sell black slaves to the whites after the whites banned the trade in slaves? He continued this movement and contributed to the suffering of thousands. Just because they were organised doesn't mean they weren't savage or uncivilised. Nazi Germany was organised but they were still savages when it came down to it - with the massacre of millions of people and the level of violence in the lands they conquered. This isn't the race card being played here - its simple truth and fact. Dahomey was a savage and backward hole and still is to a certain extent. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.110.109.210 (talk • contribs) 09:23, 4 December 2006.

Muslims in this region still capture and sell Africans for slavery. Slavery isn't just history, it's alive and well in Africa. Hoserjoe 04:45, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Mass Grass?

The last sentence of the second paragraph reads:

Visitors to the historic site of Dahomey today can still see a throne built on human skulls, a mass grass of one of the king's wives, and two temples with mortar mixed with human blood.

I suppose this is a typo of mass grave, but a mass grave of a single person does not make much sense either, so I did not want to change it. Maybe whoever first added the sentence can shed some light on this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.47.127.75 (talk) 18:15, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

Dahomey Trade Guilds

So much emphasis has been placed on Dahomey's slave trade that one of the most intricate cultures of Africa seems to have been ignored. The people of Dahomey created a complex trade guild system that rivals in concept the most advanced of the European guild systems. Standards for each trade were established and maintained, with disciplinary consequences for failure to adhere to those standards. The guilds also had a system of setting fair prices for their goods and services; for example, sellers in their version of farm markets would meet before each market day opened, and they would set agreed prices for all items to be sold that day. Today, we call a similar practice "price fixing." Shirhall 01:56, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

WOW, are you serious? i feel ashamed that i didn't know that. this info should be included in the entry, don't you think?

Merge

Shouldn't this page be merged with Benin? C Teng (talk) 19:26, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

No. The Kingdom of Dahomey only encompassed a small portion of Benin (the lower 1/6th I believe). These were two entirely different political entities. You wouldn't merge Mali Empire and Guinea or Ashanti Empire and Ghana. One refers to a country that no longer exist while the other does still exist. Scott Free (talk) 23:46, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Needs map

A map of what used to be Dahomey would be useful. --Parkwells (talk) 19:22, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

19th and 20th c. history?

The article needs expansion for 19th and 20th c. history. There was complexity in France's relations with colonies.--Parkwells (talk) 19:39, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Major Changes October 2012

So, I spent the past couple days sourcing and rewriting a lot of the article. If there are any problems (I know there probably are a few), please fix them. But just for future editors, thought I would emphasize the sections that need the most significant heft to become Good, in my opinion. Religion, Arts, and the Amazons section are all in need of some improvement that is outside my reach. I added a little religion section, but it is quite limited and not very good. Improvements appreciated. The Arts has some good work on it from Blier and others, someone with background in those issues could probably improve the wiki-links to other pages and improve that page. The Amazons part is good, but I almost think it should just be Alpern (the main historian) and maybe take the discussions of gender relations to the Amazons main page. Regardless, that area also could use improvement in the future. Hope I gave a better tapestry for everyone to do additional improvements. Thanks. AbstractIllusions (talk) 16:03, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

Dahomey → Kingdom of Dahomey – The Kingdom of Dahomey is not the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. Most people who type "Dahomey" actually search for Benin or the Republic of Dahomey. So, this article should be moved, and "Dahomey" should be made a disambiguation page with links to: Kingdom of Dahomey, French Dahomey, Republic of Dahomey and Benin. Vanjagenije (talk) 23:51, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

• No Opinion right now. I considered making a similar move request a while back (and when I created the history page, I did use the suggested move History of the Kingdom of Dahomey), but perhaps you could provide evidence that "Dahomey" directed to Kingdom of Dahomey is not the primary topic. The existence of other terms does not mean that there isn't a primary topic. For example, if I do a Google Scholar search just for "Dahomey", if we look at the top 50- here's the division: Kingdom of Dahomey (32), French Dahomey (3), Republic of Dahomey (6), Geographic area/feature (9). Similarly, Britannica uses 'Dahomey' only for the kingdom: here. On the other side: Encyclopedia of Africa divides them up, as does the Encyclopedia of African history, so there may be reasons to do this. I could be (easily) convinced that you are right, but where is the evidence that "most people who type 'Dahomey'" mean one of the other entities? AbstractIllusions (talk) 00:59, 16 August 2013 (UTC)