02/01/2026
In the Republic of Benin, there has long been a custom of blackmail and slander against kings who stand against injustice. When I started school, we were taught that King Adandozan was an evil person. They claimed that when he sat in front of his house and saw a pregnant woman passing by, he would bet with other elders about whether the woman was carrying a baby boy or a girl. To confirm the bet, they said he would order his people to catch the woman and open her stomach so everyone could see who had won the bet.
However, historical accounts suggest that he was actually a great king—the only one who stood firmly against slavery. In those days, standing against slavery meant standing against powerful forces such as France, America, the Arab world, and even African kings who benefited from that evil trade. Because of this, a coup d’état was organized against him. He was replaced by his brother, and a harmful propaganda campaign was launched to destroy his name and image.
King Adandozan was a ruler of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1797 until 1818. His reign ended with a coup led by his brother, King Ghezo, who then removed Adandozan from official history. This has resulted in great uncertainty about many aspects of Adandozan’s life, even though Ghezo later used many of Adandozan’s ideas and policies to govern.
Adandozan succeeded his father, King Agonglo, in 1797, but he was quite young at the time. Therefore, a regent ruled the kingdom until 1804. While dealing with the economic depression that had affected the administrations of his father Agonglo and grandfather King Kpengla, Adandozan attempted to reduce slavery in order to limit European trade. When these efforts failed, he tried to reform the economy by focusing more on agriculture.
Unfortunately, these reforms created internal opposition. In 1818, during the Annual Customs of Dahomey, King Ghezo, together with Francisco Félix de Sousa, a powerful Brazilian slave trader, organized a coup d’état and removed Adandozan from power. Although he was not executed, he lived until the 1860s, hidden within the palaces, while his name was largely erased from official royal history.
It is also believed that Adandozan later trained King Behanzin, the grandson of his brother Ghezo, to pursue the vision he had for the kingdom. King Behanzin eventually became the only king who challenged France in a way it had never experienced before. He was later deported to Martinique, then transferred to Algeria due to lung illness, where he died in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, in 1906.
