Ghezo

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

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.

Other Wars

After beating the Oyo, Ghezo created his own empire which was based on slavery. Ghezo had people captured and enslaved so to escape him people ran away to a place called the city of Abeokuta. Ghezo started to wage war against Abeokuta to get slaves.

Then in 1849, a man named William Winniett from the British Empire sent someone named Frederick Forbes to Ghezo to convince King Ghezo to end the slave trade. Ghezo ignored this and 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.

Controversy over the Slave Trade

Because the British Empire wanted the Dahomey to end the slave trade it was a major controversy. One faction known as the Fly faction said that the Dahomey should end the slave trade like the British wanted. But 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

In 1859, Ghezo died, either of smallpox or because he was killed by his enemies and his son Glele replaced him as king.