Bailiwick Express comments that:
"Jersey's politicians are to be asked to rename a local square after the West African country of Benin, as a way of acknowledging the island's links with the slave trade."
A correspondent of mine has noted that Benin is the name of the modern state, and the state which it replaced - the Kingdom of Dahomey, was notorious for Africans enslaving Africans:
Benin is the name of the modern state – so at the time of slavery no country of that name even existed. It was formerly Dahomey (the Kingdom of), a country that far from symbolising all the wrongs of the slave trade was actually party to it – a fact that the country itself was forced to recognize and apologise for later in its history.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, Dahomey had begun to weaken and lose its status as the regional power. This enabled the French to take over the area in 1892. In 1899, the French included the land called French Dahomey within the larger French West Africa colonial region.
In 1958, France granted autonomy to the Republic of Dahomey, and full independence on 1 August 1960, which is celebrated each year as Independence Day, a national holiday. The president who led the country to independence was Hubert Maga
For the next twelve years after 1960, ethnic strife contributed to a period of turbulence. There were several coups and regime changes, with the figures of Hubert Maga, Sourou Apithy, Justin Ahomadégbé, and Émile Derlin Zinsou dominating; the first three each represented a different area and ethnicity of the country. Coalitions between Maga, Apithy, and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin were unsuccessful, as each sought absolute power. Eventually these three agreed to form a Presidential Council after violence marred the 1970 elections.
On 7 May 1972, Maga ceded power to Ahomadégbé. On 26 October 1972, Lt. Col. Mathieu Kérékou overthrew the ruling triumvirate, becoming president and stating that the country would not "burden itself by copying foreign ideology, and wants neither Capitalism, Communism, nor Socialism".
Kérékou's regime initially included officers from both the north and south of the country, but as the years passed the northerners (like Kérékou himself) became clearly dominant, undermining the idea that the regime was not based in ethnicity.
In 1980, Kérékou converted to Islam and changed his first name to Ahmed. He changed his name back after claiming to be a born-again Christian. In 1989, riots broke out when the regime did not have enough money to pay its army. The banking system collapsed. Eventually, Kérékou renounced Marxism, and a convention forced Kérékou to release political prisoners and arrange elections. Marxism–Leninism was abolished as the nation's form of government.
The country's name was officially changed to the Republic of Benin on 1 March 1990, after the newly formed government's constitution was completed. In 1999, Kérékou issued a national apology for the substantial role that Africans had played in the Atlantic slave trade.
A correspondent of mine has noted that Benin is the name of the modern state, and the state which it replaced - the Kingdom of Dahomey, was notorious for Africans enslaving Africans:
During the colonial period and at independence, the country was known as Dahomey. On 30 November 1975, it was renamed to Benin, after the body of water on which the country lies—the Bight of Benin. It then went on to be notable for inter-tribal conflict, ending in a dictatorship.
Changing the name to Benin then shows that Jersey is proud to be linked to a country with a brutal history of slavery and dictatorship!
"Rather than naming one of our public areas after a town in the stolen lands of New
Jersey (which itself is named after a slave trader), it would be a fitting tribute to name
it after the country from which these 302 slaves were stolen."
And one might add, traded in slaves, Africans enslaving Africans and treating them brutally! It's trade in slaves only began to decline once Britain had outlawed the slave trade. When King Gezo, the great slave King of the Dahomey, died in 1858, some 800 slaves were massacred in his memory.
Indeed one of the most controversial aspects surrounding the hundreds of years of African negro slavery in the West, is the complicity of Africans themselves, in the horrendous trade. King Gezo's slave hunters would go deep into the interior. They would raid villages. They would sell the young and able, then massacre the old by beheading them. Black lives didn't matter.
In 1999, the President issued a national apology on behalf of the Republic of Benin (formerly Dahomey) for the substantial role that Africans had played in the Atlantic slave trade.
I'm not entirely convinced that's a good history to remember by renaming the square to Benin. Or precisely what it would be a fitting tribute to - a nation state that enslaved other Africans for over three hundred years! A nation state that treated other Africans as little more than fodder.
Imagine the plaque:
"This square is named Benin Square after the modern Republic whose ancestors enslaved and got rich beyond measure by enslaving other Africans."
Benin is the name of the modern state – so at the time of slavery no country of that name even existed. It was formerly Dahomey (the Kingdom of), a country that far from symbolising all the wrongs of the slave trade was actually party to it – a fact that the country itself was forced to recognize and apologise for later in its history.
From the 17th to the 19th century, the main political entities in the area were the Kingdom of Dahomey, along with the city-state of Porto-Novo, and a large area with many different nations to the north. This region was referred to as the Slave Coast from as early as the 17th century due to the large number of enslaved people who were shipped to the New World during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into transatlantic slavery. They also had a practice of killing war captives in a ceremony known as the Annual Customs. By about 1750, the King of Dahomey was earning an estimated £250,000 per year by selling African captives to European slave-traders.
Though the leaders of Dahomey appear to have initially resisted the slave trade, it flourished in the region of Dahomey for almost three hundred years, beginning in 1472 with a trade agreement with Portuguese merchants.
Though the leaders of Dahomey appear to have initially resisted the slave trade, it flourished in the region of Dahomey for almost three hundred years, beginning in 1472 with a trade agreement with Portuguese merchants.
The area was named the "Slave Coast" because of this flourishing trade. Court protocols, which demanded that a portion of war captives from the kingdom's many battles be decapitated, decreased the number of enslaved people exported from the area. The number went from 102,000 people per decade in the 1780s to 24,000 per decade by the 1860s
The decline was partly due to the Slave Trade Act 1807 banning the trans-Atlantic slave trade by Britain in 1808, followed by other countries. This decline continued until 1885, when the last slave ship departed from the coast of the modern Benin Republic (not to be confused with the Empire of Benin) bound for Brazil in South America, which had yet to abolish slavery. The capital's name Porto-Novo is of Portuguese origin, meaning "New Port". It was originally developed as a port for the slave trade.
When King Gezo, the great slave King of the Dahomey, died in 1858, some 800 slaves were massacred in his memory. Under his regime thousands were enslaved and sold to the traders. As one report notes: "This monster has caused as many deaths in the carrying out of his nefarious designs as some of his brethren, the white despots of Europe, in the gratification of their ambition."
The decline was partly due to the Slave Trade Act 1807 banning the trans-Atlantic slave trade by Britain in 1808, followed by other countries. This decline continued until 1885, when the last slave ship departed from the coast of the modern Benin Republic (not to be confused with the Empire of Benin) bound for Brazil in South America, which had yet to abolish slavery. The capital's name Porto-Novo is of Portuguese origin, meaning "New Port". It was originally developed as a port for the slave trade.
When King Gezo, the great slave King of the Dahomey, died in 1858, some 800 slaves were massacred in his memory. Under his regime thousands were enslaved and sold to the traders. As one report notes: "This monster has caused as many deaths in the carrying out of his nefarious designs as some of his brethren, the white despots of Europe, in the gratification of their ambition."
By the middle of the nineteenth century, Dahomey had begun to weaken and lose its status as the regional power. This enabled the French to take over the area in 1892. In 1899, the French included the land called French Dahomey within the larger French West Africa colonial region.
In 1958, France granted autonomy to the Republic of Dahomey, and full independence on 1 August 1960, which is celebrated each year as Independence Day, a national holiday. The president who led the country to independence was Hubert Maga
For the next twelve years after 1960, ethnic strife contributed to a period of turbulence. There were several coups and regime changes, with the figures of Hubert Maga, Sourou Apithy, Justin Ahomadégbé, and Émile Derlin Zinsou dominating; the first three each represented a different area and ethnicity of the country. Coalitions between Maga, Apithy, and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin were unsuccessful, as each sought absolute power. Eventually these three agreed to form a Presidential Council after violence marred the 1970 elections.
On 7 May 1972, Maga ceded power to Ahomadégbé. On 26 October 1972, Lt. Col. Mathieu Kérékou overthrew the ruling triumvirate, becoming president and stating that the country would not "burden itself by copying foreign ideology, and wants neither Capitalism, Communism, nor Socialism".
On 30 November 1974 however, he announced that the country was officially Marxist, under control of the Military Council of the Revolution (CMR), which nationalized the petroleum industry and banks. On 30 November 1975, he renamed the country to the People's Republic of Benin.
The CMR was dissolved in 1979, and Kérékou arranged show elections in which he was the only allowed candidate. Establishing relations with China, North Korea, and Libya, he put nearly all businesses and economic activities under state control, causing foreign investment in Benin to dry up. Kérékou attempted to reorganize education, pushing his own aphorisms such as "Poverty is not a fatality", resulting in a mass exodus of teachers, along with numerous other professionals. The regime financed itself by contracting to take nuclear waste, first from the Soviet Union and later from France.
Kérékou's regime initially included officers from both the north and south of the country, but as the years passed the northerners (like Kérékou himself) became clearly dominant, undermining the idea that the regime was not based in ethnicity.
In 1980, Kérékou converted to Islam and changed his first name to Ahmed. He changed his name back after claiming to be a born-again Christian. In 1989, riots broke out when the regime did not have enough money to pay its army. The banking system collapsed. Eventually, Kérékou renounced Marxism, and a convention forced Kérékou to release political prisoners and arrange elections. Marxism–Leninism was abolished as the nation's form of government.
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