Houessou Aqaba

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Houessou Akaba (* before 1685; † 1708 ) was the fourth king of Dahomey . He followed his father, Aho Houegbadja , and ruled from 1685 to 1708.

Its symbols were the warthog and a saber.

Legend has it that Aqaba was sent to a hostile neighbor named Dan to claim a piece of land. He was denied this at first. Dan later reluctantly surrendered the claimed land, but at the same time planned to assassinate Akaba. He dug a trap with thorns on a path that Aqaba normally used. But Akaba's dogs, which ran ahead, fell into this trap instead of their master and Akaba now knew that Dan had planned an attack on him. Angrily, he demanded another piece of land from his opponent. The only answer was that further claims for land were only to be had over Dan's body. Akaba then killed Dan in anger and built his new palace on the gutted body of his opponent. The state of Dahomey later took its name from the name of the Dan Homeh palace .

Due to a special custom in the royal family, Akaba had to build his own new palace: after the death of a king, his palace became his mortuary temple for the worship of the royal ancestors. The kings were buried in their former bedroom, a large number of their wives (mostly 41) were “allowed” to accompany the deceased king on his “journey to Allada” - they were either murdered with knives and buried with the king or Walled up alive in a sealed chamber near the corpse. The burial chamber was decorated with offerings in a bronze vase by the descendants, and there was a metal pole with a small circular altar on top to leave more offerings. According to the tradition of the Fon (the largest ethnic and linguistic group in Dahomey / Benin) the vase came from Allada and was brought to Abomey, the capital of the kingdom of Dahomey, before 1600.

Houessou Akaba's reign was marked by wars and military expansion. His enemies, the Nago (western Yoruba ) kings, attacked Abomey and burned the city down. In the end, however, the warriors of Abomeys triumphed, defeated the Nago and conquered the region on the Oueme River . But Porto-Novo was not conquered .

Akaba died of the Blattern in 1708. Since his only son Agbo Sassa was only 10 years old, his brother Dossou Agadja became his successor.

predecessor	Office	successor
Houegbadja	King of Dahomey 1685–1708	Agadya