Editing Glele

{{Short description|King of Dahomey (d. 1889)}}
[[File:Le Tour du monde-07-p085.jpg|thumb|Crown Prince Glele (left) with his father, [[Ghezo|King Ghezo]]]]
'''Glele''', or '''Badohou''' (died December 29, 1889), was the tenth [[King of Dahomey]], ruling from 1858 until his suicide in 1889.
[[File:Symbole de Glèlè roi du Dahomey au mur de la place Goho à Abomey au Bénin.jpg|thumb|Symbol of Glele in place goho]]

==Life==
Badohou, who took the throne name '''Glele''', is considered (if [[Adandozan]] is not counted) to be the tenth King of the Aja [[kingdom of Dahomey]] (part of modern-day [[Benin]]).<ref name="DGC">{{Cite book | last = Appiah | first = Kwame Anthony | author2 = Henry Louis Gates, Jr | title = The Dictionary of Global Culture | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | year = 1997 | location = New York | pages = [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofglob00appi/page/251 251] | isbn = 0-394-58581-X | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofglob00appi }}</ref> He succeeded his father, [[Ghezo]], and ruled from 1858 to 1889.<ref name="DGC" /> 

Glele continued his father's successful war campaigns, in part to avenge his father's death, and to capture [[slaves]]. During his rule he sustained Dahomey's renaissance as a center of palm oil sales and slave trade.<ref name="DGC" /> Glele also signed treaties with the French, who had previously acquired a concession in [[Porto-Novo]] from its king. The French were successful in negotiating with Glele and receiving a grant for a [[customs]] and [[commerce]] concession in [[Cotonou]] during his reign. Glele resisted British diplomatic overtures, however, distrusting their manners and noting that they were much more activist in their opposition to the [[History of slavery|slave trade]]: though revolutionary France itself had outlawed [[slavery]] at the end of the 18th century it allowed the trade to continue elsewhere; Britain outlawed slavery in the United Kingdom and its overseas possessions in 1833,<ref name="NAUK">{{Cite web | title = How did the Abolition Acts of 1807 and 1833 affect the slave trade? | publisher = The National Archives [UK] | url = http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/lesson27.htm | access-date = 30 Aug 2011}}</ref> and had its navy make raids against slavers along the [[West Africa]]n coast<ref name="NAUK" /> starting in 1840.
[[File:Statue royale mi-homme mi-lion du roi Glèlè, Musée du quai Branly.jpg|thumb|Statue depicting Glele as a lion. Formerly in the [[Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac|Musée du Quai Branly]], now in [[Abomey]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://momaa.org/directory/musee-histsorique-d-abomey/ |title=Musee Histsorique d' Abomey |access-date=28 January 2024 |website=MoMAA |language=en |archive-date=19 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119214640/https://momaa.org/directory/musee-histsorique-d-abomey/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
Glele's symbols are the lion and the ritual knife of the adepts of [[Gu (god)|Gu]] ([[West African Vodun|Vodou]] of fire, iron, war, and cutting edges). His favorite wife was [[Visesegan]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Robertson|first1=Claire C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLpIAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Visesegan%22|title=Women and Slavery in Africa|last2=Klein|first2=Martin A.|date=1997|publisher=Pearson Education|isbn=978-0-435-07417-3|pages=360|language=en}}</ref>  Another wife was the Yoruba-speaking high official Miagbe, with whom he had three sets of twin offspring, the eldest of whom was [[Yaya Migansi]]; Miagbe was rewarded by being honoured with an independent household, land and servants.<ref name=dab>{{cite book |editor1-last=Gates |editor1-first=Henry Louis|editor-link1=Henry Louis Gates Jr. |editor2-last=Akyeampong |editor2-first=Emmanuel |editor-link2=Emmanuel K. Akyeampong|editor3-last=Niven |editor3-first=Steven J. |title=Dictionary of African biography |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780195382075 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195382075.001.0001/acref-9780195382075-e-2158?rskey=xPF8dF&result=1 |chapter=Yaya Migansi (c. 1850–1932)}}</ref>

Glele, despite the formal end of the slave trade and its interdiction by the Europeans, and [[New World]] powers, continued slavery as a domestic institution: his fields were primarily cared for by slaves, and slaves became a major source of 'messengers to the ancestors' ([[Sacrifice|sacrificial]] victims) in ceremonies.<ref name="DAII">{{Cite book | last = Skertchly | first = J. Alfred | title = Dahomey as It Is; Being a Narrative of Eight Months' Residence in that Country... | publisher = Chapman and Hall | year = 1874 | location = London | pages = [https://archive.org/details/dahomeyasitis00sker/page/524 524] | url = https://archive.org/details/dahomeyasitis00sker}}</ref> In 1860, he met with William Foster, captain of the ''[[Clotilda (slave ship)|Clotilda]]'', the final ship to (illegally) take slaves to the United States, presumably to approve the sale.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Foster |first1=William |title=Last Slaver from U.S. to Africa. A.D. 1860 |url=http://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/items/show/1802 |website=Mobile Public Library |access-date=28 December 2021}}</ref>

Near the end of Glele's reign, relations with France deteriorated due to Cotonou's growing commercial influence and differences of interpretation between Dahomey and France over the extent and terms of the Cotonou concession grant. Glele died suddenly just before the French arrived for negotiations, possibly by suicide.<ref name="DGC" /><ref name="EPAME">{{cite encyclopedia | last = Stokes | first = Jamie | title = Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East | publisher = Facts on File | volume = 1 | year = 2009 | pages = 229 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=stl97FdyRswC&pg=PA229 | isbn = 978-0-8160-7158-6}}</ref> Glele's son Prince Kondo handled negotiations with the French.

Glele died on December 29, 1889, to be succeeded by his son Kondo, who took the name [[Béhanzin]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Ghezo]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Rulers of the Fon state of Danhome|King of Dahomey]]|years=1858–1889}}
{{s-aft|after= [[Béhanzin]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{Monarchs of Dahomey}}


[[Category:Kings of Dahomey]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:1889 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century monarchs in Africa]]
[[Category:19th century in the Kingdom of Dahomey]]