{{Short description|King of Dahomey (d. 1889)}} [[File:Le Tour du monde-07-p085.jpg|thumb|Crown Prince Glele (left) with his father, King Ghezo]] '''Glele''', or '''Badohou''' (died December 29, 1889), was the tenth King of Dahomey, ruling from 1858 until his suicide in 1889. 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 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 African 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, 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 (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' (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'', 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=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