Ouidah

 ( Communes Of Benin ) 

Built of mud and straw, early fortifications were simple, with cannons probably used for signal purposes rather than combat.Law, English in West Africa, ii, no. 820: John Carter, Whydah, 6 December 1686.Law, English in West Africa, ii, no. 1342: John Wortley, Whydah, 5 January 1692. Tensions with the French factory culminated in an exchange of fire in 1692, prompting the English to build proper fortifications. Historical documents later describe the fort as an important slave trading facility.Law, English in West Africa, ii, nos. 813, 822.John Carter, Whydah, 28 December 1685, 6 January 1687.

Despite being deserted by the British in 1812,I.A. Akinjogbin, Dahomey and its Neighbours, 1708–1818 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), 192. the fort had a surprisingly large populace. The British attempted to reoccupy it with a vice-consulate, but encountered difficulties.Robin Law (ed.), Dahomey and the Ending of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: The Journals and Correspondence of Vice-Consul Louis Fraser, 1851–1852 (London: Oxford University Press, 2012). Missionaries from the English Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society took up residence for a time and even built a chapel.Burton, Richard. A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1864. The fort then returned to the commercial sphere, with various trading companies controlling it.J.A. Skertchly, Dahomey As It Is (London: Chapman and Hall, 1874), 46.Bismarck to King Glele, 16 January 1882, in Milan Kalous, 'Some Correspondence between the German Empire and Dahomey in 1882–1892', Cahiers d’études africaines 8 (1968): 635–641, 636.Casimir Agbo, Histoire de Ouidah (Avignon: Presses de la Maison Aubanel Père, 1959), 30. Interestingly, it was even under French control during the First World War.Frank J. Quinn, A Coaster’s Letters from Dahomey, French West Africa (n.p., 1928), 54. The local area around the fort still reflects its British past with names like "The English Fort" and a shop named after the last British resident.Sinou and Agbo, Ouidah et son patrimoine, 133.

The key difference was one of legal authority. European forts, even large ones, weren't sovereign entities in West Africa. They remained under African control, essentially acting as 'tenants' with limited powers, paying rent to local rulers.K.G. Davies, The Royal African Company (London: Longmans, 1957), 282.Larry Yarak, Asante and the Dutch, 1744–1873 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 133–172.Journal of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, Vol. 9 (London: hmso, 1932), 270–271 (14 February 1752). The European presence in Ouidah, particularly at William's Fort, was particularly weak. The Dahomians saw the European governors as part of their own system, not as independent rulers. This is reflected in the king's expectation of their attendance at feasts and the way they were treated on death, which mirrored Dahomian officials.Law, Ouidah, 57.Akinjogbin, Dahomey, 190.

Despite the European influence, William's Fort relied heavily on African labour. The population surrounding the fort, Sogbadji, mirrored the diverse ethnic mix of Ouidah. Enslaved Africans often came from distant regions, making escape attempts less likely, while temporary workers from places such as the Gold Coast sometimes settled permanently.Robin Law, 'Ouidah as a Multiethnic Community', in Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Matt D. Childs, and James Sidbury (eds.), The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 42–62.John Parker, Making the Town: Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra (Oxford: John Currey, 2000), 10–14; Feinberg, Europeans and Africans, 106. This diverse population is still evident in Sogbadji families today. Some trace their roots back to the 19th century, while others claim to be the original inhabitantsLaw, Robin. 'Between the Sea and the Lagoons: The Interaction of Maritime and Inland Navigation on the Pre-colonial Slave Coast'. Cahiers d’études africaines 29 (1989): 209–237.Agbo, Casimir. Histoire de Ouidah. Avignon: Presses de la Maison Aubanel Père, 1959, 188–192.

Integration went beyond ethnicity. The Lemon family, as an example, descended from a fort soldier who married locally,Robin Law, 'Madiki Lemon, the "English Captain" at Ouidah, 1843–1852: An Exploration in Biography', History in Africa 37 (2010): 107–123. were even appointed royal guards by the Dahomian kings. Similarly, the Midjrokan family descended from the fort's 18th-century linguist, whose descendants inherited the role.Law, Ouidah, 74, 204. Even families such as the Kocus, who are canoeists, trace their lineage back to an 18th-century Gold Coast boatswain.Law, Ouidah, 75.

Religious practices at William's Fort also reflected this integration. Unlike other European forts with on-site chaplains, William's Fort appears to have adopted local customs. Historical accounts mention a shrine dedicated to the 'king's fetish Mawoo', the god of creation, existing within the fort itself.F.E. Forbes, Dahomey and the Dahomans (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851), i, 108.Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society Archives, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Joseph Dawson, Whydah, 4 January 1865.Norris, Robert. Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee, King of Dahomy. London: W. Lowndes, 1789, 42. This wasn't a recent development, as 18th century records mention a shrine within the fort dedicated to a local goddess.Norris, Memoirs, 42. The presence of this shrine, believed to be responsible for the fort's invincibility, further underlines the assimilation that took place.

This assimilation is also evident in the way the Dahomians treated the tombs of the deceased English governors buried inside the fort. The king of Hueda sent a "fetishman" to make offerings at the grave of one such governor, believing that his spirit was calling his successor to the afterlife.Phillips, 'Journal', 226. Centuries later, the Dahomian king sent priests to perform rites in the forts, including ceremonies over the graves in the English fort, despite the protests of the resident British official.Fraser’s Journal, 19 November 1851, in Law, Dahomey, 130. These examples demonstrate the deep social and religious integration that existed within the William's Fort community.