Ghezo

Ghezo became King of Dahomey in 1818 after the removal of his brother Adandozan and ruled until 1858. He strengthened the monarchy, expanded Dahomey’s military capacity and ended the kingdom’s tributary dependence on the Oyo Empire. His reign is also associated with the further institutional development of the Mino, the female military regiments later described by European observers as the Dahomey Amazons.

Dahomey under Ghezo remained deeply involved in the Atlantic slave trade, while British diplomatic and naval pressure for suppression increased. Palm-oil exports also expanded during his reign, but the shift toward so-called legitimate commerce was partial and contested. Ghezo’s government therefore sits at the intersection of West African state-building, regional warfare, Atlantic commerce and abolitionist pressure.

In Frank Yerby’s The Dahomean, Ghezo—usually spelled Gezo in the novel—appears within the royal and political world in which Nyasanu comes of age. The novel uses his reign as the historical setting for its depiction of Dahomean court culture, warfare and the slave trade.