A Dialogue with King Agaja: William Snelgrave's 1727 Ardra Diary and the Contours of Dahomian-European Commercial Exchange

Headnote

Abstract: The rise of the Kingdom of Dahomey in the first quarter of the eighteenth century was a watershed event in the political history of precolonial West Africa. This article draws on a newly rediscovered copy of William Snelgrave's diary who visited King Agaja of Dahomey in April 1727. The diary provides the fullest account to date of Agaja's motives for invading Whydah in March 1727. In addition, the Diary provides the earliest evidence confirming the bona fides of Bulfinch Lambe's 1731 mission to England to establish commercial relations with King George II.

Résumé: L'essor du royaume d'Abomey dans le premier quart du XVIIIe siècle a été un tournant dans l'histoire politique précoloniale de l'Afrique de l'Ouest. Cet article se base sur un exemplaire nouvellement redécouvert du journal de William Snelgrave qui a rendu une visite au roi Agadja d'Abomey en avril 1727. Le journal fournit le récit le plus complet à ce jour des raisons qui ont poussé Agadja à envahir Ouidah en mars 1727. En outre, ce journal constitue la plus ancienne source confirmant les références données par le roi d'Abomey à la mission menée en 1731 par Bulfinch Lambe en Angleterre pour établir des relations commerciales avec le roi George II.

Introduction1

The rise of the state of Dahomey in the first quarter of the eighteenth century was a watershed event in the political history of precolonial West Africa. Fueled by desire for direct access to the ever increasing volume of European trade goods on the coast, King Agaja (d. 1740) founded a modern military state and developed an expansionist policy that was more aggressive than its predecessors.2 In essence, war was the function of the state and no polity in the region asserted its authority more prominently than Dahomey under King Agaja. Dahomey imperialism and European designs for the slave trade in the Bight of Benin "worked together with remarkable synergy" throughout much of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world.3 With each transaction that transferred captive Africans into the hands of traders and ship captains, imperial power brokers like King Agaja united with Europeans in a pact which gave birth to an empire of capital. The repercussions would reverberate loudest within local African communities but the screams could also be heard echoing...