The explorer who came to Abomey

"The Amazons are, beyond doubt, the bravest troops in Dahomey." — Richard Burton, 1864

Richard Francis Burton arrived in Abomey in 1864 as a man who had already seen more of the world than most Victorians could imagine. He had made the hajj to Mecca in disguise, discovered Lake Tanganyika, translated the Kama Sutra, and been stabbed through the face by a Somali spear. But nothing in his travels had prepared him for Dahomey.

He came as British consul to Fernando Po, tasked with a diplomatic mission: persuade King Gelele to stop Dahomey's participation in the slave trade, and open the kingdom to British commerce. He failed on the first count, succeeded modestly on the second, and wrote one of the most important books ever published about a West African kingdom.

Who was Richard Burton?

By 1864, Burton was already a Victorian legend at 43. He had been the first European to see Lake Tanganyika (with John Hanning Speke), published over twenty books, and was fluent in roughly thirty languages. He was impatient, combative, and profoundly curious about cultures that polite Victorian society considered barbaric.

His posting as consul to Fernando Po (now Bioko) was a quiet exile — the Foreign Office found him too difficult to place anywhere important. But Burton, as always, turned provincial exile into adventure. From his base on the island, he made multiple journeys into the West African interior, including the 1864 mission that brought him to Abomey.

The mission: What Burton sought

Burton arrived on the coast of Dahomey in December 1864. The kingdom was then at the height of its power under King Gelele (reigned 1858-1889). Gelele's father, Ghezo, had transformed Dahomey into a military powerhouse, and Gelele had maintained that strength through the annual customs and regular military campaigns.

The British government had three objectives for the mission:

• Negotiate an end to Dahomey's involvement in the slave trade
• Secure British commercial access to the interior
• Gather intelligence on Dahomey's military strength

Burton, characteristically, pursued all three with energy — and added a fourth: document everything.

Journey to the capital

The trek from the coast to Abomey took roughly two weeks, covering about 130 kilometres of dense tropical forest and rolling hills. Burton, who had crossed the Arabian desert on foot, found the march unremarkable. What struck him was the infrastructure: well-maintained roads, relay stations at regular intervals, and an efficient system of porters and guides.

The Dahomey kingdom, he noted, was no primitive backwater. It had a functioning bureaucracy, a standing army, a system of taxation, and a court that understood diplomatic protocol as well as any European power.

"The people of Dahomey are not savages," he wrote, "they are a nation in arms — a military state organized for expansion and defence."

Arrival at Abomey

Burton's first glimpse of Abomey was of a walled city covering roughly four square kilometres, with the royal palaces at its centre. The palace complex alone, he estimated, covered an area equal to a small European town.

He was received by King Gelele in the great courtyard of the royal palace. The ceremony followed the established protocol of the Dahomey court: drumming, dancing, the display of tribute, and the terrifying parade of the Mino — the women warriors who served as the king's elite guard.

Burton counted roughly 1,500 Mino on parade. He wrote, with typical understatement: "They are a spectacle that no European can witness without a certain unease."

What Burton witnessed

Burton's account is remarkable for its specificity. He recorded:

The Annual Customs: He witnessed portions of the Huetanu ceremonies, including the presentation of tribute, the royal address, and the sacrifice of captives. He neither condemned nor sensationalised — he described.

The Mino in Action: His description of the Amazons is the most detailed from any Victorian source. He noted their physical condition, their weapons (muskets, machetes, clubs), their uniforms (blue and white), and their discipline in formation. He recorded their battle cries and their training exercises.

The Royal Court: Burton provided detailed descriptions of Gelele's court: the ministers, the female officials (including the Kpojito, the queen mother), the diviners (bokonon), and the elaborate hierarchy that governed access to the king.

Daily Life in Abomey: Markets, architecture, agriculture, the Fon language — Burton documented aspects of daily life that no other European recorded.

"a mission to gelele, king of dahome"

Published in 1864, Burton's book runs over 400 pages and covers every aspect of the kingdom he could observe. It is, by a wide margin, the most comprehensive single-volume account of Dahomey at its height.

The book is not an objective document. Burton was a man of his time — imperial in outlook, prone to judgement, and unsparing in his opinions. He found the Dahomey court both impressive and disturbing, the Mino both admirable and frightening, and Gelele both a capable ruler and a tyrant. He did not disguise any of these reactions.

What makes the book valuable is its density of observation. Burton was a trained ethnographer before the term existed. He recorded what he saw with a precision that few of his contemporaries matched. When he writes that the Mino's muskets were French-made, that the palace walls were decorated with bas-reliefs, that Gelele wore a hat shaped like a European admiral's bicorne — these details matter because they are independently verifiable.

Burton's limitations

It is important to read Burton critically. He was not neutral about Dahomey. He disliked the slave trade but respected military power. He was contemptuous of African religions but curious about their structures. He praised the Mino's courage while dismissing them as "unnatural."

These contradictions make the book a primary source of a particular kind: what a brilliant, biased, observant Victorian man saw when he looked at a sophisticated African kingdom.

Why Burton matters today

For historians of Dahomey, Burton's account is irreplaceable. The kingdom had a rich oral tradition but no indigenous written records from the 19th century. Burton, along with a handful of other European visitors (Forbes, Skertchly, and the French naval officers), provides the written documentation that anchors oral history.

For visitors to Abomey today, Burton's descriptions can still be mapped onto the physical landscape. The palace where Gelele received him still stands. The courtyards where the Mino paraded are visible. The route he walked from the coast can still be traced.

Burton failed his diplomatic mission. Dahomey continued the slave trade until British naval pressure made it impossible. But in his failure, he left a record that would outlast the kingdom itself.

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Explore further: King Gelele — The Builder King · The Dahomey Amazons · Royal Palaces of Abomey · Abomey — Capital of the Kingdom · Ouidah Origins · Visit Ganvie

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