A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome

An account by the famous British explorer of a diplomatic mission to the king of Dahomey (present-day Benin) in 1861.

Richard Francis Burton (Author)

9781108030328, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 April 2011

424 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.54 kg

Sir Richard Burton (1821–1890) the famous Victorian explorer, began his career in the Indian army in 1842. While in India he developed his linguistic talent, mastering more than forty different languages and dialects. He turned to writing books in the 1850s and, over the remaining forty years of his life, published dozens of works and more than one hundred articles. He spent part of his career as British consul in Fernando Po (present-day Equatorial Guinea) in West Africa, and used this as an opportunity to explore the region. In 1861, he was sent on a mission, recounted in this two-volume work of 1864, to Dahomey (present-day Benin) to urge the king to put a stop to the local slave trade. In Volume 2 Burton discusses the human sacrifices that were taking place while he was there, and the negotiations with the king about slavery.

14 continued. The King's 'So-sin custom'
15. Of the so-called Amazons and the Dahoman army
16. Addo-kpon, the Bush King's So-sin customs
17. Of the Dahoman religion
18. The Sin-Kwain, or water-sprinkling custom
19. Of 'The negro's place in nature'
20. The Y of triumph
21. Dahome and her capital
22. The firing to Whydah, and conclusion of the customs
23. The delivery of the message
24. Return to the seaboard
Conclusion
Appendices.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]