History of the Kingdom of Dahomey Fon ancestor worship and ceremonies. He was not allowed to reside in Abomey or travel freely, but was allowed to visit Abomey to perform ceremonial functions during the Annual Customs by the French administration. French Dahomey administration remained over the area from 1900 until 1960 when the country gained independence and took the name Republic of Dahomey. In 1975, the name of the country was changed from Republic of Dahomey to Benin. The King of Dahomey remains an important ceremonial position and continued through both French administration and independence. Since 2000, there has been a struggle over the position with
History of the Kingdom of Dahomey about the morality or immorality of the slave trade, Dahomey became a key aspect of the debate with significant attention. The key role of Dahomey with the slave trade had a significant impact on a range of other scholars. Philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel used the funeral ceremonies after the death of the King of Dahomey in his Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1837). Karl Polanyi's last written book "Dahomey and the Slave Trade" (1966) explored the economic relationships in the kingdom. The Kingdom of Dahomey has been depicted in a number of different literary works of fiction or