Akaba of Dahomey Akaba of Dahomey Akaba was an early King of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1685 until "c."1716. King Houegbadja had created the basic structure of the kingdom on the Abomey plateau. His first children were the twins of Akaba and Hangbe and they were followed by another son of Houegbadja who would become King Agaja. As the oldest son, Akaba became the king upon Houegbadja's death and ruled until 1716 when he died during battle in the Ouémé River Valley, either of small pox or in battle. When he died his sister, Hangbe, became the ruler and
In Dahomey a synopsis in February, 1903 generally concurs with the scenes depicted in extant scripts. The recovered synopsis reads: "In Dahomey" marked an important milestone in the evolution of the American musical comedy. Its composer Will Marion Cook combined the "high operetta style" he had studied with the relatively new form of ragtime in the finale "The Czar of Dixie." According to John Graziano, author of "Black Theatre USA", it was "the first African American show. The score made use of the "high operetta style" that synthesized successfully the various genres of American musical theatre popular at the beginning of the