The African Political Roots of Haitian Vodou

Chapter 1 focuses on the political, economic, military, and religious history of the royal families of Dahomey, Allada, and Hueda between 1500 and 1800. All three focused on slave trading with Europeans. Gedevi-Yoruba expanded into Aja lands while rising tensions between Europeans and the Aja coastal population caused an Aja exodus to the Gedevi-Yoruba hinterland of the Abomey plateau. The Aja Agasuvi family established Dahomey there and sold threatening Gedevi. The biographies of Dahomian kings Dako, Agaja, and Tegbesu shed light on their slave trading, including the circumstances of enslavement, and how the African-side of the system impacted Saint-Domingue and Haiti. Royal Vodun culture and power are examined, including the use of relics and human sacrifice at the Annual Customs. Agaja’s invasion of Allada in 1724 and Hueda in 1727 were events that bled into Haitian Vodou history since many of the residents were sold to traders bound for Saint-Domingue.