Kpengla's reign increased the size of the kingdom. He killed the chief of the Popo people, Agbamou, thus extending the empire into what is currently Togo. He destroyed the villages of Ekpe and Badagry (in what is now Nigeria), which were interfering with Dahomey's regional monopoly on the slave trade. His main symbol is the akpan bird, a trade gun (flintlocks became the standard issue to the Dahomean army during his reign), and a Dahomey Amazon striking her head against a tree (a reference to a humorous war story stemming from one of his military campaigns).
Kpengla's reign increased the size of the kingdom.
His main symbol is the akpan bird, a trade gun (flintlocks became the standard issue to the Dahomean army during his reign), and a Dahomey Amazon striking her head against a tree (a reference to a humorous war story stemming from one of his military campaigns).
King Kpengla (right, under parasol and carrying sword), leads a troop of Dahomey Amazons.
In 1797 she was involved in the murder of king Agonglo, and she was buried alive.
Reign mate of King Kpengla, she is not known to have been a priestess, but the aim of her office was to serve as compliment to the king and in some aspects as his double, not the least in the spiritual world.
During his reign a new the cult of the Christian God was placed alongside the old gods, and one of his wife's, Sophie (Afro-Dutch woman) was placed in charge of this new vodun.
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