Fon people
A female warrior of the Fon people
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 4.1 Million | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Benin (39% of its population) and Nigeria (less than 1% of its population) | |
| Languages | |
| Fon | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Aja, Ewe, Yoruba |
The Fon people, also called Fon nu, Agadja or Dahomey, are a major West African ethnic and linguistic group. They are the largest ethnic group in Benin found particularly in its south region; they are also found in southwest Nigeria and Togo. Their total population is estimated to be about 3,500,000 people, and they speak the Fon language, a member of the Niger-Congo language group.
The history of the Fon people is linked to the Dahomey kingdom, a well organized kingdom by the 17th-century but one that shared more ancient roots with the Aja people. The Fon people traditionally were a culture of an oral tradition and had a well developed polytheistic religious system. They were noted by early 19th-century European traders for their N'Nonmiton practice or Dahomey Amazons – which empowered their women to serve in the military, who decades later fought the French colonial forces in 1890.
Most Fon today live in villages and small towns in mud houses with corrugated iron gable roofs. Cities built by the Fon include Abomey, the historical capital city of Dahomey, and Ouidah on what was historically referred to by Europeans as the Slave Coast. These cities became major commercial centres for the slave trade. A significant portion of the sugar plantations in the French West Indies, particularly Haiti and Trinidad, were populated with slaves that came from the Slave Coast, through the lands of Ewe and Fon people.
The Fon people, like other neighboring ethnic groups in West Africa, remained an oral tradition society through late medieval era, without ancient historical records. According to these oral histories and legends, the Fon people originated in present day Togo from the Ewe people and were originally a part of Aja kingdom (also called Adja, Allada or Ardra kingdom).
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Wikipedia