JOSEPH LANGANFIN : Representing the Abomey dynasty
Posted On Sunday, March 18, 2007 at at Sunday, March 18, 2007 by Unknown
Representing the Abomey dynasty, Joseph Langanfin is the president of CAFRA, the council of Abomey's royal families. With this title, he is considered as the official representative of the kings of Abomey.
He presided at the centenary ceremonies for the death of King Glele, who was his great granfather.
In 1889, following the funeral services of King Glele, his son Kondo was coronated under the name of Gbehanzin, a contraction which means, "the world holds the egg that the earth desires", and took the shark as his royal emblem. The Shark-King wanted to push back Europeans comming from the sea. Since the Berlin treaty in 1884, which divided Africa between European powers, the Kingdom of Abomey excited the envy of the French, who wanted to stop the English progression into the gulf of Guinea.
" The King does not give his country to anyone, ancestral lands are sacred" he told the French, who found with him a serious opponent.
