huetanu no relation human sacrifice
Royal ancestor worship
Early kings established clear worship of royal ancestors and centralized their ceremonies in the Annual Customs of Dahomey.  The spirits of the kings had an exalted position in the land of the dead and it was necessary to get their permission for many activities on earth.   Ancestor worship pre-existed the kingdom of Dahomey; however, under King Agaja, a cycle of ritual was created centered on first celebrating the ancestors of the king and then celebrating a family lineage.The Annual Customs of Dahomey (xwetanu or huetanu in Fon) involved multiple elaborate components and some aspects may have been added in the 19th century.  In general, the celebration involved distribution of gifts, human sacrifice, military parades, and political councils.  Its main religious aspect was to offer thanks and gain the approval for ancestors of the royal lineage. However, the custom also included military parades, public discussions, gift giving (the distribution of money to and from the king), and human sacrifice and the spilling of blood.Human sacrifice was an important part of the practice. During the Annual Custom, 500 prisoners would be sacrificed. In addition, when a ruler died, hundreds, to thousands of prisoners would be sacrificed. In 1727, an English trader alleged that he witness the Dahomey massacre 400 people during a Vodun ceremony. The number is also often reported to be 4,000. Human sacrifice was often exaggerated, however, by contemporary anti-abolitionist Western authors, who sought to justify the continued need for slavery as a means to "rescue" Africans from a worse fate in Dahomey.
no relation