Dassa-Zoumé

Dassa-Zoumé is known to its inhabitants as Igbo Idaasha, the centre of a Yoruba-speaking kingdom among the hills of the Zou and Ouémé basin. Its neighbours included the Mahi and Fon, and their languages and customs left their mark on Idaasha life. The kingdom's traditions describe the joining of settlements of different origins, while its religious life gave an important place to the deity Nana Buruku. The kingdom emerged around 1600 in a region where Yoruba and neighbouring peoples met.