Savalou

Savalou was the seat of a Mahi kingdom founded amid the Nago-speaking communities of the hills. Its founder, Soha, established his authority at Tchébélou, and the name Gbaguidi became a title borne by his successors. Stories of the founding remember both the conquest of the hill and the buffalo associated with the first ruler.

Savalou faced the growing power of Dahomey to the south. It resisted for more than a century, but after Dahomey captured Gbowèlè in the southern part of the kingdom, Savalou gradually came under the authority of Abomey in the middle of the eighteenth century. Its rulers continued to govern a country whose communities did not all respond alike to outside power: some submitted, while others rebelled against their neighbours.