Editing Dahomey (section)

===Royal ancestor worship===
{{main|Annual Customs of Dahomey}}
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.<ref name="Herskovits (Vol. I)" />   Ancestor worship predated the kingdom of Dahomey; under King Agaja, a cycle of ritual was created centered on first celebrating the ancestors of the king and then celebrating a family lineage.<ref name=Monroe />

The Annual Customs of Dahomey ({{transliteration|fon|xwetanu}} or {{transliteration|fon|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.<ref name=Monroe />

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 [[West African Vodun|Vodun]] ceremony.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Nunoo |first=Ama |date=October 15, 2019 |title=A look at Dahomey's gory history of human sacrifices on a large scale |url=https://face2faceafrica.com/article/a-look-at-dahomeys-gory-history-of-human-sacrifices-on-a-large-scale |access-date=September 21, 2022 |website=Face2Face Africa |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Solly |first2=Meilan |title=The Real Warriors Behind 'The Woman King' |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/real-warriors-woman-king-dahomey-agojie-amazons-180980750/ |access-date=September 21, 2022 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> The number is also often reported to be 4,000.<ref name="Death by government"/><ref name=":0" /> Human sacrifice was often exaggerated by contemporary [[Abolitionism|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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sonderegger |first=Arno |date=2018 |title=Thoughts on Two 18th Century Histories of Dahomey relating to the Anti-Slavery Debate |journal=Stichproben: Vienna Journal of African Studies |issue=35 |pages=86–89}}</ref>