Dakodonou was the second King of Dahomey

Dahomey

Dahomey was a country in west Africa in what is now the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state that was founded in the seventeenth century and survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of Dahomey...

. He ruled from 1620 to 1645. In traditional Abomey

Abomey

When UNESCO designated the royal palaces of Abomey as a World Heritage Site in 1985 it statedFrom 1993, 50 of the 56 bas-reliefs that formerly decorated the walls of King Glèlè have been located and replaced on the rebuilt structure...

 stories, Dakodonou overthrew his brother, the previous King Gangnihessou

Gangnihessou

Gangnihessou, or Ganye Hessou, is the first of the traditional "twelve kings of Dahomey." Dahomey was an African kingdom situated in what is now Benin.- Descent :...

, when the ruler was absent from the capital on a tour of the kingdom. Dakodonou is portrayed as a brutal and violent man. His symbols were an indigo jar (a reference to his murder of a certain indigo planter named Donou, whose body he made sport of by rolling it around in his indigo jar and whose name he appended to his own original name, 'Dako'), a tinder box, and a war club. Before dying, Dakodonou named his nephew, Aho Houegbadja

Houegbadja

Aho Houegbadja was the third King of Dahomey. He succeeded his uncle, Dakodonou, and ruled from 1645 to 1685.Houegbadja was the first of the dynasty to set up the kingdom in Abomey proper: he founded the city by building his palace near the area of Guedevi, a few kilometers to the northwest of...

, as his successor.

Agongointo-Zoungoudo Underground Town

Agongointo-Zoungoudo Underground Town

The underground town of Agongointo-Zoungoudo is located approximately 9 km from Abomey, in central Benin. The city was discovered in 1998 by the Danish company DANIDA...

is thought to have been built during Dakodonou's reign.