Ouidah#Fort of S.C3.A3o Jo.C3.A3o Baptista de Ajud.C3.A1
São João Baptista d' Ajuda was a small Portuguese colonial territory on the African Guinea coast. It was located near the town of Ouidah (Portuguese Ajuda, French Ouidah, Eng. Whydah ) in present-day Benin.
The area of the colony consisted essentially only of a trading station and its immediate vicinity, which had been ceded to the Portuguese by a local ruler. It formed an enclave and was associated with an area of 4.5 hectares at times the smallest colony world.
History
The Fort Ajuda was first established by the Portuguese in 1680, but later abandoned. With the 1721 made -establishment of the station, the Portuguese intended to establish itself once again in the Gulf of Guinea. From this area they had been displaced in the course of fierce fighting during the 17th century by the Dutch, especially by the loss of its major colonial stronghold Elmina. But not succeeded the Portuguese to regain the establishment of this trading post their old supremacy in the Guinea trade. Only as a regional center of the slave trade played São João Baptista d' Ajuda in the 18th century a certain role. The fortress was managed by the company Companhia de Cacheu e Cabo Verde and administratively belonged to the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Even after Brazil's independence from Portugal in 1822, the Fort Ajuda formed a colony of Brazil, before it was abandoned by this 1844. 1861 gave the rulers of Dahomey the progression of French missionaries, but in 1865 Portugal was able to make his ancient rights reassert and take the fortress again in possession. The colony was administered by São Tomé and Príncipe from. On September 10, 1885 Portugal also completed an agreement with the Kingdom of Dahomey, by which it took over the protectorate over its entire coast early 1886. However, in 1892 Dahomey fell to France.
The Portuguese rule over São João Baptista d' Ajuda lasted until 1961, when this territory of the newly independent in the previous year by France Dahomey ( Benin since 1975 ) on August 1, 1961 ( the anniversary of the independence of Dahomey ) was forcibly occupied and annexed. The annexation, however, was recognized by Portugal until 1975. Portugal then funded the renovation of the fort and its conversion into a museum.
Roman theater
The Fort of São João Baptista d' Ajuda is one of the main venues of the 1980 published novel The Viceroy of Ouidah ( original English title: The Viceroy of Ouidah ) of the British writer Bruce Chatwin ( 1940-1989 ). It was filmed under the title Cobra Verde by Werner Herzog.