ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the strategies utilized by the Hueda and, combining archaeological evidence from Savi and historical documentation, considers the consequences of these actions for both Africans and Europeans. The Hueda and Dahomey states were present in the Bight of Benin region from at least 1660 to the end of the nineteenth century. With the advent of dramatically increased European trade, the Hueda capital Savi ceased to be peripheral and instead moved into the spotlight as a regional centre of great importance. The ways in which African elites in Hueda and Dahomey controlled the arena of trade and interaction to ensure continual local African autonomy are fascinating and in many ways unexpected. The period of African-European interaction at Savi came to an end in the spring of 1727, when an increasingly powerful Dahomey finally completed its conquest of the states that lay between it and the sea.
