Waja

Simon Agani, M.A. and Obarè B. Bagodo, PhD – Associate Professor
Laboratoire d’Art, Archéologie et d’Expertise Patrimoniale
Université d’Abomey-Calavi, République du Bénin
E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected]

Abstract
Since the mid-2000s onwards, continuous archaeological investigations into Shabe
area had been focused on the settlement and the political and economic dynamics.
The fortification structures, reflecting the expertise of the past people, for defense
or resistance, are barely explored. Yet in Shabe area and other parts of Yorubaland,
as well as within the Bight of Benin region’s countries (Nigeria, Bénin, Togo and
Ghana) and in the whole West Africa, there are various fortification structures.
With regard to the archeological concern with defense or refuge systems in order to
understand the historical evolution in Shabe area, many important aspects have not
been tackled properly until now. The contention here is that a comparison of Shabe’s
fortification structures with those of the rest of Yorubaland and in West Africa can
help argue better assumptions and establish similarities and dissimilarities, and
show endogenous creations and/or external influences during centuries (if not
millennia) until the European military invasion in the 1890s and colonial
occupation from the 1900s onwards.
Keywords: fortification structures, Shabe area, Yorubaland, West Africa.