Paper short abstract:

The paper presents a study on the Ma kpo, a kind of bat used by the kings of Dahomey which today is one of the most valuable objects from the collections of ethnographic museums around the world.

Paper long abstract:

Among the Fon the Ma kpo is called "anger bat". In the Portuguese documentation it appears as "bat" (bastão). They were sent along with the kings' emissaries on diplomatic and commercial missions, or advertising war. The contexts in which such bats appear in the Portuguese documentation over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries indicate the relations between the kings of Portugal and Dahomey. Changes in the uses of those bats also demonstrate changes in their meaning and shape. From the nineteenth century, between the French, those bats were known as "récade". Therefore, the chronology of bats, their names and changes are an important clue to think the change in the conception of power and use of regalia in Dahomey due to its position within the Atlantic world.