In 1815 the Fulani Jihad of Sokoto (present-day northern Nigeria), led by Uthman dan Fodio (1754–1817), extended the influence of Islam in the region.
Portuguese missionaries, first arriving in the seventeenth century, introduced Christianity to Dahomey as they tried to convert one Dahomean king after another to Roman Catholicism. In the early twentieth century, after Dahomey became a French colony, Catholicism began to gain some measure of popularity with the establishment of mission schools, where the local elite sent their children to get a Western education. Most in the educated class became functionaries of the colonial administration and provided the political leadership when decolonization got underway after World War II. In 1958 Dahomey gained administrative autonomy within a French community of West African states. The country gained independence from France on 1 August 1960.
Religious Tolerance
The military government of President Mathieu Kérékou, who held power from 1972 to 1991, pursued a Marxist-Leninist ideology and antireligious campaigns and witch-hunts, undermining the influence of Vodun. After the restoration of democratic politics in 1990, however, Vodun rapidly regained its traditional vitality.
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