Tree of the lineagesXwla & Xwéla
From the common stock of Tado to the founding of the Nonvitcha Association in 1921 and on to the federal presidencies: a tree where every name, every link and every period points to the written source that attests it.
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Click a card to open its note, its sources and its links. The filters combine: a branch, a kind of node and a search apply together.
74 entries in the corpus
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Tado
Common cradle
The shared point of departure of the Xwla and the Xwéla, left after a succession crisis.
Aire culturelle Ajatado
The cultural area to which the Xwla and the Xwéla belong.
Prince Mèto Adagba
Leader of the migration
Leaves Tado with two of his children and travels down the Mono river.
Agomè Sèwa
First stopover
A temporary settlement of a few years on the way south.
Adamè
Mother settlement
Founded in search of fertile land; this is where the Xwla community took shape.
La langue Xwlagbé
The identity marker of the Xwla community, formed at Adamè.
Un groupe composite
The source is explicit: the Xwla are a heterogeneous whole, not a single bloodline.
Les Xwéla
“The branch on the house side”
The branch that stayed inland, along the shores of Lake Ahémé.
Mèto Yohouan
Leader of the Xwéla
Led the group that remained on the shores of Lake Ahémé.
Les Xwla
“Those who went to the sea”
The branch that went straight to the coast along the river.
Roi Mèto Houéyo
Alias Ahoussan Jimagbé, leader of the Xwla
Led the group to the sea and founded Agbanankin, then Hêvê.
La parenté commune
The parting never severed the kinship between the two branches.
Lac Ahémé
Bénin
The fish-rich shores where the Xwéla branch settled.
Agbanankin
Principal foundation
The maritime branch’s first foundation, later the scene of succession disputes.
Hêvê
Principal foundation
The maritime branch’s second foundation, inhabited by the Xwla around 1600.
La côte vers 1600
Around 1600
Four villages named by the source as inhabited by the Xwla.
Guézin
Historic capital of the Xwéla
The hospitable island chosen as the historic capital.
Chenal de l’Aho
Bénin
The waterway followed down from Guézin as the branch spread.
Hounklou
Lac Ahémé, Bénin
Xwéla village along the Aho route.
Hokoué
Lac Ahémé, Bénin
Xwéla village along the Aho route.
Dondji
Lac Ahémé, Bénin
The last named stage of the Xwéla route.
Le domaine traditionnel
From 1600 onwards
The coastal plain of the Gulf of Benin, from Aflao to Ajido.
Glidji
Togo
The first named stage of the westward march.
Agbodranfo
Togo
A stage of the westward march.
Bê
Togo
A stage of the westward march.
Aflao
Frontière Togo-Ghana
Western limit of the traditional domain and a stage of the expansion.
Séountché
Bord de la Volta, Ghana
The last named stage of the westward expansion.
Le cordon lagunaire
Bénin
The villages strung along the coastal lagoon belt.
Le lac Nokoué
Bénin
Settlements from Agblangandan through to Djeffa, Kétonou and Gbadagry.
Cotonou
Bénin
The Popo quarter of Xwlacodji, plus Avlèkété and Djèkin (Godomey-plage).
La pêche et le canotage
The specialism that carried the dispersal along Africa’s coasts.
La diaspora
Late 19th — 20th century
Nine host countries, all opening onto the sea and rich in fish.
Les huit causes des migrations
15th — 21st century
The documented reasons for the dispersal, in order of weight.
Le voyage de 1919
1919
The long journey from which came the observation that founded the association.
Adolphe GNANSOUNOU AKPA
Initiator and first federal president
A Xwéla from the village of Doyi, the origin of the Nonvitcha idea.
Siméon ABALO LOKO
Adolphe’s cousin, second federal president
A Xwla of the coast; his assent sealed the founding pair.
Augustin Kokou AZANGO
The intellectual elite’s backing
The man whose backing carried the idea of brotherhood.
Nonvitcha
Official founding
In 1921 the idea was brought to the font under the name Nonvitcha.
Le premier rassemblement
1923
The first popular ethnic gathering, celebrated with particular brilliance.
Arrêté N°1291/APA
Official recognition
The statutes approved by the government of Dahomey.
Le premier bureau fédéral
Nine founding members, every one named in the archives.
Les cinq premières sections
Grand-Popo, Cotonou, Athiémè, Porto-Novo, Lomé.
AZAMA MENSAH Nathaniel
Member of the first federal bureau
Founding member of Nonvitcha’s first federal bureau.
AMEGANKPOE Jonathan
Member of the first federal bureau
Founding member of Nonvitcha’s first federal bureau.
ZOUNON Abel
Member of the first federal bureau
Founding member of Nonvitcha’s first federal bureau.
AHOUANSOU Karl
Member of the first federal bureau
Founding member of Nonvitcha’s first federal bureau.
GBODOSSOU Valère
Member of the first federal bureau
Founding member of Nonvitcha’s first federal bureau.
Randolph DOSSOU
Member of the first federal bureau
Founding member of Nonvitcha’s first federal bureau.
Section de Grand-Popo
Grand-Popo, Bénin
The section at the Association’s birthplace.
Pascal HOGBONOUTO
Grand-Popo section
Founding member of the Grand-Popo section.
Mathieu KAKPO
Grand-Popo section
Founding member of the Grand-Popo section.
Section de Cotonou
Cotonou, Bénin
The section in the city where the community settled in numbers.
KPENOU Isidore
Cotonou section
Founding member of the Cotonou section.
André KPOGNON
Cotonou section
Founding member of the Cotonou section.
AMOUSSOU ADEBLE Germain
Cotonou section
Founding member of the Cotonou section.
Section d’Athiémè
Athiémè, Bénin
The section in the Mono valley, upstream from Grand-Popo.
Robert KINGBO
Athiémè section
Founding member of the Athiémè section.
Michel NOUDEHOU
Athiémè section
Founding member of the Athiémè section.
Julien de SOUZA
Athiémè section
Founding member of the Athiémè section.
Section de Porto-Novo
Porto-Novo, Bénin
The section in the capital, near lake Nokoué and Ajido.
Louis DEBOUTO
Porto-Novo section
Founding member of the Porto-Novo section.
Lexis AHOUAHYE
Porto-Novo section
Founding member of the Porto-Novo section.
GBOVI Galin
Porto-Novo section
Founding member of the Porto-Novo section.
Section de Lomé
Lomé, Togo
The Togo section, from the outset: the community straddles the border.
Robert GBEDEY
Lomé section
Founding member of the Lomé section.
Richard GNANSOUNOU
Lomé section
Founding member of the Lomé section.
ATOHOUN Basile
Lomé section
Founding member of the Lomé section.
Nathaniel AMEGANKPOE
Interim president
Physician and notable of Grand-Popo, interim president from 1968 to 1969.
Les présidences fédérales
1921 — today
Eight terms since 1921, numbered as the Association numbers them.
Randolph Ayinon DOSSOU
Third federal president
Postal and Telecommunications receiver, third federal president from 1969 to 1982.
André HOUNZANGBE
Fourth federal president
Postal and Telecommunications controller, fourth federal president from 1987 to 1997.
René MEGNIHO DOSSA
Fifth federal president
Journalist, fifth federal president from 1998 to 2004.
Comlan Paul ZINSOU
Sixth federal president
Interim president from 2004 to 2007, then sixth federal president until 2015.
Norbert KASSA
Seventh federal president
Finance administrator, seventh federal president, in office since 2015.
Branches
- Common stock
- Xwéla branch
- Xwla branch
- Nonvitcha Association
Kind of link
- Migration
- Collective descent
- Kinship
- Founding
- Membership
- Succession
Degree of certainty
- Established informationThe source states it directly.
- Information reported under reserveThe source reports it under reserve, or the statement follows from bringing two passages together without being written as such.
Chronological bands
- The common originEarly 15th century
- Down the Mono river15th century
- Adamè and the Xwlagbé languageAround 1550
- The Xwla / Xwéla parting16th century
- The settlementsAround 1600 — 20th century
- The genesis of Nonvitcha1919 — 1921
- The bureau and the sections1921 — 1933
- The federal presidencies1921 — today
74 entries in the corpus, including 32 named people; 4 written sources; 3 pieces of information reported under reserve.
How to read this tree
This tree is not a reconstruction: it gives shape to what four written sources state. What they do not say does not appear.
Every card carries its source
The detail panel shows the full reference for every statement. Data without established provenance does not enter the corpus.
The established and the reported are distinguished
A solid line marks what the source states directly; a dashed line and a question mark mark what it reports under reserve.
The bands are not generations
The sources do not count the generations between the 15th century and 1921. The bands place stages in time; they do not count births.
No degree of kinship is named
The path between two entries shows the exact sequence of attested links, rather than inventing a cousinhood the sources do not write.
Sources of the tree
The four references below are the only ones admitted into the corpus. Every card in the tree cites at least one of them.
- 01
DOSSOU & HOUNZANGBE-ADOTE, 2006
Me Robert DOSSOU and Prof. Sylvie HOUNZANGBE née ADOTE, “Paper presented at the Study Day on revitalising the Nonvitcha Association and developing the Xwla and Xwéla communities”, Grand-Popo, 20 May 2006.
- 02
IROKO, Hula from the 14th to the 19th century
Prof. Félix IROKO, “Hula from the 14th to the 19th century”.
- 03
Nonvitcha Association archives
Nonvitcha Association archives: the “Origins and history” and “Settlements of the Xwla and Xwéla community” records, supplemented by the elders’ oral testimony.
- 04
Page “The federal presidents”
Nonvitcha Association, “The federal presidents” page of the Association’s website, as at 4 October 2023, together with the “… : Biography” posts that complete it. This is the official table of terms: it carries the ordinals as the Association writes them and the years of each presidency.
Families and people
Alongside the historical tree, the platform hosts the living genealogy of the Xwla and Xwéla families: the lineages, their origins, their totems and their members.
The register is still empty
No family and no person has been recorded yet. Nothing will be shown here until the Association has transmitted and validated the information: a genealogical register is not invented.
Contribute to the register
Do you hold records, photographs, panegyrics or testimony about a Xwla or Xwéla lineage? Write to the Association: every contribution is verified, then published with its provenance.
Write to the Association