Crossword-Solution: ABEOKUTA 8 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 14

When the Alake or king of Abeokuta in West Africa dies, the principal men decapitate his body, and placing the head in a large earthen vessel deliver it to the new sovereign; it becomes his fetish and he is bound to pay it honours.

Thus at Abeokuta not only was the head of the late king presented to his successor, but the tongue was cut out and given him to eat.

During his Consulship, Burton visited a number of interesting spots on the adjoining African coasts, including Abeokuta [198] and Benin, but no place attracted him more than the Cameroon country; and his work Two Trips to Gorilla Land [199] is one of the brightest and raciest of all his books.

Gelele, who was preparing for an unprovoked attack upon Abeokuta, the capital of the neighbouring state of Lagos, now made some grandiose and rhapsodical war speeches and spoke vauntingly of the deeds that he and his warriors meant to perform, while every now and then the younger bloods, eager to flesh their spears, burst out with: "When we go to war we must slay men, And so must Abeokuta be destroyed." The leave-taking between Gelele and "Batunu" was affecting.

Whydah was reached again on 18th February 1864, and within a week came news that Gelele, puffed up with confidence and vainglory, had set out for Abeokuta, and was harrying that district.