King of the Seas and Oceans · Palace of Agondji · Ouidah, Benin
His Majesty Dada Daagbo
Hounon Houna II Guely
Guardian of the link between Ouidah and its global diaspora. The spiritual authority that Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Candomblé and Cuban Santería all recognize as their source.
No tour operator, however well positioned, can bring Haitian, Brazilian or Cuban participants to the Palace of Agondji as recognized guests. This kind of access was built over years of community work in Ouidah, not a marketing budget. ONG Wa Afriki's network of trust with His Majesty Houna II cannot be replicated. It cannot be bought. It exists, and After Vodundays is its only door in.
The guardian of the Atlantic link
His Majesty Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna II Guely resides at the Palace of Agondji in Ouidah. His title, King of the Seas and Oceans, denotes a functional office, not a purely honorary one. He is the spiritual chief of the Vodun Hwendo cult.
His charge is to keep alive the link between Ouidah and every Vodun community in the world, continuing what his father began. Not symbolically. Concretely: by traveling himself, as he did in Haiti in April 2015, to meet the diaspora's authorities on their own soil. By founding in 1996 the Vodun Hwendo primary school, now carried under the name Dada Daagbo Agbessi Hounon Houna school (DDAPS), to school children the system leaves behind. By chairing, since 2018, the national inter-religious platform for health, peace and security. A spirituality that builds.
A lineage commitment that is not only spiritual. It is concrete, territorial, educational.
The School of the Throne: from high finance to age-old mastery
Son and direct disciple of the legendary Supreme Pontiff Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna I, His Majesty grew up at the very heart of the holy city's most impenetrable secrets. Trained from childhood in his father's shadow, he traveled the world at his side, learning to decode the workings of customary diplomacy, the genealogies of deported families and the political history of Ouidah.
Before ascending the throne of the Palace of Agondji, His Majesty proved his skills as a modern manager, serving the national economy as a senior executive at CLCAM and FECECAM. This double life is his singular strength: he holds the methodical precision and pedagogy of a high-level financial executive alongside a science of initiation of absolute depth.
His clinical, structured teaching turns every face-to-face meeting into an elite transmission where history becomes plain. If you are seeking historical truth, the origin of a cultural lineage or the secrets of Vodun's cradle, he is the one and only reference in Ouidah.
1996
Founding of the DDAPS school
Schooling for the children of traditionalist communities, among the most marginalized by Benin's education system.
2015
Historic visit to Haiti
First official visit by a chief from Ouidah to the Haitian diaspora. Documented by Le Nouvelliste.
2018
National inter-religious platform
Chairing Benin's national platform for health, peace and security.
3
Diaspora traditions connected
Haitian Vodou (La Sirène), Brazilian Candomblé (Yemoja), Cuban Santería (Yemayá), one single source.
April 2015 · Port-au-Prince
The visit that closed the circle
In April 2015, His Majesty Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna II Guely set foot in Haiti. In Port-au-Prince, he was officially received by His Majesty Augustin Saint-Clou, king of the Kingdom of Danti, Haiti's royalty descended directly from African tradition. The meeting was documented by Le Nouvelliste, Haiti's oldest newspaper still in print.
This is not an ordinary diplomatic trip. It is a homecoming. The spiritual chief of the city from which hundreds of thousands of deported people once embarked meets their descendants, and the descendants recognize their source.
The consequence for After Vodundays is concrete: Haitian participants who join the program do not arrive in Ouidah as tourists. They arrive in a city whose spiritual authority knows their kingdom, and traveled to see it in person. (Source: Le Nouvelliste, Haiti)
Image coming soon
Port-au-Prince meeting, April 2015, His Majesty Houna II and His Majesty Augustin Saint-Clou · 800×1000
Transatlantic expertise and authority
The 8 Pillars of the Palace of Agondji
His Majesty Houna II is the only authority that these diaspora territories all recognize as their origin. It is structurally irreplaceable.
Ouidah's Irreversible Library
If you want to understand the history of Ouidah, the evolution of the clans, the routes of the slave ships and the original roots of Vodun, His Majesty is the ultimate reference. Having gathered the court's accounts from his father, his memory is an unalterable hard drive. He holds historiographic keys that Western books have never been able to capture.
Guardian of the Atlantic Link and the Tradition of the Waters
His title, King of the Seas and Oceans, denotes a functional and mystical office of the highest order: he is the spiritual chief of the Vodun of the waters. In Ouidah, the ocean carries a memory of blood: it once carried, by force, millions of Africans toward the Americas. His Majesty governs the forces that protect and bind the two shores of the Atlantic.
The Haitian Connection, the Kingdom of Danti
His Majesty is the only spiritual authority to have set foot in Haiti to close the circle of deportation. Officially received in Port-au-Prince by His Majesty Augustin Saint-Clou (King of the Kingdom of Danti, Haiti), he sealed the mutual recognition between the African source and Haitian royalty. It is the direct channel that reconnects Haitian Vodou (Mami Wata, La Sirène) to its epicenter.
→ Le Nouvelliste (Haiti)The Brazilian Lineage, the Candomblé of Bahia
The Vodun of the waters, of which he is the supreme guardian, crossed the Atlantic to become the cult of Yemoja in Brazil. The traditional communities of Salvador de Bahia formally recognize the Palace of Agondji as the matrix of their faith. His Majesty holds the exact lineage of these deported, documented rites.
→ AfroAtlantic Theologies InstituteThe Cuban Heritage, Santería
Yemayá of Cuban Santería is the same water deity, carried across on the waves of the slave trade. This link, recognized by Santería's highest communities, makes His Majesty Houna II the natural pivot of transatlantic dialogue. He knows exactly how Cuban chants and rhythms align, note for note, with the frequencies of Ouidah.
→ Globe Reporters, Portrait of His MajestyReconnecting the Educated Diaspora
For executives, researchers and people of African descent from Europe and North America, a private audience is an identity and scholarly pilgrimage. Through his singular teaching gift, His Majesty listens to visitors' fragments of history and helps them rediscover their memorial anchor. He gives back a spiritual name and a legitimacy to those history tried to erase.
Inter-Religious and Societal Leadership
Since 2018, His Majesty has put his executive rigor at the service of the State by chairing Benin's National Platform of Religious Structures for Health, Peace and Security. His strategic alliance with international programs such as SWEDD Africa against gender-based violence proves he embodies a modern, active and highly structured spirituality.
→ SWEDD Africa, Social EngagementThe Exclusive Audience of After Vodundays
Access to the Palace of Agondji under our guidance is not a guided tour, it is a court accreditation. You sit face to face with a man who speaks as an equal with heads of state and diaspora royalty. A direct, confidential exchange, where the most complex questions about the invisible world and history receive definitive answers.
Essential questions
Who is His Majesty Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna II Guely?
His Majesty Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna II Guely is the King of the Seas and Oceans, spiritual chief of the Vodun Hwendo cult, and resides at the Palace of Agondji in Ouidah. Son and direct disciple of the Supreme Pontiff Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna I, he grew up at the heart of the holy city's secrets before serving the national economy as an executive at CLCAM and FECECAM, a dual training, financial and initiatory, that makes him a singular authority.
What happened during the historic visit to Haiti in April 2015?
In April 2015, His Majesty Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna II Guely traveled to Port-au-Prince, where he was officially received by His Majesty Augustin Saint-Clou, king of the Kingdom of Danti, Haiti's royalty rooted in African tradition. This meeting, documented by Le Nouvelliste, is the first official visit by a spiritual chief from Ouidah to Haiti since the colonial era.
What is the DDAPS school and what is its concrete impact?
The Vodun Hwendo primary school, now carried under the name Dada Daagbo Agbessi Hounon Houna primary school (DDAPS), was founded in 1996 at His Majesty's initiative. Its mission: to school children from Vodun traditionalist backgrounds, the ones Benin's mainstream education system structurally sidelines. Every After Vodundays participant contributes directly to this ecosystem through ONG Wa Afriki.
What does Vodun Hwendo represent in African tradition?
Vodun Hwendo is the tradition of the cult of the waters. In the diaspora, it crossed the Atlantic to become Yemoja in Brazil (Candomblé), Yemayá in Cuba (Santería), and La Sirène in Haiti (Vodou). His Majesty Houna II is the living guardian of the source of all these forms, the only figure of authority whose legitimacy is recognized simultaneously by the communities of Ouidah, Salvador de Bahia, Port-au-Prince and Havana.
How does his background as a financial executive strengthen his spiritual authority?
Before ascending the throne of the Palace of Agondji, His Majesty served as a senior executive at CLCAM and FECECAM. This double life, the methodical precision and pedagogy of a high-level financial executive combined with an initiatory science of absolute depth, gives every audience a rare pedagogical clarity: history, genealogies and the secrets of Vodun's cradle become plain.
How is After Vodundays connected to His Majesty Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna II?
ONG Wa Afriki, founded by Bertian Hounon, grandson of DAAGBO HOUNON HOUNA 1, has spent years building a network of trust with Ouidah's spiritual institutions, including the Palace of Agondji. This is not a commercial partnership, it is a recognition of lineage. After Vodundays participants access the Palace and moments of transmission that have never had a booking website, and never will.
After Vodundays · ONG Wa Afriki · Palace of Agondji
You are not coming to visit Ouidah.
You are coming to find your source.
•The Palace of Agondji has no booking website. His Majesty Houna II does not receive tourists. He receives people his network of trust presents to him. ONG Wa Afriki is that network.
•This is not a stay. It is a transmission. 65% of After Vodundays program funds go directly back to local communities, including the DDAPS school His Majesty has funded since 1996.
•Places per edition are limited and assigned by hand. Beyond a certain threshold, it stops being a meeting and becomes a visit. ONG Wa Afriki does not do visits.
Documentary sources
Documentation of the meeting with His Majesty Augustin Saint-Clou, king of the Kingdom of Danti, Haiti
Archives of the Queen Mother's work and the DDAPS school, transmission and schooling
Portrait of the Palace of Agondji and the Hwendo tradition
Historical context of the Hwendo cult in Ouidah
His Majesty Houna II's role in the national platform for health, peace and security
The authorities of the tradition
Grand Patriarch
DAAGBO HOUNON HOUNA 1
Supreme Chief · Benin
Tomadjlèhoukpon II
King of the Seas · Diaspora
Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna II