In their early encounters with Europeans bearing religious agendas, it must be said that Africans similarly suffered from no lack of ulterior motives. The Beninese oba seems to have calculated that indulging the whites in a discussion about their faith, and even allowing some modest and carefully controlled experiments in conversion, was a small price to pay if this could win him access to Portuguese weapons and other forms of assistance in fighting an ongoing war against a neighboring people, the Idah.
