![Homme-requin Dahomey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Homme-requin_Dahomey.jpg)
Béhanzin ( – 10 December 1906) is considered the eleventh (if
Adandozan is not counted) King of
Dahomey, modern-day
Republic of Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Republic of Dahomey, Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burki ...
. Upon taking the throne, he changed his name from Kondo.
Biography
He succeeded his father,
Glele
Glele, or Badohou (died December 29, 1889), was the tenth King of Dahomey, ruling from 1858 until his suicide in 1889.
Life
Badohou, who took the throne name Glele, is considered (if Adandozan is not counted) to be the tenth King of the Aja king ...
, and ruled from 1889 to 1894. Béhanzin was
Dahomey's last independent ruler established through traditional power structures. He led the resistance to French colonization of his kingdom, during the
Dahomey Wars.
Each of Dahomey's kings was represented in sculpture with images that referred to the proverbs, associations, and wordplay attached to his royal name. The images that symbolize Behanzin (or Gbehanzin) include an egg held by a hand, as the words for these in the Fon language form a rebus, or pun, of the royal name. As may be seen in the large wooden statue once displayed in the royal palace at
Abomey
Abomey is the capital of the Zou Department of Benin. The commune of Abomey covers an area of 142 square kilometres and, as of 2012, had a population of 90,195 people.
Abomey houses the Royal Palaces of Abomey, a collection of small traditional ...
(and now in the Musee Quai Branly in Paris), the shark is a metaphor for Behanzin; as does the shark, the king guards the coast of the kingdom of Dahomey.
A captive hanging from a flagpole is a reference to a man from the Nago, or
Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
, city of
Ketou, a powerful rival state. This prisoner had boasted that he could attack the king with magic, but Behanzin hanged him from a flagpole as punishment for his rebellion. The king's most famous symbol is the
smoking pipe
A smoking pipe is used to inhale the smoke of a burning substance; most common is a tobacco pipe, which can also accommodate almost any other substance. Pipes are commonly made from briar, heather, corn, meerschaum, clay, cherry, glass, porcela ...
. This is because he claimed that there wasn't a minute in his life, even when he was a baby, that he was not smoking tobacco.
Béhanzin was seen by his people as intelligent and courageous. He saw that the Europeans were gradually encroaching on this section of the West African Coast, and as a result attempted a foreign policy of isolating the Europeans and rebuffing them. As prince just before the death of his father Glele, Béhanzin declined to meet
French envoy
Jean Bayol, claiming conflicts in his schedule due to ritual and ceremonial obligations.
First Franco-Dahomean War
As a result, Bayol returned to
Cotonou to prepare to go to war against Béhanzin, named king upon Glele's death. Seeing the preparations, the Dahomeans attacked Bayol's forces outside Cotonou in 1890. The French army stood fast due to superior weaponry and a strategically advantageous position. Eventually Béhanzin's forces were forced to withdraw. Béhanzin returned to Abomey, Bayol to France for a time.
The peace lasted two years, during which time the French continued to occupy Cotonou. Both sides continued to buy arms in preparation for another battle. In 1892, the soldiers of Abomey attacked villages near
Grand Popo
Grand-Popo is a town, arrondissement, and commune in the Mono Department of south-western Benin. The commune covers an area of 289 square kilometres and as at the 2013 Census had a population of 57,636 people.
The term "Grand-Popo" is a European ...
and
Porto-Novo
Porto-Novo (Portuguese: "New Port", , ; yo, Àjàṣẹ́, ), also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe, is the capital of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people.
Situated on an inlet of the Gulf of G ...
in an effort to reassert the older boundaries of Dahomey. This was seen as an act of war by the French, who claimed interests in both areas.
Bayol, by now named Colonial Governor by the French, declared war on Béhanzin.
The French justified the aggression by
characterizing the Dahomeans as savages in need of civilizing, and pointing to the
human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
made to the royal ancestors at the annual ceremonies known as
annual customs and at a king's death, as evidence of this savagery. The French also pointed to the existence of the women's militia that protected the king, whom the Fon referred to simply as ''Minon'' (or "mothers"), but the French called
Amazons after the fierce women warriors of Greek mythology.
Some official French propaganda from the period may be seen in prints depicting these so-called Amazons. One source claims that in one of the battles an Amazon killed a French officer by ripping out his throat with her sharpened teeth. Parallel accounts of the event handed down in Benin describe the Amazon as a trusted wife of Béhanzin who had sworn to avenge members of the royal family who had been
execute
Execute, in capital punishment, is to put someone to death.
Execute may also refer to:
* Execution (computing), the running of a computer program
* ''Execute'' (album), a 2001 Garage hip-hop album by Oxide & Neutrino
* USS ''Execute'' (AM-232), a ...
d by Béhanzin for treachery after divulging battle plans in return for
bribe
Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corr ...
s from French agents. The French officer she is said to have killed was allegedly the head of French
military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
who committed the 'savage' act of corrupting family members to betray their own. The Amazon was reduced to using her teeth after her
ammunition ran out at the battle's peak.
Through superior
intelligence gathering
This is a list of intelligence gathering disciplines.
HUMINT
Human intelligence (HUMINT) are gathered from a person in the location in question. Sources can include the following:
* Advisors or foreign internal defense (FID) personnel wor ...
, superior weaponry, bribery, a campaign of
psychological warfare
Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...
that included cutting down most of the
sacred trees
A sacred tree is a tree which is considered to be sacred, or worthy of spiritual respect or reverence. Such trees appear throughout world history in various cultures including the ancient Greek, Hindu mythology, Celtic and Germanic mythologies. ...
in the
Oueme and
Zou, and an unexpected strategy, the French succeeded in defeating Dahomey, one of the last African kingdoms to succumb to European colonization. Instead of attacking Abomey directly by marching straight north from Calavi just north of Cotonou, French General
Alfred Dodds attacked from
Porto-Novo
Porto-Novo (Portuguese: "New Port", , ; yo, Àjàṣẹ́, ), also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe, is the capital of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people.
Situated on an inlet of the Gulf of G ...
, moving up the
Oueme valley until he was within striking distance of
Abomey
Abomey is the capital of the Zou Department of Benin. The commune of Abomey covers an area of 142 square kilometres and, as of 2012, had a population of 90,195 people.
Abomey houses the Royal Palaces of Abomey, a collection of small traditional ...
, via
Cove
A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...
and
Bohicon
Bohicon or Gbohikon is a city in Benin, and a conurbation of Abomey lying 9 kilometres east of the city on the railway line from Cotonou to Parakou and on Benin's main highway RNIE 2 which joins the RNIE 4. The commune covers an area of 139 squ ...
.
The French were victorious. In 1894, Béhanzin surrendered himself to Dodds, without signing any instrument of national surrender or treaty. He lived out the remainder of his life in exile in
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
and
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
. After his death, his remains were returned to Abomey. His throne and his sculptures of wood, copper, iron and silver are now in the Musee Quai Branly, and have been the topic of important discussions about their return to the Republic of Benin.
Béhanzin was succeeded by
Agoli-agbo, his distant relative and one-time Army Chief of Staff, the only potential ruler with whom the French were willing to negotiate.
Symbols
file:Royal banner of Béhanzin of Dahomey.svg, Royal banner
file:Coat of arms of Béhanzin.svg, Coat of arms
See also
*
Scramble for Africa
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Béhanzin
Kings of Dahomey
1844 births
1906 deaths
19th-century monarchs in Africa
19th century in the Kingdom of Dahomey
French Third Republic
People of French West Africa