
Gbehanzin also known as Béhanzin ( – 10 December 1906) is considered the eleventh (if
Adandozan is not counted) King of
Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history, kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in ...
, modern-day
Republic of Benin. Upon taking the throne, he changed his name from Kondo.
Following his father
Glele's suicide, Béhanzin ascended the throne in January 1890 and ruled until 1894, when he was defeated by the French in the
Second Franco-Dahomean War and exiled to Martinique. Béhanzin was
Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history, kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in ...
's last independent ruler established through traditional power structures. He led the resistance to French colonization of his kingdom, during the
Dahomey Wars.
Biography
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
In March 1889, Dahomey attacked a village on the
Ouémé whose chief was under the protection of the French.
After remarking that the flag of the tricolour would protect him, the Fon commanded one of his Dahomey Amazons to behead him and wrap his head in the flag.
France responded by fortifying the city of
Cotonou
Cotonou (; ) is the largest city in Benin. Its official population count was 679,012 inhabitants in 2012; however, over two million people live in the larger urban area.
The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west. The city lies ...
, which had been ceded to them by a Dahomey representative in
Ouidah, increasing its forces with French Senegalese and Gabonese soldiers, and arresting local Dahomey officials who had been continuing to collect customs in the port. Skirmishes also broke out with local militias. On March 4, 1890, a Dahomey army of several thousand charged the log stockade around Cotonou at approximately 5 in the morning. The French army stood fast due to superior weaponry, strategy and the advantageous position they had prepared. Eventually Béhanzin's forces were forced to withdraw. While there were few losses on the French side, the Dahomey suffered the loss of several hundred soldiers (129 within French lines).
After regrouping, Dahomey sent its forces south to attack the French-protected city of Porto-Novo ruled by King
Toffa I. A force of 350 French soldiers assisted by 500 of King Toffa's soldiers intercepted Béhanzin's force of 9000 warriors in the
Battle of Atchoukpa. While the local Porto-Novo soldiers were routed during the initial Dahomey charge, the French forces formed
infantry squares to protect themselves and successfully repelled the Dahomey, suffering only 8 casualties to the Dahomey's 1500.
On 3 October 1890, Dahomey signed a treaty recognizing the kingdom of Porto-Novo as a French
protectorate
A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over ...
. Béhanzin was also forced to definitely cede Cotonou.
Second Franco-Dahomean War
The peace lasted two years, but both sides continued to buy arms in preparation for another battle. In 1892, the soldiers of Abomey attacked villages near
Grand Popo and
Porto-Novo in an effort to reassert the older boundaries of Dahomey. King Béhanzin rejected complaints by the French, who proceeded to declare war.
The French further justified the annexation of Dahomey 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 deity, gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/prie ...
of slaves made to the royal ancestors at the annual ceremonies known as
annual customs and at a king's death, as evidence of this savagery.
Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history, kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in ...
was already at odds with other colonial empires for their practice of attacking and enslaving neighboring kingdoms, both for domestic slaves (including human sacrifice), and trans-atlantic trade, which came at odds with the
British Empire's anti-slavery campaign during the 19th century.
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
The Amazons (Ancient Greek: ', singular '; in Latin ', ') were a people in Greek mythology, portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules, Labours of Heracles, the ''Argonautica'' and the ''Iliad''. ...
after the fierce women warriors of Greek mythology. These women soldiers were thought to have become common in the Fon army due to the extreme losses suffered by Dahomey during wars with neighboring kingdoms. 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
executed by Béhanzin for treachery after divulging battle plans in return for
bribes 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 List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...
who committed the 'savage' act of corrupting family members to betray their own. The Amazon was reduced to using her teeth after her
ammunition
Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...
ran out at the battle's peak.
Through superior
intelligence gathering, superior strategy, superior weaponry, bribery, and a campaign of
psychological warfare
Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has 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 in the
Oueme and
Zou, the French defeated Dahomey, one of the last African kingdoms to succumb to European colonization, with very few French losses. Instead of attacking Abomey directly by marching straight north from Calavi just north of Cotonou, French General
Alfred Dodds attacked from
Porto-Novo, moving up the
Oueme valley until he was within striking distance of
Abomey, via
Cove
A cove is a small bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creek (tidal), creeks, or recesses in a coast ...
and
Bohicon, while the Fon continued to pattern their attacks in predictable melee combat style just before dawn, with shorter machete weapons and swords that had difficulty breaking disciplined French
Bayonet lines.
Over a series of battles and guerilla warfare by the Fon attempting to slow the French march towards the Dahomey capital of
Abomey, the French were victorious, sustaining only 85 casualties to the estimated 2000 to 4000 killed among the Fon. On November 5, 1892, following the loss of the royal palace, Béhanzin sent a truce mission to the French forces, but it failed. King Béhanzin, refusing to let the capital fall into enemy hands, burned and evacuated the city. He and the remnants of the Dahomey army fled north as the French entered the capital on 17 November, and installed Béhanzin's brother
Agoli-agbo as the new King. After failing to rebuild his army, King Béhanzin eventually surrendered to the French on 15 January 1894. He lived out the remainder of his life in exile in
Martinique
Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...
and
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
.
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 brother and one-time Army Chief of Staff, the only potential ruler with whom the French were willing to negotiate.
Artistic representation

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 from the royal palace at
Abomey, 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, 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, often simply referred to as a pipe, is used to inhale (or taste) the smoke of a burning substance, typically (though not exclusively) used to consume a Psychoactive drug, psychoactive substance; this most commonly refers to a to ...
. 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.
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
The Scramble for Africa was the invasion, conquest, and colonialism, colonisation of most of Africa by seven Western European powers driven by the Second Industrial Revolution during the late 19th century and early 20th century in the era of ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Béhanzin
Kings of Dahomey
1840s births
1906 deaths
19th-century monarchs in Africa
19th century in the Kingdom of Dahomey
French Third Republic
People of French West Africa