Behanzin

Béhanzin (Gbêhanzin) born in 1844 and died in 1906), or Bédazin Boaijéré Honu Bowelé, is traditionally it twelfth of the twelve kings of the Dahomey. It reigned of 1890 with 1894) and fought against the process of colonial expansion in its kingdom. He was married with 12 women and have probably more than 50 children.

He is crowned on January 6th, 1890, after the death of his father, the king Da-Da Glélé Kini-Kini, on December 30th, 1889, after 40 years of reign. Its combat against the French troops ordered by the general Alfred Dodds (1892 -1894) ends on January 25th, 1894 when it signs his rendering.

March 30th, 1894, Béhanzin is off-set by the French authorities on the island of the Martinique where, with its family and her continuation, it resides Tartenson at the height. “The Shark” leaves Martinique in 1906 and dies in Algérie, a few months later. Its skin finds the ancestral ground in 1928.

The message marking of its anti-colonial action is represented by its statue, set up on the Goho place with Abomey with the Bénin (in the past Danhomè or kingdom of Dahomey): this statue represents Béhanzin, its pipe with the mouth, draped in its royal loincloth, the helping hand forwards intimating the stop. This monument being at the entry of the town of Abomey, represents resistance vis-a-vis the colonist as well as the refusal to leave its fatherland to the hands from abroad. Its determination and its message-will at the place of the Benineses of today are symbolized by this sentence that one allots to him: " The Shark symbol of Bénhanzin goes. But, the wire of the Shark will not betray pas".

See too

History of Benign the

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