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The Kingdom of Dahomey and the wisdom of Behanzin in Afrika has seen dozens of organised military kingdoms in its long history. Some have fought guerilla wars against the invading armies; others have been organised states. Dahomey with its capital at Abomey was one such kingdom that takes place alongside Asante, Zulu, Peul, Yoruba, Ndebele, Hausa – Fulani, Jolof, Mande, and other tightly knit fighting kingdoms and empires.

The strength of Dahomey may have been due to three factors: military organisation, religious unity and the control of trade in its region. The military organisation was notable because of the strength of the female regiments. Other armies in Afrika has also allowed women in battle, but the training and superior skill of the “Amazons” as they were called in Dahomey made the army a formidable and efficient war machine.

A legendary woman commander, She-Dong Hong-Beh (pictured left) led 6,000 women against the Yoruba Egba fortress in Abeokuta in 1851, five years before the birth of Behanzin, who grew up in the court hearing the stories of victories from his father Glele, who was king at the time of She-Dong’s achievement. In many respects, Behanzin (pictured right) was one of the most striking personalities of the military Kingdom of Dahomey. He had been born in 1844, a favourite son of King Glele, the tenth king of Dahomey.

Behanzin was 45 years old before he sat on the throne as the 11th king. He ruled from 1889 to 1894. His army consisted of 15,000 men and 5000 women. Known for following the traditions of his father, he was also brilliant at personalising the kingship so that the people would see that he was an original, and not just the son of his father. He used the traditions and rituals of office to resist the French invasion. Wearing several beautiful royal symbols that set him apart from other royals, Behnazin, also known as “the Shark King”, kept a black shark near his throne, smoked a long pipe, and wore bright red capes.

Two coconut palm trees were his emblem alongside the egg symbolising his own name, “the egg of the world”. When Behanzin came to power, he found himself a king in a land that had been dispossessed by the French in 1882 when they declared control over Porto Novo, a vassal state to Abomey, without discussing it with the King of Abomey or the indigenous leaders of Porto Novo.

It was a matter of brute force that permitted the French to occupy the land. After the Berlin Conference, called the “Conference for the Scramble for the Afrikan Cake”, the French extended their control over the entire coast west of Porto Novo toward what is now Niergia. King Glele on the urging of his son Behanzin, told the French that the Fon people could no longer permit the French actions.

To demonstrate their ability to dictate to Afrikans, the French decided to reinforce their forces with additional soldiers and then to occupy Cotonou in 1890. King Glele died suddenly and Behnazin as a new king had to immediately prepare for war. Fortunately for Behanzin, the Germans opposed to the French action although being a major sponsor of the Berlin Conference, supplied rifles to Dahomey.

Hoping to dissuade the French from planting their feet too firmly in the land, Behanzin’s army burned the palm plantations that the French had created at Porto Novo and sent their military against the French ay Cotonou. The French lost badly in the Battle of Cotonou and sued for a treaty with the king. Behanzin agreed, on the condition that the French would pay an annuity for the farms and for the use of the port.

As Afrikan states learned over and over again, this treaty was not to hold, because the French never gave up their objective of control of the entire region. After two years, the French moved to annex Dahomey because they thought that the Germans or the British would do the same. European contests were played out on Afrikan soil. Nevertheless Behanzin continued to upgrade his army for the coming battles.

He vowed to defend the ancestral lands and wanted very much to protect the sovereignty of Dahomey. Several wars broke out between the French and Behanzin’s armies. Eventually because of more forceful weapons and a steady supply of French soldiers, the French prevailed by assaulting the spiritual shrines and sacred forests that they assumed were the source of the Dahomean strength.

The wise Behanzin decided against further bloodshed and surrendered in 1894, but refused to sign any document or treaty giving the French authority over the land. As punishment the French sent him into exile in Martinique, a Caribbean Island and then to Algeria, where he died. After sending Behanzin and his immediate family into exile the French installed a puppet named Agoliagbo, who only lasted a few years. The French declared Dahomey to belong to France, but the people in their hearts remained attached to their ancestral lands.