The Dahomey King Who Never Saw Paris

On the night of 16 November 1892, the king of Danxome set fire to his own capital rather than surrender it to the column of Colonel Dodds, a French officer born in Saint-Louis, Senegal. Fourteen months later he walked out of the forest and laid down his arms, convinced, according to his son, that he would be taken to Paris to meet the President of the Republic. He never saw Paris: he saw Martinique for twelve years, then Algeria, where he died. His wooden half-man, half-shark statue, returned to Benin in 2021, was still waiting for its museum in 2026.

Colonial historyAnticolonial resistanceMemory and redressEmpires and kingdomsBeninBBéhanzinAAAlfred Amédée Dodds