Béhanzin ( – 10 December 1906) is considered the eleventh (if Adandozan is not counted) King of Dahomey, modern-day Republic of Benin. Upon taking the throne, he changed his name from Kondo. Biography 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'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 (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, 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. 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 In March 1889, Dahomey attacked a village on the Ouémé whose the 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