Politics of Benin century until the colonial period, the Kingdom of Dahomey (whose borders encompassed more than present day Benin) was ruled by an "Oba". The French were the colonial power from 1892 to 1960, when independence was finally achieved. Between 1960 and 1972, a series of military coups in Benin (known until 1975 as the Republic of Dahomey) brought about many changes of government. The last of these brought Major Mathieu Kérékou to power as the head of a regime professing strict Marxist-Leninist principles. The Revolutionary Party of the People of Benin (PRPB) remained in complete power until the beginning of the
History of the Kingdom of Dahomey Viceroy of Ouidah (1980) is largely based around Francisco Felix de Sousa, the slave trader who helped bring King Ghezo to power. The book resulted in the film adaptation "Cobra Verde" (1987) by Werner Herzog. Ben Okri's novel "The Famished Road" (1991), which won the Man Booker Prize, tells the story of a person caught in the slave trade through Dahomey. Behanzin's resistance to the French has been central to a number of works. Jean Pliya's first play "Kondo le requin" (1967), winner of the Grand Prize for Black African History Literature, tells the story of Behanzin's resistance. Maryse Condé's