History of the Kingdom of Dahomey novel "The Last of the African Kings" (1992) similarly focuses on Behanzin's resistance and his exile to the Caribbean. History of the Kingdom of Dahomey The History of the Kingdom of Dahomey spans 300 years from around 1600 until 1904 with the rise of the Kingdom of Dahomey as a major power on the Atlantic coast of modern-day Benin until French conquest. The kingdom became a major regional power in the 1720s when it conquered the coastal kingdoms of Allada and Whydah. With control over these key coastal cities, Dahomey became a major center in the Atlantic Slave Trade until
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