An African king in the Caribbean

King Behanzin and his two wives in Martinique. 

The man on this early 20th century photograph is the exiled king of Dahomey, Behanzin, here shown together with his two wives. When the French conquered Dahomey in 1894, Behanzin was sent to exile in Martinique, where the photograph was taken.

When Behanzin felt that his days were numbered, he appealed to the French government to be allowed to return to his former kingdom. The French did not grant him his wish, but he was allowed to travel to Algeria, where he died in 1906.

The kingdom of Dahomey played a major role in the Atlantic slave trade:

The Atlantic slave trade was the primary international trade from the kingdom for much of its history. The slave trade was heavily organized by the king himself and the money provided him with significant funds to purchase guns, iron, and cloth.^[10] Although the king did make some money from domestic taxation, most of the funds to the king derived from the slave trade. The Dahomey coast was known in many European accounts at this time as the "Slave Coast" because of the active trade.^[5] Dahomey contributed possibly as much as 20% of the total Atlantic slave trade making it one of the largest suppliers to the trade.

Gezo was the king of Dahomey from 1818 to 1858. In 1851-1852 the British instituted a naval blockade on Dahomey in order to prevent the slave trade forcing Gezo to promise to end the slave trade.
(image by wikipedia)

Dahomey remained a French colony until 1960, when it became the Republic of Dahomey, to be changed to Benin in 1975.