Louis Hunkanrin
| Louis Hunkanrin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 25, 1887. Porto-Novo |
| Died | May 28, 1964 (aged 76) Porto-Novo |
| Nationality | Beninese |
| Occupation | Writer, educator, journalist, politician |
| Notable work | Un forfait colonial: I'esclavage en Mauritanie (1931) |
Louis Hunkanrin (25 December 1887 – 28 May 1964) was a Dahomeyan writer, educator, journalist, and politician. He was one of the earliest critics of French colonial power in his country, later renamed Benin.
He was born in Porto-Novo on 25 December 1887. His father was jeweler to the kings of Porto Novo and his mother was descended from royalty. Hunkanrin was a member of the first graduating class of the Ecole William Ponty in Dakar in 1904. He returned to Ouidah in 1906 after receiving a teaching position. However, he was fired in 1910 after having a dispute with a colonial administrator over how his superior dealt with pupils. He received support from teachers an students, but thanks to a governor's notation in his record, this would be his last teaching job.
Hunkanrin found work at the Compagnie Francaise de l'Afrique Occidentale, but was arrested in 1912 due to insulting and threatening his boss. Sent to prison in Dakar, he developed a friendship with Blaise Diagne and became more critical of French colonial rule. In 1914, he returned to Dahomey. He edited the newspaper Le Messager du Dahomey with Paul Hazoumé during World War I. He also prepared articles from abroad criticizing French treatment of Dahomeyan recruits and founded a Dahomeyan branch of the League of Human Rights. In newspaper articles, he criticized the abuses of French colonialism and urged Africans to become educated, as it was the only way they could become equal with the French administrators. Despite not calling for decolonization, he became a great annoyance to the French. Hunkanrin lived in hiding, travelling between Senegal, Dahomey, and Nigeria, and only came out of hiding in 1918 when Blaise Diagne arranged for him to volunteer for the military. It is debatable whether this was a move of political expediency or an expression of devotion to France.
Nonetheless, his military service resulted in several disputes, and he was court-marshalled in 1921 and served several months in a French prison. Hunkanrin broke off with Diagne, claiming he accepted bribes to find recruits for the army. When he returned to Dahomey in December 1921, he turned again to critical journalism. It wasn't long before he drew the ire of the French and was again imprisoned, officially for forgery. In reality, it was his militant nationalist views that led him to the jailhouse. He remained loyal to France, but as an abstraction, the France that declared the universal rights of man regardless of national origin. Hunkanrin repeatedly criticized the idea the some French people had more rights than others.
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