WAlphonse Amadou Alley was a Beninese army officer and political figure. He was most active when his country was known as Dahomey. He was born in Bassila, central Dahomey, and enrolled in schools in Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Senegal before enlisting in the French army in 1950. He saw combat in Indochina from 1950 to 1953, in Morocco from 1955 to 1956, and in Algeria from 1959 to 1961. After the coup in 1965, President Christophe Soglo promoted Alley Chief of Staff of the Army. Young army officer Maurice Kouandété was appointed Alley's chef de cabinet in 1967.
WMathieu Kérékou was a Beninese politician who served as President of Benin from 1972 to 1991 and again from 1996 to 2006. After seizing power in a military coup, he ruled the country for 19 years, for most of that time under an officially Marxist–Leninist ideology, before he was stripped of his powers by the National Conference of 1990. He was defeated in the 1991 presidential election but was returned to the presidency in the 1996 election and controversially re-elected in 2001.
WIropa Maurice Kouandété was a military officer and politician in Benin. He was born to Somba parents in the Gaba District of Dahomey. Kouandété enrolled in the army in his late teens. Over the years, he became popular among junior soldiers in the north and gained the contempt of those in the south. Jim Hoagland of The Washington Post described Kouandété as a "moody, brilliant and highly ambitious soldier".
WSeh-Dong-Hong-Beh was a leader of the Dahomey Amazons. In 1851, she led an all-female army consisting of 6,000 warriors against the Egba fortress of Abeokuta, to obtain slaves from the Egba people for the Dahomey slave trade.
WChristophe Soglo was a Beninese military officer and political leader and one of the most important figures in Benin's period of political instability and frequent, though usually bloodless, coups during the 1960s.
WColonel Paul-Émile de Souza was a Beninese army officer and political figure. He was chairman of the Directory of Dahomey from December 13, 1969 to May 7, 1970.
WNoélie Ditchakou Yarigo is a middle-distance runner from Benin who competes primarily in the 800 metres. She represented her country at the 2015 World Championships and 2016 Summer Olympics without advancing from the first round.