World War I service in France connected Dahomeyan elites to anticolonial networks.

Evidence

During the war, several Dahomeyan evolues serving in France took advantage of the opportunity to establish contact with the incipient anticolonial movement. Among them was Louis Hunkanrin, whom the Government General soon came to view with as much hostility as it had for Diagne. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 555