Who is Lieutenant-Colonel Zossoungbo Patrice from The Viceroy of Ouidah and what is their importance?

Lieutenant-Colonel Zossoungbo Patrice is a young officer in the Dahomean army who chastises the Da Silva family at the beginning of the book for gathering to commemorate the 117th anniversary of Dom Francisco's death. Patrice represents the revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist philosophy that dominates the Dahomean government in the mid-1970s.