The King of the old Dahomey would seem an odd person to celebrate for a Marxist dictator that had even changed the areas name in order to claim a fresh start. Mathieu Kerekou was all about starting anew though and that was how he stayed around from 1972-2006. Or maybe it was voodoo? Too bad none of his fresh starts was the way out of the misery. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I really like this stamp for two reasons. One is showing the old African leader King Behanzin as part of the continuum of Benin/Dahomey history. The second thing is that it is not some elaborate fake looking stamp just meant for topical stamp collectors. This is a small stamp ready to serve the needs of bulk mail. The reality, or at least ambition, that there will be bulk mail implies a functioning country. Benin was not really there yet in 1986, but it is a nice piece of optimism that it could be.
Todays stamp is issue A194, a 220 Franc stamp issued by the Peoples Republic of Benin in 1988. It was a six stamp issue in various denominations issued over 2 years reflecting the rapidly depreciating currency. There were even later overprints into the 1990s. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 used.
There are two versions of old Dahomey King Behanzin’s story, one African and one French. The African story is that the French sent Porto-Nova administrator Jean-Marie Bayol to demand concessions from the inland African Kingdom of Dahomey and the King cleverly refused to meet with him and the insulted French then trumped up charges of slavery and savagery and brutally massacred his female Amazon warrior army. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/03/07/dahomey-1941-never-mind-the-canoe-watch-out-for-the-dahomey-amazons/ . The French claim that Bayol was sent to discuss slave raids and was then held prisoner and forced to sign over rights to Porto-Novo. After escaping, Bayol was obliged to return with French troops. In both cases the reality was King Behanzin was easily defeated and went to exile in the French Caribbean.
In 1972 independent Dahomey was not doing well despite finding some oil resources. A successful coup put in military officer Mathieu Kerekou. After a few years of lackluster rule he refashioned Dahomey as Benin and himself as a Marxist. In retrospect, this allowed him to blame the lack of progress on the French and reach out to the eastern bloc for aid. Kerekou, a Catholic, in 1980 converted to Islam with a temporary new first name in an attempt to gain aid from Libya under Kaddafi. When that aid faded so did his conversion. By 1990, after surviving many attempted coups, and his Marxism looking rather dated, Kerekou appeared on tv with the local Catholic Bishop. He elaborately confessed the sins of his government and pledged to go forth and sin no more. An election was held the next year and repentance was not enough and Kerekou lost. The next fellow proved no better and Kerekou returned in 1996 for 10 more years until they managed to term limit him out. Practitioners of voodoo in Benin thought Kerekou must have had powers to survive so many twists and turns and die of old age in his country. Perhaps?
Benin has not been able to cope with the population growth of the country. The population is over 5 times what it was at independence. Thus even has the economy has showed signs of life from debt forgiveness and cotton exports, it has not kept up with the population growth.
Well, my drink is empty, and I will pour another to toast Jean-Marie Bayol for making it out of Dahomey with his head. Against all odds, there is still a plaza named for him in the capital Porto-Novo. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting