Month: April 2024

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Benin 1997, The Renaissance is limited to the capitol

One question that arises when there is a dictator for life. With whom do you replace him. Domestic and international pressured opposition to be allowed in government. The new politicians were promising a Renaissance. 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.

The bird on this stamp has nothing to do with Benin. The stamp uses the old name carduelis spinus. The more modern term is the Eurasian siskin or the more common name Black-headed goldfinch. It is not endangered and winters in southern Europe and summers in northern Europe and Siberia. Saint Petersburg in Russia has surpassed even Benin in honoring the black-headed goldfinch. There is a frequently stolen and replaced statue of the bird. The reason the statue is frequently stolen is that the birds coloring resembles the uniform of a prominent local school.

Todays stamp is issue A284, a 150 Franc stamp issued by Benin on July 30th, 1997. It was a six stamp and one souvenir sheet issue in various denominations honoring songbirds. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents cancelled to order. In the early 2000s, a large group of Benin issues were declared fake and some old issues were overstampted for use. The overstamp included a lower denomination but of course that does not mean that the Benin franc appreciated. For some reason the catalog claims value of the overprinted version up at $80.

This area of the west African coast was changed a great deal both by colonialism and the end of the slave trade. The French built the new capital on the coast with their administration centered there. This was both a draw and a displacement of the local tribes. The end of the slave trade saw European navies trying to stamp out the trade still going on with independent Brazil.

Soon ship fulls of Afro Brazilians began to be deposited all along the coastal ports. They became a separate ethnic group than began to achieve far higher levels of economic development than their numbers would indicate.

From 1972-1992 Benin was ruled by Dictator Matheou Kerekou. He was an avowed Marxist and changed the name of the country from Dahomey to Benin. The French had used the name Dahomey but it was also the name of the place before them. The name change was hoped  to better represent the tribes of the interior. Can’t have that.

It will surprise nobody that Benin did not become a worker’s paradise. The end of the Cold War provided an opportunity for the put upon Afro Brazilian merchant class to rise. The sudden end of Eastern bloc aid was a blow and the early 90s was a period of donor fatique. Nicephone Soglo and his wife Rosine formed a Party for a Renaissance in Benin. They were well off and of Brazilian heritage and the party was most powerful  in the capital.

You never see the President of Brazil dressed like this. Soglo should send him an outfit.

International pressure forced Kerekou to appoint Soglo first Prime Minister and then he successfully ran for President in 1992. Benin was perhaps overdue for a renaissance. Solgo’s results were somewhat short of Florence though the Brazilians in the capital were happyish. Solgo did think to attend in person, one of the few heads of state. the first Tokyo International Conference on African Development. Benin was looking for another benefactor and Japan was about the only one out there offering new money. Interestingly the first conference was judged a failure by the Japanese because they were still just handing out direct aid instead of anything sustainable or measurable.

Tokyo gets a full house for it’s African aid conferences. Perhaps too full, the next one is set for Kenya

 

Kerekou ran against Solgo again in 1996 under the slogan, How do you like me now? Well that should have been his slogan. He was then reelected. Solgo did not slink away. Instead he realized his party’s prospects were mainly in the capital. Soglo ran for Mayor of the capital and ended up mayor for life. Well until he was replaced by his son. No doubt the promised renaissance is right around the corner. No doubt Soglo’s son has calls in to China and Brazil.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be another to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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United Nations 1970, Fighting Cancer UN style, with conferences

In theory, international cancer organizations make sense as an advancement made in one place can be offered quickly to fellow cancer sufferers around the world. So the question is, how is this organization founded back in 1935 doing? 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.

Despite the not great printing, I do like the image on this stamp. A Greek style hero in direct battle with a deadly beast. The Union for International Cancer Control is of course more about conferences and scientific publications, but it is good to remind attendees that there are people out there battling for their lives who need a hero. Notice the stamp is mostly in French despite being a New York United Nations issue. It was not until more than 10 years later that the Geneva offices of the UN began to offer separate issues.

Todays stamp is issue A110, a 13 cent stamp issued by the United Nations on May 22nd, 1970. It was a two stamp issue in conjunction with the then Union Against Cancer conference in Houston, Texas that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

There was a first ad hoc conference of international cancer experts in Madrid in 1933. There it was suggested that the conferences become regular events. In 1935 in Paris an organization was formed under the Latin name Unio Internationales Contra Cancrum UICC, to provide for the conferences. The group had members both from governments and private cancer societies. In 1947, the organization moved to Geneva to work more closely with the World Health Organization.

As the conferences grew the UICC began to get involved in publishing with both a scientific journal and a frequently updated textbook on cancer diagnosis. There is a full time staff of about 50 in Geneva under a medical professor.

Above her there is a ceremonial head that is chosen by members to serve a two year term. Here is where there as been some backsliding. For the whole history of the UICC the President was a doctor or professor. Instead now we have Princess Consort Dina of Jordan as the President. She is not a doctor though she lead a pro cancer society in Jordan after losing her mother to cancer. Some may view this as breaking the glass ceiling that have kept down Muslim women who are also Princess Consorts, but it also displays going down the modern rabbit hole of virtue signaling celebrity over hard science. Sure enough her accomplishment was scheduling  the next conference, now conference and expo, in the Middle East in that hotbed of cancer research that is Oman. Fate has stepped in and the Oman expo was cancelled due to the coronavirus.

Princess Dina of Jordan without her crown at the UN talking cancer

Fear not, the UICC is still actively producing webinars on fighting cancer in the age of COVID. Subtitled no doubt, go home and die. If the UICC is going to stay with not science leaders, I propose the next one be the singer Bonnie Tyler. She understands Holding out for a hero as conveyed on the stamp.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Dhufar 1974, The Sultan’s stamp advisor keeps alive the dreams of his rivals whether Imans or communists

Where would we be without the ultra helpful stamp advisors of local Sultans? Well stamp collectors aren’t  going to learn much about the province from official Omani issues and only a tiny portion of collectors are Mormon, and so are aware of Dhufar’s place in Mormon lore. 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.

This of course is not a real stamp so there is no catalog listing. It proports to remember the 100th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union, which dates it to 1974. Dhufar was not a member, and as far as the Union was concerned, the area was represented by member Oman. The stamp does not tell us what painting this is.

Oman was a rough place in the 1960s. The interior sections under a Imam were trying to break away from the Sultan of Muscat. The nomadic interior people were far different from the descendants of Arab traders on the coast. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, the Imam had some support. He also had postage stamps, printed in Britain by stamp dealer Clive Feigenbaum and handled by Lebanese stamp dealer Youssef Salam Tedros. The support lead Lebanon and Syria to accept the State of Oman issues for postage so it was possible to order your topical stamps with real postal cancelations. I covered a fake state of Oman issue here, https://the-philatelist.com/2020/03/18/omanstate1969-the-state-of-being-a-fake-stamp/    .

The discovery of oil in the interior strengthened the Muscat Sultan’s resolve to hold on to the interior and the Imam was defeated and went into exile. If Feigenbaum and Tedros were to continue their fake stamp business they needed a plan B. Tedros became the postal advisor to a local Sultan in Dhufar in northern Oman on the border with Yeman. He was and is a vassal of the Sultan of Muscat.

Muscat took the name of Oman as part of national reconciliation. There was a new threat as socialist South Yeman began supporting rebels seeking to liberate Dhufar and all of Oman from the Sultans. There was fighting in Dhufar that made the world news and indeed areas of Dhufar were under rebel administration.

In the press materials for the stamp issues, it was strongly implied but not said directly that the stamps were for use in the rebel held areas. This implication lead socialist Syria briefly to accept the stamps  for postage so there are a few Damascus postal cancelations of the stamps. Oman’s real post office did not accept the stamps but did not file formal objections to Dhufar stamps with the Universal Postal Union as they had done previously to the State of Oman issues.. They must have understood that it actually was for the benefit of the Sultan.

A clocktower in modern stampless Dhufar

In 1986, the fighting in Dhufar came to an end with the rebels defeated and the Sultans still in charge. The Sultan and the stamp dealers decided it was time to end the stamp issues. Too bad the socialist rebels never had a rival postage stamp advisor. Tiny far off, war torn places are better with rival stamp issues.

The stampless, doomed Dhufar rebels. Leave it to the socialists to let their women fight alongside

Dhufar plays a part in the lore of the Mormon Church. The Mormon prophet Lehi is believed to have sailed from the “Land of Bountiful” around 600 BC for the New World. They place the land of Bountiful as Dhufar.

Well, my drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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South Africa 1942, Saluting a few South African fighter pilots

This stamp is a little bit reminiscent of a Japanese stamp done a while back, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/13/japan-1942-saluting-the-japanese-pilot/   . Here we have an official portrait of DSO awarded pilot while he was still in the fight. There is a great story to tell. 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.

South African artist Neville Lewis had served in the British Army in World War I and between the wars developed a distinguished reputation as a portrait painter. In 1940 he was named the first official war artist of the Union Defense Forces. In 1942 there was an idea for a stamp series showing the contributions of the various services. Lewis summitted images suitable for minituration on a stamp of an individual fighter pilot, a nurse, a sailor, a tanker, and a member of the black native corps. The pilot, the sailor, and the nurse made the issue. Lewis was disappointed that the native corps member did not make the issue as he thought it was the best, but it should be remembered that the native corps did not deploy overseas. The image is below.

Volunteer soldier of the South African Native Corps who didn’t make the cut to be on the stamp issue

Todays stamp is issue A27, a one and a half Pence stamp issued by South Africa in 1942. It was a nine stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Bob Kershaw was a pilot of a Hawker Hurricane fighter with No. 3 squadron of the South African Air Force. There was a deployment in early 1941 to Kenya to participate in the campaign to dislodge the Italians from Ethiopia. On March 15th, during an attack on a Italian air base at Dire Dawa, Kershaw’s Squadron Commander John Frost’s Hurricane was hit by anti aircraft fire. The hit was to his engine’s coolant tank and so he knew in short order that the Rolls Royce Merlin engine would overheat and seize up. Frost decided to land the Hurricane at a satellite field. He did so and set the Hurricane on fire so it would not fall into Italian hands.

Hawker Hurricane fighter

Seeing what was happening, Kershaw also landed his still flyable Hurricane and by ditching parachutes and Frost siting in Kershaw’s lap and handling the stick, both were able to escape in the single small seated Hurricane. Kershaw became the first South African recipient of the British Distinguished Service Order. Kershaw soon converted to Spitfires and was promoted to Major. He was however later shot down and survived the war as a POW.

Frost left and Kershaw center

John Frost was later made a wing commander and his unit converted to the American made P40 fighter. Over Egypt  and escorting also American made A26 Boston, America called them Havoc, bombers, John Frost went missing and neither him nor his plane was ever found. It is thought that he may have fell to the famous German ace Hans- Joachime Marsalles who got six of his 158 kills that day.

Kershaw post war managed a Ford car dealer in London. He eventually moved back to South Africa where he was made a wing commandant in the post war air force. He died in 1998 in Knysna.

Well my drink is empty. This will be a fun night because there is so much toasting to do. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021