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.
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.
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.