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France 1931, When Colonial powers held exhibitions to explain and defend what they were doing

At a time when all this stuff is just being erased as evil, I thought it might be fun to travel back to a time when things could at least be debated. 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 am fond of many French colonial stamps with their exotic views of far off colonies. So a total Empire set should really be exciting. Alas this stamp has too much going on and the rest of the issue is a small bulk mail stamp of a Fachie woman that is very familiar to stamp collectors.

Todays stamp is issue A42, a 1.5 Franc stamp issued by France itself in 1930. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 65 cents used. The exposition was a few years too early for the stamp souvenir sheets that would have been part of later expositions. It should be remembered though that French colonies themselves issued stamps as part of the exposition, and often were available to collectors at the colony’s pavilion at the expo.

World War I had a big negative effect on the prospects for European power’s colonial experiment. Most of the fighting was in Europe but there was a widespread sense that the natives of the colonies did not do their part in service to the mother country. There was further contreversy coming from the left in the Soviet Union and Weimar Germany that the whole endeavor of colonies leads to decadence, and race mixing. Our friends on the left don’t phrase things that way any more but it was an earlier time.

The six month long Exposition Coloniale Internationale was set at the Bois de Vincennes, the largest park in Paris. The park was laid out by Napoleon III who remember had lost a European war while much of his Army was tied down in the colonies. A reaction to the criticism was that France would be portrayed as not assimilating the colonies but their partners. Pavilions were in the local style and natives were brought in to demonstrate the native culture of the colonies and create art and crafts. One of the most popular pavilions was a recreation of the Angkor Wat Cambodian Temple. Smaller colonial powers like Portugal, Belgium, Holland and even the USA participated.  The expo was well attended and there was a spike afterward of French applying to serve in the colonies.

This poster would have made a better stamp. The exotic shown in the period art style

There was however some pushback. A Dutch recreation of Balinese Mero temple burned down under mysterious circumstances. The pavilion contained a great deal of the collection of the Batavia Museum. The was also a counter expo put on by French Marxists that had displays of the horrors of forced labor and compared in a positive light the Stalin era Soviet nationalities policy to the European colonial experiment. The Marxist expo attracted few visitors.

The legacy of the Expo was not great. A Permanent Colonial Museum was opened at the edge of the park. It proved not permanent, the building now houses a museum to immigrants in France and the former collection is mainly in storage at a museum honoring former French President Chirac. The biggest legacy seems to be a spike in the consumption of North African and Vietnamese food in Paris that has yet to dissipate. Maybe the 1920s lefties had a point? The Batavia Museum in the Dutch East Indies used the fire insurance payout to fund a major expansion back home. This is now the Indonesia National Museum. So in a way the colonial power is still there teaching the natives of their own culture. Funny how that works.

Well my drink is empty and here’s hoping that our hobby is not itself erased as part of our current leftie friends’ desire for a new year 1. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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North Korea 1966, hoping to export to prosperity

The North Korea of 1966 had not yet fallen behind it’s Southern cousins economically. North Korea has important natural resources in coal, tungsten, zinc, and even gold. That was just what Japan found during the colonial rule. Now it is all in the countries hands, so perhaps the resources will spread to the people. That could have happened. 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 is a great issue of strong, determined workers in the areas of construction, mining, industry, and machine tool production. They show vast facilities and scientific methods. These are the kind of stamps newer communist countries do so well. Early on there really is a belief that such things being in the hands of the state instead of capitalist and often even foreign exploiters will move the country forward by great leaps. I admit, the optimism is contagious.

Todays stamp is issue A615, a 40 Chon stamp issued by North Korea on November 20th, 1966. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations with todays mining stamp the highest value reflecting the industries’ importance to Korea. Unlike the other stamps in the issue, the stamp came out with no gum on the back. There is still a value given for used, so I assume they are cancelled to order. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $2.10 cents unused.

Most of the mining going on in North Korea in 1966 was done in mines left over from the Japanese. For example, Korea’s most important mineral zinc comes from the largest mine in eastern Asia at Geomdeock. It was founded by the Japanese in 1932. The complex was quickly nationalized by the North Korean regime but as never progressed beyond the old method of flooding and collecting the zinc as it floats up.

In coal output the Gogeonwon mine produces the highest form of coal anthracite, mainly for export and North Korea is the largest exporter of anthracite. with over a billion dollars a year of exports. It too was founded by Japan in 1920 and subsequently nationalized. Coal for electricity comes from a newer mine opened in 1997 in Jikdong. It however produces lower quality lignite or brown coal that has a much lower energy content. North Korea is very short of electricity despite large reserves of coal and a large workforce that must work where assigned even a tired old mine.

Gold is one area where North Korea has been able to make some headway. A new mine in Songnong opened in 1956. The mine extracts tailings that contain 30 grams of gold per ton of extraction. There is a connected processing plant that has over time processed over 20 million tons of tailings. The now giant pile of waste rock was tested and still contains 1.5 grams of gold per ton.

South Korea did a survey that agreed with this stamp as to the potential for mining in North Korea putting the potential at 9.7 trillion dollars. This attracted a lot of investment from China in the sector. The investments have not proved lucrative due to the shortage of electricity that modern mines require in great quantities and capitalist sanctions on Korea that threaten to blacklist firms that get too involved.

Well my drink is empty and my search continues for one of these optimistic communist industry stamps where the results were as hoped and continue on. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Ottoman Empire 1916, Shifting Blame toward the Figurehead

The ruling class of the Ottoman Empire were thought feckless and expensive and were hampering the rejuvenation of Empire. Through a string of coups, a group of young Turks stripped the Sultans of much power and then tried to regain what was lost through more war. By 1916, it was clear that effort had failed and so we see this issue on the war effort prominently showing the powerless Sultan Mohammed V as if it was him to blame. Nice bit of blame shifting. 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.

Along with the portrait of Sultan Mohammed V we see a map of the Dardanelles. In 1916 these indeed were being vigorously defended  after the landing at Gallipoli by the ANZAC manned British force. The Young Turks lead by Enver Pasha were to be the ones to restore the far flung empire. Gallipoli is less than 200 miles from Istanbul.

Todays stamp is issue A46, a one Piastre stamp issued by the Ottoman Empire in 1916. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations showing mostly romantic views of the soon lost Empire. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used. Being issued so close to the end of the Ottoman Empire there is a post war version with the Sultan crossed out. Lucky for now Turkey, the defense at Gallipoli held and they did not have to also cross out the map of the Dardanelles. That version is worth $1 used.

The Ottoman Empire was quite far flung in the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa. If we reflect on the governence of those areas in the last 100 years with dictators and ethnic cleansing we understand how hard it must have been to govern the areas effectively. The Sultans traded a good deal of self rule of the provinces in exchange for a tax due the central government. Most of that revenue was used to import modern arms that Turkey was not capable of making for itself and thus be able to defend itself. None of this was perfect and there was a group of young officers called the “Young Turks” lead by Enver Pasha that knew better and Couped in 1913 in the Raid on the Sublime Porte. This stripped Sultan Mohammed V of much of his power though he was still Sultan and indeed Calliph, which was the leader of the Faith. Enver Pasha forced an alliance with Germany and Ottoman involvement in World War I. It should be noticed that the Young Turks were just that and this was no longer to be a multi religion and multi ethnic empire.

Having no choice and confined to Yidiz Palace in Istanbul, Mohammed V played along and signed off on war on the side of Germany that he personally was very skeptical of. He even went so far that in his role of Caliph he issued the last official Muslim Jihad ordering all Muslims to fight for the German Alliance. This did not have much weight and indeed Arabs fought on the British side in the Fertile Crescent. It was perhaps for the best the Sultan Mohamed V died four months before the end of the war and therefore did not have to witness the Empire’s end and the Young Turks rush off into a much pursued exile.

I mentioned that the modern Turks much resented the old fashioned Empire. This can be seen in what happened to Yidiz Palace after there was no more Sultan or Caliph to be locked up in it. It was converted into a high class casino. Constantinople was no longer the seat of Government or the Faith but now Istanbul was playing host to many exiled white Russians. The palace was eventually made into a museum. In 2013, the Palace even got a stamp. In 2019 things came full circle and Turkish President Erdogan  moved in. Don’t let them lock you in, Mr. President.

Yidiz Palace during the period it was a museum and event venue.

Well my drink is empty and this seems the right stamp to pour another to toast blame shifting. So much easier. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Lesotho 1981, Rivalry between South Africa’s African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress weighs on Leabua Jonathon’s tiny black Kingdom

Lesotho is a tiny landlocked country with South Africa on all sides. It was formally known as Basutoland. Independance saw the retention of the ceremonial tribal King but multiparty democratic rule with two parties closely aligned with respective anti apartheid groups in South Africa. As such we get a window as to what a South Africa that could read the writing on the wall earlier might have been like. 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 is a nicely done farm out commonwealth stamp. The remember to include King Moeshoeshoe II in a Manchin like profile in the top right corner. The good King had a cool 70s “Shaft” vibe that reminded the part of the world you were in. The well drawn bird on the stamp is a greater or white eyed kestrel. They indeed are native to the area and still numerous.

Todays stamp is issue A66 a one Lisente stamp issued by the independent Kingdom of Lesotho on April 20th 1981. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations that lasted many years with surcharges as the currency new in 1979 was devalued. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused.

Lesotho gained independence from Great Britain in 1965. Britain had retained ties extra long to prevent being absorbed by the apartheid South Africa. The old Basutoland had seceded some

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Australia 1961, Even before there was a band on the Little River, Melbourne presented Melba to the world

Nineteenth century Australia is perhaps not where you would look for the next great Prima Dona. Even back then though there was a conservatory in Melbourne with top flight instructors and well off father’s indulging daughters who display talent. Too bad then to reach her potential, Nelly Melba had to leave behind her country, and her husband and even her young son. 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 stamp celebrated the birth century of Melba by displaying her bust. I just got you to look at the stamp again, ha ha. A bust is perhaps a little too serious for a performer so it was good that they included an autograph of her stage name to remind that there was a real person behind the marble and the façade.

Todays stamp is issue A124, a five penny stamp issued by Australia on September 20th, 1961. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents.

Nellie Melba’s real name was Helen Mitchell. She was the daughter of a Scottish born builder that operated out of Melbourne. She was a star student  at the Melbourne Conservatory where she received training as an opera singer. Her father was happy to fund her instruction but was opposed to her becoming a professional singer. When his wife died, Melba’s father moved the family to Mackay, Queensland where he was constructing a sugar refinery. Here Melba married and quickly had a son. Melba was not satisfied with how her life was turning out. Alleging abuse by her husband, she abandoned the marriage and her young son and struck out to London where she hoped to become a Prima Dona with the new name of Nellie Melba.  London proved less than receptive so it was on to Paris where she was able to arrange further instruction from Mathilde Marchesi. Melba got a 1000 Franc a year 10 year contract to be the Prima Dona she dreamed of and began a notorious affair with Prince Philippe, Duke of Orleans and that Royal House’s pretender to the French throne. Melba’s still husband back in Mackay threatened to sue for divorce  in Mackay naming Philippe as correspondent. Philippe did not want that and agreed to end it by going on a two year African Safari without her.

Melba was also not happy with her Paris singing contract as she had been offered one at three times the salary in Brussels. Her boss refused to release her but then her luck changed and he died. She tried it again in London to very mixed reviews. She developed an enthusiastic fan base  that saw her repeatedly invited back but the official review said Madam Melba was a fluid vocalist and quite representative of light soprano parts, but lacks the personal charm necessary to be a great figure on the lyric stage. You can’t please everyone, but Melba played around the world even in the USA and a few times back in Australia. She died back in Melbourne after an infection from a botched face lift. By then her husband and son had moved to Texas and quietly divorced her there.

Melba reviews were not all bad and the British named her a Dame in 1919. Australia renamed her old Conservatory for her and even put her on their $100 bill. Assuming it hasn’t been removed lately by only BLM, Covent Gardens Opera House has her statue, one of a very few. One of her biggest fans was French chef Auguste Escoffier, who named Peach Melba and melba toast after her.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to commiserate with the worries of fathers who have been overly indulgent with their daughters. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Brazil 1967, Friends, come to Rio, Dionysis delivered big time this year, and the Africans will dance

Something happened funny when researching this stamp. Searching for International tourism year 1967 got me to one of my own articles. That has never happened before. So as you read todays offering, imagine me delivering it with a smile. 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.

Many countries issued stamps for International Tourism Year. Brazil’s is among the most whimsical. In the 1940s a grand new Avenue in Rio, Avenida Presidente Vargas, was made the new home for Carnival and showed off the best of Brazil old and new. The idea of international tourism year was to encourage people to travel more far and wide. There was a secondary goal of teaching the new recipients of tourists that it was their duty to be friendly and protective hosts. Brazil showed they were ahead of the pack in that game.

Todays stamp is issue A564, a 10 Centavo stamp issued by Brazil on November 22nd, 1967. It was a single stamp issue for International Tourism Year in 1967. The stamp was also available imbedded in a souvenir sheet with the same design imperforate. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents. The souvenir sheet is worth $13.

Carnival was introduced to Brazil by the Portuguese in the 1640s with the first official one in 1723. Though Portugal and indeed Brazil were Catholic, the early feasts and celebration were in thanks for the grape harvest to the ancient God of the grape harvest Dionysus. Over time the celebrations began to include parades of Samba schools. These were neighborhood clubs of Africans drumming, marching, and dancing. They are called schools not because they offered instruction, but instead because they often met in school yards after hours. The fusion of the feast to Dionysus and the Samba parades first happened in Praca Onze, which is sometimes called Big Africa.

The new grand avenue named and designed by President Vargas was opened 1n 1944. This was the opportunity to translate the Carnival into something safer that could be then marketed as reflective of the diverse background of Brazilians. Great move.

The kids love Vargas, perhaps so should the hospitality industry.

Tourism in Brazil is big business. In 2019, the country admitted over 6 million tourists, that was three times the number from 25 years ago. Sorry I could not find the 1960s numbers. Over time the tourist who come have changed. There have been a drop in the numbers from the USA and Europe and the big growth has been people coming from elsewhere in Latin America. Especially hard hit was tourism from Portugal. I will leave it up to the reader if that means the countries are too long apart or not long enough.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast myself for coming up in the search. I would double toast myself if the article that came up was more pertinent to what I wrote today. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Norway ships at sea 1943, Not all of our Sleipner destroyers became Torpedoboot Auslands, we still have the unsinkable boat

Here is one of those stories where they try to put the best face on a pretty bad picture. In doing so, they come right up to the edge of making a fake stamp. 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.

What right does a government in exile have to print stamps that should be collected and bought in bulk by the stamp collecting hobby. As with a similar Yugoslav stamp I wrote about here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/30/communist-yugoslavia-1950-sells-off-the-invalid-exile-stamps/     , the answer was found in the navy ships at sea that escaped the invasions. The tiny crews could use the stamps on their mail, so that makes them real. Or course, you have to accept that the British Royal Navy was handling it. Well if you do accept it, sorry I think it fake. HNoMS  Sleipner was a good subject, it was pretty much it as far as Norway still fighting for the Allies. It had a crew of 72.

Todays stamp is issue A43, a 10 Ore stamp issued in London by the Royal government of Norway in exile in 1943. It was an 8 stamp issue in various denominations. Post war, the issue was made more real by selling them finally from Norway’s post offices.  According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused. A version of the stamp set with an overstamp of London with a date and a serial ups the value to $700. Barrel aged no doubt.

The Royal Norwegian Navy ordered 6 copies of the locally made Sheipner class of destroyers in the mid 1930s. They were reasonably modern but sized more like a larger torpedo boat. Four were in service when Germany invaded in April 1940. The lead ship Sleipner, named after Norse God Oden’s horse, had already seen its most interesting action. Germans had boarded and taken as a prize an American cargo ship the SS City of Flint. The treasure crew then sailed for the nearest neutral port to collect bounty. The Sleiper had chased it away from the port of Tromso without firing. The ship went on to Haugesund where the Germans were interned but the ship was not returned to the USA.

The Sleipner again went into action against the Germans after the invasion. The only one of the four destroyers in service to do so. It was to cover British landings at Narvik. The ship came under what must have seemed like intense attack from the air. 48 bombs were dropped near the ship with none hitting. There was a lot of Allied propaganda at the time portraying the Sleipner as an unsinkable ship. Given what happened later it was clear that the Germans were purposely missing because they intended to seize the ship intact and make use of it.

Two of the Sleipner class were seized intact by the Germans and put into action by the Kriegsmarine. Two more still under construction were finished and also used. Germany re-designated them Torpedoboots Ausland and gave them new names. The Gyller became the Lowe and had interesting service. In 1945 it was escorting the German troopship Wilhelm Gustloff which was evacuating German civilians by sea from East Prussia. Wilhelm Gustloff was then hit by a torpedo fired by a Soviet submarine S-13. Lowe pulled alongside and saved 472 people from the doomed ship.

Just because the Sleipner couldn’t be sunk doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be mothballed and that it was happened to it early in 1944 over a year before the end of the war. After the war the Sleipner and the four remaining sister ships that served Germany returned to Norway and were modernized and re-designated  as frigates. The served Norway’s Navy until the late 1950s.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the stamp designers that labor to provide much needed funds for governments in exile. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Iran 1974, After 2500 years, Iran rising to a great world civilization

In the late 1960s, Iran was getting wealthy enough and the Shah felt secure enough to begin presenting Iran to the world. Not as a new country but as the current manifestation of the ancient Persian Empire. To do so, a tower was constructed that was both modern and at the same time ancient. 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.

Iran was obviously proud of the Shahyad Tower. It completed in 1971 and already by 1974 it was on it’s third stamp. It still stands under a new name but no longer appears on stamps. Shah era stamps show construction and modern Iranian stamps tend to show people.

Todays stamp is issue A443, a 20 Rials stamp issued by Imperial Iran in 1974. It was an 11 stamp issue in various denominations. The issue lasted a long time. In 1978 there was an update with the Shah’s portrait becoming a profile in gold. There is also a version from 1979 where the Shah gets crossed out. Those of course have the highest value. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth 40 cents used.

In 1966, there was a local design competition regarding a monument to celebrate the 2500 year anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire. Iran is merely how you say Persia in Farsi. The competition was won by a young Iranian born and trained architect named Hossein Amanat. Construction utilized local stone, stonecutters, and cladding white marble from Isfahan province. Some of the structural work was farmed out to a British firm as they used a new woven stone structural technique. The tower was ready for the 1971 supposed 2500 year Persian anniversary and construction cost 6 million dollars. Underground at the base is a museum initially to artifacts of the Persian Empire. This included a fake copy of Cyrus the Great’s Charter that was then compared favorably with the then current Shah’s priciples of the 1960s reforms that the Shah called the White Revolution. Something old something new.

Shahyad Tower was a key place for anti regime protests during the last days of the Shah in 1978. It was after all a place named the Shah’s Memorial. The protests there initially made Mr. Amanat happy. Of course they were drawn to it the shape welcomes them with a father like embrace and already it looks like it has been there 1000 years.

Come to the Shahad Tower protest, and commune with 2500 years of dissatisfied Persians. Persian Lives Matter

The fall of the Shah in 1979 naturally lead to changes. The tower was renamed Azadi which means freedom and the displays in the museum now attempt to compare favorably the bravery of the anti Shah protestors to the decadence of the previous 2510 years. As you might expect at a Freedom tower, the complex still attracts anti government protestors. The current government is gradually allowing the complex to decay. Not all on purpose. Some releveling of the gardens has resulted in much water damage to the stone and marble as the area now drains poorly.

Hossien Amanat had to flee Iran in 1980. He is a member of the Bahai faith group that started in Persia in the 19th century but is much persecuted by the current Iranian regime. Amanat settled in Canada and designed the Bahai administrative center in Haifa, Israel. He has also designed high rise residential buildings in Canada, the USA and China.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Mr. Amanat. The Shah wanted to show how advanced Iran was becoming, and that indeed was what Mr. Amanat was trying to show. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020

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State of Viet Nam, Annamite Emperors try to provide a Keeper of Greatness solution

Pre colonial Indo China had many feudal Emperors. The French and Japanese left them in place. In a way so did Ho Chi Minh but not Diem in the south. 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 stamp shows the Pagoda of learning in Hanoi. Part of the fallacy that Vietnam had one government. The other fallacy was that the Emperor was not the Emperor but a Head of State in the South and Supreme Advisor in the North. Makes a learned man want to move to Monaco and buy a fancy watch.

During the French phase the area of central Vietnam around Hue was called Annamite. The Nguyen Dynasty ruled from the Purple Forbidden City there. The last of these Emperors was Bao Dai (Keeper of Greatness), who trained in France and chose as his Empress a well off Catholic commoner Vietnamese girl as his Empress Nam Phuong, (Direction of South). Bao Dai was a big believer in marriage and married 2 further Vietnamese, a North Vietnamese from his time in the North, a Hong Kong Chinese girl from an exile there and 2 French girls from his long exile there. Monique, the last is still alive and an Imperial Princess. There were 11 children so plenty of heirs if Vietnam gets the itch.

Bao Dai when he was Emperor of the Annamites.

Toward the end of the Japanese period the area was declared the Vietnamese Empire under Bao Dai. The large armed independence force under Ho Chi Minh convinced the Emperor to abdicate in return for being named Supreme Advisor to the North Vietnam government. Bao Dai did it claiming he would rather be a citizen  of a free people that an Emperor of an enslaved one. A year in Hanoi however convinced him that his advice was viewed as something less than supreme and so he moved first to Hong Kong and then to Paris. The French then saw the Emperor as a way to add legitimacy to the South Government and named him a non Royal Head of State. Again his advise was not followed and his French suggested Prime Minister Diem was openly trying to subvert him. Back to France and Monaco. He separated from Empress Nam Phuong who also moved to France but a Chateau her family maintained there.

Empress Nam Phuong on her wedding day in 1934

As Vietnam sunk into war Bao Dai lived the good life in France/Switzerland/Monaco. He had a special Rolex watch made for him that sold in 2017 for over 5 million dollars. His yacht was one of the largest in Monaco. In 1972 he tried one last time to have an influence on his country. He condemned foreign soldiers fighting on both sides and suggested that both sides put down their weapons and form a unity government that he would be willing to chair. The North sent emissaries to discuss the proposal but not the South Vietnamese. After the war he did not return to Vietnam where he has been cast as tool of the French.

Well my drink is empty and maybe I will check out some fancy watches. Keeping greatness can’t be left to just the Emperors. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Mali 1961, Turning over Timbuktu to Bagabaga Daba, the ant with the big mouth

Timbuktu was famous, both for it’s gold and for its bringing Muslim beliefs and teaching south of the Sahara. Timbuktu had been a Pashalik under the Sultan of Morocco. Then it fell to the African Berber Tuareg tribe. Soon it was French Sudan. Independence had the country looking south and while proclaiming Pan-African ideals but the reality was splintering. Maybe that is what happens when you entrust leadership to an ant with a big mouth. 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 stamp shows well the new Mali National Museum. It had been built 5 years before under a French program to preserve the history of the area. The architecture was in the Arab Sudan style and it contained one of the biggest collections amassed by a prominent Ukrainian archeologist and priest. After independence, the professional staff disappeared and even the collection began to walk out. In 2006 the Aga Kahn Foundation made a big investment and so what remains is still open, above par for the area.

Todays stamp is issue A5 a 2 Franc stamp issued by independent Mali on December 24th, 1961. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations showing off the productivity of the new country. Most of the issue shows agriculture, the Timbuktu era was over so no Arab traders and trade routes. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether unused or cancelled to order.

The name Mali comes from an ancient kingdom that ruled the area to 1600. It fell to the Berber Tuareg tribe that then moved the capital out of Timbuktu. This then fell to Morocco who set up Timbuktu as a big Arab trading post of gold and slaves with long trade routes back to Morocco and much involvement of Jews relocated from Spain. The city also became a center of Muslim teaching and efforts to convert the Africans. Who knew the Arabs had their own burden?

The distances back to Morocco were long and soon the area fell again to the Tuareg who were more Nomadic. In the late 19th Century came the French whose burden was to stamp out the slave trade and also to provide labor to French coastal outposts in Senegal. Seems a weird combo that and sure enough French Sudan was not a successful colony. The French had trained a few local tribesman and it was to them that now Mali was turned over. For a year there was a federation with Senegal but that ended as President Modibo Keita consolidated power.

Consolidate he did. Keita jailed and then killed his rival. He started a new Mali Franc and consolidated all exports and imports into the country into a company controlled by him. The company might have worked better if there was still things being imported and exported. The people noticed that the new currency wouldn’t buy anything and began to riot. I should say had another excuse to riot. In 1968 there was finally a military coup and it was Keita’s turn to be jailed and then die there.

President Modibo Keita, I don’t think he looks like an ant, though I don’t doubt his big mouth

No Keita’s name was not Bagabaga Daba. It was not legal or safe to satarize what was happening in Mali under Keita. Instead Malian griot Massa Maken Diabate wrote a book about a fictional country of Kouta ruled by a butcher who resembled a ant and had a big mouth. Changing names worked wonders has everybody could laugh, at least the few that could read and Diabate won several pan African book awards.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the African Griot. It is his job to orally pass down history. Some feel, including Diabate, that the tradition is ruined by those who tell tall tales and puff up whoever pays them. Perhaps, but sometimes the truth is so pathetic that some puffery is welcome. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.