The annual customs of Dahomey
Encyclopedia
Every year in the Kingdom of Dahomey
, a huge festival in honor of the ancestors was organized called the annual "customs".
In the customs, the king would assemble the entire court, foreign dignitaries, and the populace. He would offer sacrifice
s, conduct Vodou ceremonies, give gifts to the populace, and review the last year's policies and plan those of the following year.
On the day of customs, any commoner could bring complaints of any nature against anyone in the kingdom, the king included, with the promise that he or she would not be punished.
Vodou practitioners and diviners, called bokono in Fon
or babalawo in Yoruba
, would be in attendance to assist in determining the divine will for policy. The council of ministers would be consulted openly, again with a promise of no retribution for contrary opinions. And since the traditional Fon
, as most traditional African peoples, saw the visible world as only a part of a larger reality that included the unseen and spirit world, 'messengers' would be sent to the 'council of the dead kings,' and other ancestors to determine whether these important powers were in concurrence with the policies and justice meted out.
The 'messengers', usually criminals or prisoners of war originally condemned either to horrible deaths or slavery, but 'spared' by the 'amnesty' allowed by the customs honor of becoming a 'messenger', had the messages to the dead whispered into their ears, and were quickly dispatched with a knife to the throat. Answers from the council of dead kings to the queries posed by the messengers were given through divination: either by tossing cowry shells
or seed pods and marking the results on dust-coated Fa
boards, or by spirit possession of Vodou adepts.
Dahomey
Dahomey was a country in west Africa in what is now the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state that was founded in the seventeenth century and survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of Dahomey...
, a huge festival in honor of the ancestors was organized called the annual "customs".
In the customs, the king would assemble the entire court, foreign dignitaries, and the populace. He would offer sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
s, conduct Vodou ceremonies, give gifts to the populace, and review the last year's policies and plan those of the following year.
On the day of customs, any commoner could bring complaints of any nature against anyone in the kingdom, the king included, with the promise that he or she would not be punished.
Vodou practitioners and diviners, called bokono in Fon
Fon language
Fon is part of the Gbe language cluster and belongs to the Volta–Niger branch of the Niger–Congo languages. Fon is spoken mainly in Benin by approximately 1.7 million speakers, by the Fon people...
or babalawo in Yoruba
Yoruba language
Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
, would be in attendance to assist in determining the divine will for policy. The council of ministers would be consulted openly, again with a promise of no retribution for contrary opinions. And since the traditional Fon
Fon people
The Fon people, or Fon nu, are a major West African ethnic and linguistic group in the country of Benin, and southwest Nigeria, made up of more than 3,500,000 people. The Fon language is the main language spoken in Southern Benin, and is a member of the Gbe language group...
, as most traditional African peoples, saw the visible world as only a part of a larger reality that included the unseen and spirit world, 'messengers' would be sent to the 'council of the dead kings,' and other ancestors to determine whether these important powers were in concurrence with the policies and justice meted out.
The 'messengers', usually criminals or prisoners of war originally condemned either to horrible deaths or slavery, but 'spared' by the 'amnesty' allowed by the customs honor of becoming a 'messenger', had the messages to the dead whispered into their ears, and were quickly dispatched with a knife to the throat. Answers from the council of dead kings to the queries posed by the messengers were given through divination: either by tossing cowry shells
Cowry
Cowry, also sometimes spelled cowrie, plural cowries, is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries...
or seed pods and marking the results on dust-coated Fa
FA
Fa or FA may refer to:- Education :* Falmouth Academy* Foxcroft Academy* Friends Academy* Fryeburg Academy- Finance :* Federal Association, Federal Savings Bank* Financial adviser* Financial analyst- Government and law :...
boards, or by spirit possession of Vodou adepts.