The winding road of my journey to conceive, research, and write my novel, Destiny Reclaimed, led me to the wondrous Kingdom of Dahomey in West Africa. The Fon people, who inhabited the kingdom, had a rich culture. Their history, customs, beliefs, and characters present a garden of outrageous blossoms to seed a writer’s imagination.

One of those blossoms is the broad panoply of myths and legends that were the vehicle parents used to pass down their experience, cosmology, and values to their children. Hence, the title of this post. In this tale, Goat falls prey to Trickster, who is trying to rid himself of a curse in the form of a foul smell. Goat’s foolishness and vanity cause him to become beguiled by Trickster. At an opportune moment Trickster floods Goat with the smell, which is why goats smell bad to this day.

The Fon were and still are, marvelous story tellers. The brief synopsis above doesn’t do the fable justice. A Fon father or mother, sitting with a child under a night sky or doing chores together, would have elaborated all the details of how Trickster got the curse, how he tried to get rid of it before meeting Goat, what he did to ensnare Goat, and Goat’s futile attempts to wash away the smell. Voices would have risen and fallen and snapped to punctuate the right words. Hands would have gesticulated to underscore the main points. Young eyes would have widened as brains remembered.

Art flourished in the kingdom via the creation of bas-reliefs of clay, appliqued fabrics, and small figures cast in brass. Royalty featured prominently in most art works. The bas-reliefs, for example, chronicled the history of the kingdom–its creation, conquests, and expansion; and specific achievements of each king. This was particularly important for a culture that did not have a written language.

They safeguarded knowledge of the history in other ways as well. Primary among these was the custom of the “town crier”. Every morning, designated “historians” in each village walked a circuit, reciting the history of the kingdom. Annual military campaigns, each of which had a specific name, served as an organizing principle for the narrative. People remembered dates in much the same way, connecting the time of events, including births, to the name and time of the campaign in which they occurred.

The kingdom existed from 1600 until 1894, when it became a French protectorate. France remained in control until it made the colony self- governing in 1958, and named it the Republic of Dahomey. The Republic gained full independence from France in 1960. In 1991 it was renamed the Republic of Benin. The hereditary kingship has always, and continues today, to serve in a ceremonial role.