«The fa had revealed that a coup d’état was going to be attempted in Benin. The boconos (priests) had warned President Patrice Talon and he notified the Army. That’s why the attempt failed,” says Fagla Bagbonon with the aplomb that characterizes him. «I was one of those who read it in the cowries. However, I had a hard time understanding the message they were conveying to me. I consulted my father. He had doubts at first and called other colleagues on his cell phone. Revelations had also reached them that they did not fully interpret either. In the end, they decided to get together and have the fa again all together. The meeting took place on Friday morning in Ouidah. “The most experienced boconos in the country went there, those with the highest rank.” “Among them?” I wanted to know. «No, I have not yet reached the highest degree of initiation. “I still have time for it, that’s why I couldn’t clearly interpret the message that was coming to me.” However, the meeting of the oldest priests did manage to decipher the warning that came from beyond. «It was clear to them as soon as they all put the cowries together. There was no doubt and they decided to go directly to the presidential residence in Cotonou to make the voice of the ancestors known. That is why the president and the Army were prepared.”
I have already spoken of Fagla Bagbonon in these pages (see MN 694, p. 66). Among all the members of his family, a line of boconos who have been at the service of the king of Abomey for generations, the ancestors chose him to be the successor of his grandfather and father. Since finishing college, he has spent years delving into the art of reading shells and deciphering the message from ancestors, known as fa. Today we talked by video call. He wears a Real Madrid shirt. I called him to see how he experienced the attempted coup d’état and that is when he told me that he was not worried, that he was certain that he was not going to succeed, because the boconos had already warned of what was coming.
On December 7, a group of soldiers—calling themselves the Military Committee for the Refoundation (CMR)—went on public television in Benin and announced that they had removed the president and taken power in the country. A few hours later, the Army ended the riot and, after hours of confusion, calm and normality returned to the streets of Cotonou.
I asked Fagla if it wasn’t that the country’s secret services had information about what was going to happen and that was why the Armed Forces were on notice. And the rapid intervention of neighboring countries, such as Nigeria, was what helped the rebels’ action not succeed. «You are an unbeliever. The Fa has saved us, there is no doubt about that,” he replied.
