Every year in the Kingdom of Dahomey, a huge festival in honor of the ancestors was organized called the annual "customs". Dahomey was a kingdom in Africa, situated in what is now the nation of Benin. ...

In the customs, the king would assemble the entire court, foreign dignitaries, and the populace. He would offer sacrifices, conduct vodun ceremonies, give gifts to the populace, and review the last year's policies and plan those of the following year. The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based religious tradition with primary roots among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as...

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.

Vodun practitioners and diviners, called bokono in Fon or babalao 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 term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based religious tradition with primary roots among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as... Fon (native name Fɔngbe) is part of the Gbe language cluster and belongs to the Kwa sub-family of the Niger-Congo languages. ... The Yoruba (Yorùbá in Yoruba orthography) are a large ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in West Africa. ... Fon is a major West African ethnic and linguistic group in the country of Benin or Dahomey, and southwest Nigeria, made up of more than 2,000,000 people. ...

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 vodun adepts. Species Cypraea annulus Cypraea moneta Cypraea pantherina Cypraea spurca Cypraea tigris Cypraea vitellus Cyprea linx Various species of Cowry from all over the world Cowry shells (also spelled “cowrie”), are marine snails of the genus Cypraea (family Cypraeidae), found chiefly in tropical regions, especially around the Maldives or the East... // FA,fa and fA may mean: FA or fa Finance Federal Association, Federal Savings Bank Smith_Barney, Financial Advisor Sport and Leisure The Football Association, England First ascent, climbing Free agency Fallen Angels, a clan spanning many games. ... The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based religious tradition with primary roots among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as...