Leaving Dahomey: Book One - Softcover

It was September of 1840, and the ancient West AfricanKingdom of Dahomey was ablaze. The lives of its people were once again returning to the normal round after another one of King Guezo’s warring campaigns. The campaign had been waged some eighty miles north of Abomey against the Attahpahm people. Guezo had marched with thirty-eight thousand men and women. For the fifteen thousand soldiers of the standing army, including five thousand Ahosi, the elite female troops, it was a matter of course. But the soldiers who were not a part of the regular army—almost five thousand strong and eighteen thousand commissariat followers—they were just happy to return to their lives as peaceful farmers, traders, merchants, craftsmen, and artisans. A soft breeze caressed the land, visible by the sway of the trees and the grass. Birds sang atop a baobab tree. The harvest season has ended and the time of the harvest of the palm trees is near. It's a time of celebration, a time to thank the earth Vodun for life, the sky Vodun for rain, and the ancestors for their guidance.

Friendlytown Trilogy Overview:

Leaving Dahomeyis the first book in the trilogy about the lives of five generations of women of the same family between 1840 and 2024; and a story in their tradition passed down through the ages of an oracular place of divination that will appear briefly in time.