A West African empire that ruled from 1625 to 1894 was known as the Kingdom of Dahomey, and its army was led by the Dahomey Amazons. The remains of the city can be found in modern-day Benin, which is located on a sliver of coastline between Nigeria and Togo. The Amazons were renowned for their bravery, whether they were subduing nearby tribes or fighting off European invaders. Only 17 out of 434 Amazons are claimed to have survived one of the last confrontations against the French in 1892 before the kingdom became a French colony.
According to local legend, Queen Hangbe founded the Amazons, an elite group of female warriors, Hangbe is said to have ascended to the throne at the beginning of the 18th century after the unexpected passing of her twin brother Akaba. Agaja, her younger and more power-hungry brother, brutally removed her after a short period where she ruled. The present Queen Hangbe informed that Agaja, who thought only men should hold the monarchy, had destroyed all evidence of her ancestor’s rule. The ornate bronze scepters of the monarchs are exhibited in a dusty museum inside the Royal Palaces in Abomey in chronological order. There is no indication that Hangbe had one, and some historians are dubious about her very existence.

Her powerful female troops, however, continued to carry on her legacy. The origins of the women-only corps are subject to conflicting oral and recorded narratives. It has been suggested that the Amazons hunted elephants before turning to humans as prey. The more widely recognized theory is that they protected Hangbe and the succeeding kings as royal bodyguards.

King Ghezo, who governed Dahomey between 1818 and 1858, was the one who formally incorporated the Amazons into the army. This was partly a pragmatic choice because of the growing labor shortage brought on by the European slave trade.

The adoption of the Amazons as Dahomey’s official troops deepened a dualism that had already been ingrained in the culture through the kingdom’s official religion, Vodun, which is today one of Benin’s official religions and the foundation of voodoo. Mawu-Lisa, a man and a female god who joined forces to create the universe, was described in an essential legend. Men would have a female equivalent in every organization, including the military, religious, and political ones. But the king held absolute power.

Although many European slave traffickers, missionaries, and colonialists documented their encounters with the courageous ladies, historical descriptions of the Amazons are infamously untrustworthy. A military practice in which thousands of barefooted women scaled 120-meter-high prickly acacia trees without so much as a murmur was described by the Italian priest Francesco Borghero in 1861. The administrator of the French colony Jean Bayol wrote of seeing one young Amazon approach a captive as part of her training in 1889. “The last piece of flesh connecting the skull to the trunk was calmly severed by [her] as she walked up and swing her sword three times with both hands. She then swallowed the blood that she had squeezed off of her weapon.”

European travelers to the kingdom in the 19th century gave the female soldiers of Dahomey the name “Amazons” in honor of the fierce warriors from Greek mythology. Today, historians refer to them as mino, which in the native Fon language translates as “our mothers.” The founder of the African School of Economics in Cotonou, Benin, and Princeton University professor Leonard Wantchekon, who was born in Benin, contends that the modern term does not adequately capture the significance of the warriors in Dahomey society. He explained, “Mino means witch.”

Today, Queen Hangbe and her Amazons preside over religious ceremonies at the temple close to her house, serving primarily in a ceremonial capacity. Another Amazon named Pierrette sprang up to cover Queen Hangbe in the shadowy room with a ceremonial parasol when I asked to take pictures of her. The word “Reine Hangbe” (Queen Hangbe) had been embroidered onto the fabric utilizing the Dahomey art of appliqué. Every year, Pierrette, a dressmaker, creates a brand-new umbrella for her monarch. These ornately painted parasols, which historically denoted prominence in the Dahomey court, are loaded with symbolism.

Additionally, sculptures of these deadly weapons may be seen on the mud walls of the squat palace structures. Next to his predecessor’s palace, each king would construct a new one, turning the older one into a mausoleum. The last ruler of the Dahomey Empire, Behanzin, set fire to the palaces before the French came, but a portion of them still exist in Abomey, with a rusty Unesco sign dangling haphazardly at the gate. The bas-reliefs depict how the Amazons killed opponents with clubs as well as muskets and machetes. A prize that an Amazon brought back for her king to use as a stylish fly swatter erupts from a human skull in one dusty cupboard and takes the form of a horse’s tail.

The obsession with the Amazons has always existed, but it seems to be evolving. Undoubtedly, the Black Panther movie is to blame, says Dr. Arthur Vido of the University of Abomey-Calavi. He recently presented a new course on the history of women in West Africa. People are interested in learning more about the role that women played in the past as the status of women changed in Africa.

Wantchekon dismisses the exaltation of the Amazons’ military prowess, but there is a great deal of interest in the Amazons’ savagery. He answered, “That’s just what troops did.” Wantchekon is more intrigued by what the Amazons accomplished as veterans, though.

The Legend of Benin’s Female Warriors: The Dahomey Amazons

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