The Dahomey Amazons were an all-female Fon military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey, a West African kingdom which was located within present-day Benin. They were dubbed “Amazons” by Western historians who likened them to the mythical Amazons of ancient Anatolia and the Black Sea. In their homeland, they were known as Mino, or Minon, meaning “our mothers.”
Membership in the Dahomey Amazons provided women with a heroic status in their society. It allowed them to achieve high levels of wealth, command, and influence that were inaccessible to the majority of women in any other way. They had prominent roles in the Grand Council and could debate on the kingdom's policy.
When the Mino left the palace a girl announced their arrival by ringing a bell. That sound was a warning to every man that he must get out of their way and look away from the women coming towards him. The Mino also gained a semi-sacred status.
But these women also experienced intense lives filled with violence. Physical exertion, discipline, survival skills, and strength in the face of pain and death were required for membership. For example, one well-known training exercise involved the women storming acacia-thorn defenses, certainly resulting in injury, but no signs of pain would be accepted.
The Mino were also expected to be indifferent when executing prisoners. Several European visitors to Dahomey noted the extreme “insensitivity training” that new recruits underwent. There was even an annual ceremony in which new recruits climbed up to a 16-foot-high platform, picked up baskets containing bound and gagged prisoners of war, and hurled them over the wall to the mob below.
When the French defeated the Kingdom of Dahomey and it became a French protectorate in 1894 the Mino were disbanded. However, there are stories that some of the warriors secretly remained in Abomey to assassinate French soldiers. Others say that the women disguised themselves as the wives of the last Dahomean king, Agoli-Agbo, so they could protect him. Of those who left the military, some became civilian wives and mothers, and others stayed single.
A historian who followed the lives of the last Dahomey Amazons states that most of the women had difficulty in adjusting to their new lives and several started fights and arguments on a regular basis – frightening their families and neighbors. At least some of the former Dahomey Amazons continued training other women, even though they never fought in battle again. The last known Dahomey Amazon was a woman named Nawi, who claimed she fought against the French in 1892. She died, aged well over 100, in November 1979.
Feature Image: Group portrait of the so called 'Dahomey Amazons' visiting Europe in 1891. Tropenmuseum. Source: National Museum of World Cultures / CC BY-SA 3.0
By Alicia McDermott
Discover more about the Dahomey kingdom’s troop of women soldiers in the article ‘Dahomey Amazons: West Africa’s Fearless All-Female Military Force’ available in the January - February 2023 issue of Ancient Origins Magazine. Get it here!