Amazone de Dahomey

David Atinsola

Story

The Dahomey Amazons (Fon: "Agojie", "Agoji", "Mino", or "Minon") were an all-female Fon military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey that existed from the years 1600 to 1904.

It is one of the only documented female armies in modern history.

They were named Amazons by Western Europeans who encountered them, due to the history of female warriors or Amazons in Greek mythology.

The emergence of an all-female military regiment is the result of the male population of Dahomey facing many casualties in the increasingly frequent violence and war with neighboring West African states.

This led to Dahomey being one of the main tribes in the slave trade along with the Oyo Empire, which used slaves for the exchange of goods in West Africa until the empire British put an end to the slave trade in the region.

Origin:
King Houegbadja (reigned 1645-1685), the third king of Dahomey, is said to have originally created the group that would later become the Amazons as a corps of elephant hunters called gbeto.

Houegbadja's daughter, Queen Hangbe (ruling 1716–1718) established a female bodyguard.

According to tradition, his brother and successor, King Agaja, used them successfully during the defeat of Dahomey against the neighboring kingdom of Savi in ​​1727.

The group of women warriors was called Mino, meaning "Our Mothers" in the Fon language, by the male army of Dahomey.

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Created on 2022/09/19 18:29:07 UTC