Women Warriors

Africa's Real Amazons

by Janet Phillips, Ashdown, Arkansas

In the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the eighteeth and nineteeth centruies an elite troop of black female warriors did exist. Curiously, the female soldiers of Dahomey (now Benin) resembled those of Greek legend in many ways. They were trained at an early age to handle weapons, to be strong and swift and to withstand suffering. Their main purpose on earth was to make war. They lusted for battle, rushed into it with a fury of blood-curdling yell and were seemingly immune to fear. In victory they were pitiless, decapitating their captives and displaying the heads and skulls as trophies. Lucky captives were made into slaves for their own use or to sell to the European buyers for transport to American. Much of the warfare of these Amazons was driven by the religion of the Fon (people of Dahomey) in an adherence to animistic beliefs. These women were vowed to celibacy (as nominal wives of the king) and lived in royal palaces, not off by themselves.

They were completely devoted to their King and would die for him. The main weapons of Amazons of Dahomey were muskets, machetes, and clubs. They reached their maximum strength around 1850, when they numbered between four and six thousand. Having their own officers, the fought with the main army of men and were under male rule. Although fierce and well respected among their male counterparts, they were never an autonomous society of only females. They fought to the end the invading French in 1892, and the last veteran died in 1970.

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