The kingdom was heavily guarded by an all female warrior brigade- the Dahomey Warriors or N’Nonmiton (meaning “our mothers” in Fon language) or ahosi (king’s wives). They were named Amazons by Western Europeans who encountered them, due to the story of the female warriors of Amazons in Greek mythology.
They fiercely defended their kingdom against regional threats and European invaders.
The first N’Nonmiton was Queen Tassi Hangbe (or Hangbè, also Ahangbe or Na Hangbe). Her father was King Houegbadja, founder of the Dahomey Kingdom, and her twin brother was King Akaba. Hangbe was “silently installed” as the head of the military following the death of her brother Akaba in 1708.
Queen Tassi Hangbe’s reign was short, just 3 years, but impactful in the region before she was forcefully removed by her other brother Agaja. She encouraged women to undertake activities that were mainly reserved for men like hunting and farming.
The Dahomey warriors were recruited and trained from childhood. As a result, they were highly skilled in the art of warfare and feared by men and women. They served as the royal bodyguards to Queen Tassi and subsequent Dahomey rulers.
The warriors trained with intense physical exercise. They learned survival skills and indifference to pain and death, storming acacia-thorn defences in military exercises and executing prisoners. As customary with other African tribes, they would often enslave their enemies and sell them to European slave traders in exchange for weapons. They also played a prominent role in the Grand Council, debating the policy of the kingdom.
Their drills and military parades were accompanied with dancing, music, and songs, and their weapons were sometimes used as choreographic props. Dedicated to their positions, Dahomey warriors pledged celibacy and lived in the palace where only the king and his staff had access. They were so revered that women servants alerted surrounding people to bow and make way for the warriors.
According to UNESCO, after two months of fighting and previously broken accords between the French and Dahomey, king of Dahomey Behanzin set fire to most of the royal palaces and fled, marking an end of the Kingdom of Dahomey and its women army in 1892. Subsequently Dahomey became a French possession between German Togo and British Nigeria, until Benin declared independence in 1960.
Oral tradition reveals that some surviving Dahomey warriors secretly remained in Abomey afterwards, where they quietly assassinated a number of French officers. Other stories say the women pledged their services in protection of Agoli-Agbo, the brother of Béhanzin, disguising themselves as his wives in order to guard him.
Some of the women married and had children, while others remained single.
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If you found this article interesting, you might also want to read African Queens and female freedom fighters part 1 , 2 , 3 , or 4
