Culture Trip

In Greek Myth, the Amazons were a terrifying group of women. As a matriarchal society, the women governed and fought, whilst the men performed household tasks and served to impregnate their superiors. This tribe is a fantastical myth, yet their namesakes, the ‘Dahomey Amazons’, were decidedly real, a brave and terrifying all-female militia who ferociously fought for and defended the country of Benin, then known as Dahomey.

Some think the name derives from ‘a-mazos’ (‘without breast’), as they cut off their right breast in order to better throw javelin; others think that its origins are found in the Iranian word ‘ha-mazan’, or warriors. In many versions of the Greek legend, men were not part of society at all, except for the rare occasions that Amazonians deigned to copulate with them in order to prevent their race dying out. Boys born to the Amazons were killed immediately. Subverting the imbalanced gender roles that have hampered many societies, it is clear that under Amazonian doctrine, it was the women who ruled.

 

The Amazons were a myth, a terrifying evocation of female domination believed to derive from male fear of female empowerment. No equivalent has ever been seen in Western culture. Indeed in the majority of societies, women have only been permitted into army ranks very recently. But from the 18th to the early 20th century in Benin the armed forces were led by the Mino, a fierce all-female army tasked with guarding the palace, royalty and fighting for the territory of Benin, then known as Dahomey. When European colonialists and missionaries encountered these women, they swiftly gained the nickname ‘the Dahomey Amazons’. While they shared few of the traits of their mythical counterparts — no self-mutilation for better aim; nor ideological male infanticide — they remain the only known army corps in world history populated exclusively by women.

The word ‘Mino’ means ‘my mother’ in Fon, yet looking at images of these female warriors, there is little in their countenance to suggest the maternal. Their origins are unclear, though popular theory suggests that they were initially formed under the rule of King Wegbaja in the late 1600s as a group of elephant hunters.

Then in the early 18th century, his son and successor King Agaja found himself impressed by their ferocity, and decided to employ them as members of the palace guard. Starting as a group of 800 soldiers, their troops rapidly expanded and with it, their responsibilities. Soon there were over 4000 female soldiers successfully fighting the territorial battles of Dahomey. In the 1850s, under the rule of King Gezo, the Mino numbered roughly half the armed forces of the kingdom at around 6000 women, and their superior fighting skill allowed Gezo to conquer the entire territory known today as Benin, along with most of Nigeria.

The women were recruited from a variety of sources: some were volunteers, either fleeing poverty or the necessity for marriage, or seeking glory on the battlefield. Disobedient and impetuous daughters could also be conscripted by their fathers if they showed a willful streak better suited to fighting than motherhood. Indeed, once a member of the Mino the women were forbidden to have sex lest they fell pregnant and were unable to fight, and any man who tried to touch a soldier would be sentenced to death for his crimes.