Black Spirituality Religion : SECOND STRING: THE DAHOMEY WARRIORS

The Dahomey Amazons were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey. ..
King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Amazons as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto. During the 18th century, the king had some of his wives trained as royal bodyguards.

Houegbadja’s son King Agadja (ruling from 1708 to 1732) developed the female bodyguard into a militia and successfully used them in Dahomey’s defeat of the neighbouring kingdom of Savi in 1727. European merchants recorded their presence, as well as similar female warriors amongst the Ashanti. For the next hundred years or so, they gained reputation as fearless warriors. Though they fought rarely, they usually acquitted themselves well in battle.

The group of female warriors was referred to as Mino, meaning “Our Mothers” in the Fon language by the male army of Dahomey.

From the time of King Ghezo (ruling from 1818 to 1858), Dahomey became increasingly militaristic. Ghezo placed great importance on the army and increased its budget and formalized its structures. The Mino were rigorously trained, given uniforms, and equipped with Danish guns (obtained via the slave trade). By this time the Mino consisted of between 4000 and 6000 women, about a third of the entire Dahomey army.

The Mino were recruited from among the ahosi (“king’s wives”) of which there were often hundreds. Some women in Fon society became ahosi voluntarily, while others were involuntarily enrolled if their husbands or fathers complained to the King about their behaviour. Membership among the Mino was supposed to hone any aggressive character traits for the purpose of war. During their membership they were not allowed to have children or be part of married life. Many of them were virgins. The regiment had a semi-sacred status, which was intertwined with the Fon belief in Vodun.

The Mino trained with intense physical exercise. Discipline was emphasised. In the latter period, they were armed with Winchester rifles, clubs and knives. Units were under female command. Captives who fell into the hands of the Amazons were often decapitated.....

....cont.... http://diasporicroots.tumblr.com/post/3207950998/the-dahomey-amazons-the-dahomey-amazons-were-a
 
the-amazon-women-of-dahomey-a-precolonial-west-african-kingdom.jpeg

The Amazon Women of Dahomey, a precolonial West African kingdom, in the present-day Republic of Benin.

http://aileencarson.wordpress.com/2...f-dahomey-a-precolonial-west-african-kingdom/
 
Hello Cherry Blossom:

Thanks for bringing the Dahomey Amazon Women into this topic! Know however, they were "not" the first but the second wave of Amazon Women --who were organized in West Africa and came under the rule of King Agadja. These are the "only" group of Amazon women that Western Civilization seem aware yet they were not the original builders, creators and expanders. The rhein of the first wave of African Amazon Warriors was thousands of years before the Dahomey Warriors emerged.


The Sibyls: Demystifying the Absence of the African Ancestress
by Vivian Hunter-Hindrew
Martinez, GA: Mami Wata Healers Society of North America, Inc.: (2007)
Page 37

"...Overtime, the Amazons were eventually defeated world-wide, and erased from the annals of world history, or relegated to "Greek Mythology," their African identify and great history concealed. However, centuries later, in a daring act by West African Dahomean, King Agadja (1708-1732), a garrison of the Amazons were restored. An unprecedented move in which they served a patriarchal ruler rather than their queen mothers.

The entire history of the black Amazons and the immense role they played in developing African spiritual history, culture and military expansion throughout the ancient world is beyond the scope of this book, and could easily take volumes. Their story is yet to be completely told..."


Amazon-with-severed-head-347x500.jpg

One of Dahomeys' women warriors, with a musket, club, dagger—and her enemy's severed head. From Forbes, Dahomy and the Dahomans (1851).




September 23, 2011

Dahomey’s Women Warriors



....Dahomey is renowned as a “Black Sparta,” a fiercely militaristic society bent on conquest, whose soldiers strike fear into their enemies all along what is still known as the Slave Coast. The maneuvers begin in the face of a looming downpour, but King Glele is eager to show off the finest unit in his army to his European guest.

As Father Borghero fans himself, 3,000 heavily armed soldiers march into the square and begin a mock assault on a series of defenses designed to represent an enemy capital. The Dahomean troops are a fearsome sight, barefoot and bristling with clubs and knives. A few, known as Reapers, are armed with gleaming three-foot-long straight razors, each wielded two-handed and capable, the priest is told, of slicing a man clean in two.

The soldiers advance in silence, reconnoitering. Their first obstacle is a wall—huge piles of acacia branches bristling with needle-sharp thorns, forming a barricade that stretches nearly 440 yards. The troops rush it furiously, ignoring the wounds that the two-inch-long thorns inflict. After scrambling to the top, they mime hand-to-hand combat with imaginary defenders, fall back, scale the thorn wall a second time, then storm a group of huts and drag a group of cringing “prisoners” to where Glele stands, assessing their performance. The bravest are presented with belts made from acacia thorns. Proud to show themselves impervious to pain, the warriors strap their trophies around their waists.

The general who led the assault appears and gives a lengthy speech, comparing the valor of Dahomey’s warrior elite to that of European troops and suggesting that such equally brave peoples should never be enemies. Borghero listens, but his mind is wandering. He finds the general captivating: “slender but shapely, proud of bearing, but without affectation.” Not too tall, perhaps, nor excessively muscular. But then, of course, the general is a woman, as are all 3,000 of her troops. Father Borghero has been watching the King of Dahomey’s famed corps of “amazons,” as contemporary writers termed them—the only female soldiers in the world who then routinely served as combat troops....



Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/09/dahomeys-women-warriors/#ixzz2JreeVBXg
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

"...Far from being localized to only ancient Dahomey by Western historians, the black Amazons, initiates of the African Mami deity Athena/Ar-themis/Epesia (Black Di-Ana) were the first organized batallion of female warriors in the world. They were a major militaristic contingency throughout all of ancient Africa. In defense of their matrirchies. Historically, they were called "Zon, zoan, On, etc., and a host of other names. They conquered lands and founded cities and built extraordinary temples, naming them after themselves or after their queen mother or goddess. Heliopolis in northern Egypt was orginally called Zoan. Cities in Thrace, Armenia, Cappaocia (ancent Turkey). In the Caucasus, Albania, Athens, Attica and elsewhere thought the ancient world were founded and named after these fearless black warriors...'

I hope this is helpful.

ILove,
Fine:hearts1:
 
Last edited:
The Dahomey Amazons were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey. ..
King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Amazons as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto. During the 18th century, the king had some of his wives trained as royal bodyguards.

Houegbadja’s son King Agadja (ruling from 1708 to 1732) developed the female bodyguard into a militia and successfully used them in Dahomey’s defeat of the neighbouring kingdom of Savi in 1727. European merchants recorded their presence, as well as similar female warriors amongst the Ashanti. For the next hundred years or so, they gained reputation as fearless warriors. Though they fought rarely, they usually acquitted themselves well in battle.

The group of female warriors was referred to as Mino, meaning “Our Mothers” in the Fon language by the male army of Dahomey.

From the time of King Ghezo (ruling from 1818 to 1858), Dahomey became increasingly militaristic. Ghezo placed great importance on the army and increased its budget and formalized its structures. The Mino were rigorously trained, given uniforms, and equipped with Danish guns (obtained via the slave trade). By this time the Mino consisted of between 4000 and 6000 women, about a third of the entire Dahomey army.

The Mino were recruited from among the ahosi (“king’s wives”) of which there were often hundreds. Some women in Fon society became ahosi voluntarily, while others were involuntarily enrolled if their husbands or fathers complained to the King about their behaviour. Membership among the Mino was supposed to hone any aggressive character traits for the purpose of war. During their membership they were not allowed to have children or be part of married life. Many of them were virgins. The regiment had a semi-sacred status, which was intertwined with the Fon belief in Vodun.

The Mino trained with intense physical exercise. Discipline was emphasised. In the latter period, they were armed with Winchester rifles, clubs and knives. Units were under female command. Captives who fell into the hands of the Amazons were often decapitated.....

....cont.... http://diasporicroots.tumblr.com/post/3207950998/the-dahomey-amazons-the-dahomey-amazons-were-a


Equipped with Danish guns obtained via the slave trade...
 

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