Dahomey Amazons

The Dahomey Amazons or Nonmiton, which means "our mothers," were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey in the present-day Republic of Benin which lasted until the end of the 19th century. They were so named by Western observers and historians due to their similarity to the mythical Amazons of ancient Anatolia and the Black Sea.

Origin

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.[1]

Houegbadja's son King Agaja (ruling from 1708 to 1732) established a female bodyguard armed with muskets. European merchants recorded their presence. According to tradition, Agaja developed the bodyguard into a militia and successfully used them in Dahomey's defeat of the neighbouring kingdom of Savi in 1727.[2] The group of female warriors was referred to as Nonmiton, meaning "Our Mothers" in the Fon language, by the male army of Dahomey.[3] Other sources contest that King Agaja's older sister Queen Hangbe was the ruler to establish the units, however some contest if Queen Hangbe actually existed.[4]

From the time of King Ghezo (ruling from 1818 to 1858), Dahomey became increasingly militaristic. Ghezo placed great importance on the army, increasing its budget and formalizing its structure from ceremonial to a serious military. While European narratives refer to the women soldiers as "Amazons," they called themselves ahosi (king's wives) or Nonmiton (our mothers).[2] Dahomey traded prisoners, which it captured during wars and raids which the Europeans exchanged as goods such as knives, bayonets, firearms, fabrics and spirits.

Recruitment

Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, a leader of the Amazons

Ghezo recruited both men and women soldiers from foreign captives, though women soldiers were also recruited from free Dahomean women, some enrolled as young as 8 years old.[2] Other accounts indicate that the Nonmiton were recruited from among the ahosi ("king's wives") of which there were often hundreds.[5] Some women in Fon society became soldiers voluntarily, while others were involuntarily enrolled if their husbands or fathers complained to the king about their behavior.

Membership among the Nonmiton 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 (though they were legally married to the king). Many of them were virgins. The regiment had a semi-sacred status, which was intertwined with the Fon belief in Vodun.

The Nonmiton trained with intense physical exercise. They learnt survival skills and indifference to pain and death, storming acacia-thorn defenses in military exercises and executing prisoners.[6] Discipline was emphasised.

Serving in the Nonmiton offered women the opportunity to "rise to positions of command and influence" in an environment structured for individual empowerment.[2] The Nonmiton were also wealthy and held high status.[6]

Political role

The Nonmiton took a prominent role in the Grand Council, debating the policy of the kingdom. From the 1840s to 1870s (when the opposing party collapsed), they generally supported peace with Abeokuta and stronger commercial relations with England, favouring the trade in palm oil above that in slaves; this set them at odds with their male military colleagues.[7]

Apart from the Council, the Annual Customs of Dahomey included a parade and reviewing of the troops, and the troops swearing of an oath to the king. The celebrations on the 27th day of the Annual Customs consisted of a mock battle in which the Amazons attacked a "fort" and "captured" the slaves within,[7] a custom recorded by the priest Francesco Borghero in his diaries.[6]

Combat and structure

The women soldiers were rigorously trained and given uniforms. By the mid-19th century, they numbered between 1,000 and 6,000 women, about a third of the entire Dahomey army, according to reports written by visitors. The reports also noted variously that the women soldiers suffered several defeats.

The women soldiers were said to be structured in parallel with the army as a whole, with a center wing (the king's bodyguards) flanked on both sides, each under separate commanders. Some accounts note that each male soldier had a female warrior counterpart.[2] In an 1849/50 account by an Englishman, it was documented that the women that had three stripes of whitewash around each leg, were honored with marks of distinction.[8]

In the latter period, the Dahomean female warriors were armed with Winchester rifles, clubs and knives. Units were under female command. A 1851 published translation of a war chant of the women claims the warriors would chant, "a[s] the blacksmith takes an iron bar and by fire changes its fashion so have we changed our nature. We are no longer women, we are men."[9]

Conflict with neighbouring kingdoms

The Dahomey kingdom was often at war with its neighbors, and captives were needed for the slave trade. The Dahomey women soldiers fought in slave raids, as referenced in the Zora Neale Hurston non-fiction work Baracoon, and in the unsuccessful wars against Abeokuta.

Conflict with France

First Franco-Dahomean War

European encroachment into West Africa gained pace during the latter half of the 19th century, and in 1890 King Béhanzin started fighting French forces in the course of the First Franco-Dahomean War. European observers noted that they "handled admirably" in hand to hand combat, but that they did not know how to use their flintlocks.[6] The Amazons participated in one major battle: Cotonou, where thousands of Dahoney (including many Amazons) charged the French lines and engaged the defenders in hand-to-hand combat. Despite the compliments given to them by the Europeans, the Amazons were decisively crushed, with several hundred Dahomey troops being gunned down while 129 Dahomey were killed in melee combat within the French lines. The French lost 5 men killed and a few dozen wounded.[10]

Second Franco-Dahomean War

According to Holmes, many of the French soldiers fighting in Dahomey hesitated before shooting or bayoneting the Amazons. The resulting delay led to many of the French casualties. By the end of the Second Franco-Dahomean War, special units of the Amazons were being assigned specifically to target French officers.[11] After several battles, the French prevailed in the Second Franco-Dahomean War and put an end to the independent Dahomean kingdom. The legionnaires were impressed by the boldness of the Amazons and later wrote about the "incredible courage and audacity." As a military unit, however, the Dahomey Amazons proved almost completely worthless in both wars. During a battle with French soldiers at Adegon on October 6 during the second war, the bulk of the Amazon corps were wiped out in a matter of hours in hand-to-hand combat after the French engaged them with a bayonet charge. For the loss of 86 Regulars and 417 Amazons, the Dahomey only managed to kill 6 French troops in the melee.[12]

COLLECTION TROPEN MUSEUM Group portrait of the so-called 'Amazons from Dahomey' during their stay in Paris.

Disbandment

Veterans at the annual meeting in Abomay in 1908

The troops were disbanded when the kingdom became a French protectorate.[13] Oral tradition states that some surviving amazons 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.[14]

Some of the women married and had children, while others remained single. According to a historian who traced the lives of almost two dozen ex-amazons, all the women displayed difficulties adjusting to life as retired warriors, often struggling to find new roles in their communities that gave them a sense of pride comparable to their former lives. Many displayed a tendency to start fights or arguments that frightened their neighbours and relatives.[14]

Between 1934 and 1942, several British travelers in Abomey recorded encounters with ex-amazons, now old women who spun cotton or idled around courtyards.[15] The last survivor of the Dahomey Amazons is thought to have been a woman named Nawi. In a 1978 interview with a Beninese historian, she claimed to have fought the French in 1892. She died in November 1979, aged well over 100.[6]

Dahomey Amazons were represented in the 1987 film Cobra Verde by German director Werner Herzog. Ghezo's Amazons play a significant role in the novel Flash for Freedom! by George MacDonald Fraser.

The unit is also depicted in (a special edition of, and now DLC of) PC game Empire: Total War. In the African Kingdoms expansion to Age of Empires II, Gbeto are the Malian unique unit. In either game, the Dahomey/Gbeto are the only female military units.

A segment of QI Series 7 Episode 7 discussed Dahomey Amazons and showed a photo.

Referenced in Stieg Larsson's novel The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest in the prelude to Part 4 Rebooting System.

The warriors are also mentioned in Patrick O'Brian's novel The Commodore, book 17 of the Aubrey-Maturin series.

The main character of Charles R. Saunders fantasy novel Dossouye, an ahosi of Abomey, is closely modelled on the Dahomey ahosi.

P. C. Wren's 1917 book of short stories Stepsons of France contains a story called "Here are Ladies," describing a series of clashes between troops of the Foreign Legion and the Dahomey Amazons.

The warriors are also the main focus and written about in Layon Gray's stage play Black Sparta.[16]

The Dora Milaje, army/bodyguards to the Black Panther, are based partially off the Dahomey Amazons.[17]

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon, 86 year old Cudjo Lewis, the last known survivor of the slaver Clotilda, describes his own capture by Dahomey Amazons when he was 19 years old.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Alpern 1998, p. 20.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Law 1993.
  3. ↑ Alpern 1998, p. 44.
  4. ↑ Macdonald, Fleur (2018-08-26). "The legend of Benin's fearless female warriors". BBC. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  5. ↑ Alpern 1998, p. 38.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Dash 2011.
  7. 1 2 Yoder 1974.
  8. ↑ Forbes, Frederick (2010). Dahomey And The Dahomans: Being The Journals Of Two Missions To The King Of Dahomey And Residence At His Capital 1849 To 1850. Kessinger Publishing LLC. ISBN 978-1163235027.
  9. ↑ Adams, Maeve (Spring 2010). "The Amazon Warrior Women and the De/construction of Gendered Imperial Authority in Nineteenth-Century Colonial Literature" (PDF). Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies. 6.
  10. ↑ Alpern 1998, p. 195.
  11. ↑ Alpern 1998, pp. 205.
  12. ↑ Alpern 1998, p. 203.
  13. ↑ Historical Museum of Abomey.
  14. 1 2 Alpern 1998, pp. 208-209.
  15. ↑ Alpern 1998, pp. 210-211.
  16. ↑ Clodfelter 2017.
  17. ↑ Johnson 2018.

Bibliography

  • Alpern, Stanley B. (1998). Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey (1st ed.). New York, U.S.: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-0678-9.
  • Clodfelter, Tim (August 5, 2017). "Play tells story of West African warrior women". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  • Dash, Mike (September 23, 2011). "Dahomey's Women Warriors". Smithsonian.com. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  • Historical Museum of Abomey. "The Amazons". Historical Museum of Abomey. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  • Johnson, Jazzi (February 23, 2018). "If You Loved Black Panther's Dora Milaje, Meet the Dahomey Amazons". Teen Vogue Magazine. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  • Law, Robin (1993). "The 'Amazons' of Dahomey". Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde. Frobenius Institute. 39: 245–260. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  • Yoder, John C. (1974). "Fly and Elephant parties: Political polarization in Dahomey, 1840–1870". The Journal of African History. Cambridge University Press. 15 (3): 417–432. Retrieved August 14, 2018. (Subscription required (help)).

Further reading

  • A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome. Richard Burton, London, 1864
  • Acts of War: the behavior of men in battle. Holmes R. New York, Free Press, 1985
  • Dahomey and the Dahomans, Being the Journals of Two Missions to the King of Dahomey and the Residence at his Capital in the Years 1849 and 1850. Frederick E. Forbes. Kessinger Publishing. 2010 ISBN 978-1163235027
  • Der Atlantische Sklavenhandel von Dahomey, W. Peukert, 1740–1797, Wiesbaden, 1978
  • On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning To Kill in War and Society. Grossman D. New York, Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company, 1995 ISBN 0-316-33011-6 pp. 175
  • Les Amazones: Une Armée de Femmes dans l’Afrique Précoloniale, Hélène Almeida-Topor, Paris, Editions Rochevignes, 1984
  • Warrior Women: The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of War. Robert B. Edgerton. Boulder: Westview Press, 2000
  • Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Kingdom of Dahomey. Edna G. Bay. Charlottesville, 1998
  • Women Warlords: An Illustrated Military History of Female Warriors. Tim Newark and Angus McBride, Blandford Press, 1989 ISBN 0-7137-1965-6
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