"The Story Of The Fearless Women Warriors Of Dahomey" Topic

"No tale about the Kingdom of Dahomey is complete without mentioning the women that contributed to its military might.

From the 18th century to late 19th century, there existed a formidable army of all-female warriors in Dahomey in the present-day Republic of Benin. They were called the Mino (our Mothers) or Ahosi (king's wives) while European observers called them the Dahomey Amazons due to their similarity with the Amazons of the Greek mythology…"

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Armand

A lot of ink has been spilled since the end of the 2nd Dahomeyan War about the "Amazons," and much of it was romantic Victorian hype.

A movie of a few years back did nothing to generate light on the subject of the "Amazons," the Fon in general, and the French wars in particular.

However, there's no denying their fanaticism and bloodlust, though they never won a battle in the Western sense of the word.

Work is beginning again after a months long hiatus on the Dahomeyan Wars Resource Book here at TVAG where both contemporary French language sources and modern English works, plus information from modern Benin itself are the basis for the entire project. The goal is to provide the most complete account of both wars and all combatants from a wargames perspective, and with as many contemporary uniform illustrations and descriptions as possible. The crucial Naval and Riverine operations and vessels have not been as thoroughly represented before, either.

Hopefully, the book will be ready for publication by late Spring, but anyone interested in being notified of progress is welcome to contact me via TVAG@att.net

See you in Abomey!

TVAG

I am definitely interested in that…

They mainly functioned as 1) King's Guard and 2) Slavery Patrols against other tribes – and when they attacked the French for trying to stop their slave trade, they were wiped out.