Lhe Kingdom of Danhomey : A name that may not mean anything to you because it is assimilated to the African colonial period and since 1975 the name of the territory has been replaced by “Benin” a territory populated by more than 6 million inhabitants located between Togo and the Nigeria. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the kingdom of Danhomey was one of the most powerful and wealthy countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Its power rested on its trade but also on its imposing army. An army feared throughout West Africa because its soldiers were considered invincible.
In 1880, the enthronement of the new king of Danhomey Gbêhanzin coincides with the French colonial expansion in Danhomey. To stop the invasion, the king assembled an army of 25000 warriors. A very particular army made up of 5000 women at one time or everywhere else the woman was by no means considered as the equal of a man. These 5000 warriors named the Amazons of Dahomey were the most feared and most respected soldiers of the king's army above men.
The Amazons of Danhomey were recruited as teenagers from among the healthiest and strongest women in the kingdom. They underwent daily rigorous and specific training developed by the Dahomians. Some of their exercises included crossing a thorn construction three times while naked to the waist, or killing a bull with a bare hand. In addition to these special trainings, the Amazons of Dahomey made vows of chastity and loyalty to the king. Because at the origin they ensured the personal guard of the king.
These warriors were perfectly disciplined and showed great courage in battle, carried away by their inexhaustible energy, they were often considered invincible by their opponents. On many occasions soldiers of the French colonial army have them to fight these women of exceptional courage such as October 26, 1892: symbolic day when the king's army launched its first offensive in the village of Kotopka occupied by the colonists. The affair at the time had caused a lot of noise in the metropolitan press, due to the defeat of the colonial army and the novelty of finding women in an army. One of the French newspapers of the time, the “petit journal” had described the Amazons as “a woman combatant with a surprising energy and a total contempt for death”.
The fall of the kingdom and the exile of King Gbêhanzin to the definitive conquest of the French colonial empire put an end to the body of female soldiers of the Amazons of Danhomey.
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In Dahomey: an Amazon from Béhanzin (Ed. 1892)
Is Adult Product | |
Release Date | 2012-01-01T00:00:01Z |
Language | Français |
Number Of Pages | 165 |
Publication Date | 2012-01-01T00:00:01Z |