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Amazons of Black Sparta : The Women Warriors of Dahomey
History is rife with tales of fighting women. More often than not, these stories prove more legend than history. Dating back to the amazons of ancient Asia Minor, myths of fierce, autonomous women of martial excellence abound.
And yet, the only thoroughly documented amazons in world history are the women warriors of Dahomy, an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western African kingdom. Once dubbed a "small black Sparta," residents of Dahomy shared with the Spartans an intense militarism and sense of collectivism. Moreover, the women of both kingdoms prided themselves on bodies hardened from childhood by rigorous physical exercise. But Spartan women kept in shape to breed male warriors, Dahomean amazons to kill them. Originally a praetorian guard, the Dahomeans developed into a force 6,000 strong and were granted semi-sacred status. They lusted for battle, fighting with fury and valor until the kingdom's final defeat by France in 1892.
Stanley B. Alpern has chronicled this remarkable history in depth for the first time. The product of meticulous archival research, Amazons of Black Sparta is defined by Alpern's gift for narrative and will stand as the most comprehensive and accessible account of the woman warriors of Dahomy.
And yet, the only thoroughly documented amazons in world history are the women warriors of Dahomy, an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western African kingdom. Once dubbed a "small black Sparta," residents of Dahomy shared with the Spartans an intense militarism and sense of collectivism. Moreover, the women of both kingdoms prided themselves on bodies hardened from childhood by rigorous physical exercise. But Spartan women kept in shape to breed male warriors, Dahomean amazons to kill them. Originally a praetorian guard, the Dahomeans developed into a force 6,000 strong and were granted semi-sacred status. They lusted for battle, fighting with fury and valor until the kingdom's final defeat by France in 1892.
Stanley B. Alpern has chronicled this remarkable history in depth for the first time. The product of meticulous archival research, Amazons of Black Sparta is defined by Alpern's gift for narrative and will stand as the most comprehensive and accessible account of the woman warriors of Dahomy.
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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August 5, 2022
An interesting historical work about apparently the only documented all-female army companies in history: the women of Dahomey (now Benin in West Africa), who in the 18th and especially 19th centuries constituted up to a third of their nation’s army. This book is on the dry side, somewhat dated and definitely not rah-rah, so I can see why it hasn’t been widely read, but it’s also relatively short and I did learn quite a bit from it.
Helpfully, Alpern begins with a survey of women in combat prior to the modern era, acknowledging that this was far from unheard of. Aside from the famous examples of women who led troops, there were the women who disguised themselves as men, and the crisis situations in which everyone capable of fighting did so, and the surprising number of kings who kept a corps of female guards for themselves (not just for their sequestered womenfolk, though that was also common). I’m not sure I see the distinction between Dahomey’s all-female companies fighting alongside male ones, and seemingly completely integrated forces like those of Boudicca, as being as important as Alpern would have it—especially as we compare to ancient societies from which no records about military organization exist—but Dahomey was still unusual, especially in that its forces operated so close to the modern day. Why haven’t we heard more about them?
After reading this book, I can start to answer that question. The fact that these were African women no doubt has something to do with it, as well as the lack of records from Dahomey itself; this book necessarily relies primarily on the writings of European observers, as well as some oral traditions. But also, it’s a pretty hard for a modern audience to get behind Dahomey. The reason they called up so many women wasn’t because of gender-related enlightenment—in fact, it appears that so many women were happy to be called up precisely because their other options were so bad (wives were expected to present husbands’ meals to them while on their knees, and also not looking them in the face, because that would be too bold. Also, wives did pretty much all the work). Instead, it was because Dahomey wanted to punch above its weight class, population-wise: their goal being to raid other people’s cities and villages, take them prisoner, and then either execute them in human sacrifices via the mob, or sell them to European slave traders at Whydah, which was one of the major ports for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. (Alpern cites sources pointing out that slave raiding was not generally Dahomey’s given reason for their annual military campaigns, which tended to involve something like avenging an insult to their king, but Dahomey would hardly be the only country to trump up ideological reasons for war more inspiring to the troops than “let’s take their stuff!” Though granted, when the troops get to take the stuff personally, that can be pretty inspiring.)
At any rate, Dahomey was very good at this slave raiding thing, and its female troops—unsurprisingly for units with something to prove—particularly effective, often winning praise for being better than the men. (They themselves were very competitive about this, and those of their songs not about their devotion to the king were all about how much better than the men they were. The chapter about their music is surprisingly interesting.) Of course, they weren’t exactly modern feminists, seeing themselves more as being promoted to men rather than proving the capabilities of women, while denigrating (male) troops they defeated as “women.” Their lives and training could be harsh—training exercises regularly involved scaling enormous barriers of thornbushes, also used in town defenses—but also carried rewards, as they could rise to leadership and honors, and meanwhile had their own slaves and lived in the palace compound. All the female troops were officially the king’s “wives” (and the palace an entirely female domain but for the king), but as there were thousands of them this was generally a legal fiction. They were required to be celibate, with transgressions punishable by death for both parties, though this seems to have been rarely carried out.
Without direct sources from among the women, much of the book is about Dahomey in general, its culture and history and warfare, and I found it quite interesting. Said warfare usually consisted of sneak attacks, with a lot of effort and ingenuity put into keeping planned raids a surprise. (On one occasion, a European representative convinced a Dahomean king to declare war in advance, like a European monarch. Against his better judgment, he did so, only to find particularly fierce fighting in the village in question. After securing victory, the king sent the European representative a large number of heads—hauling severed heads about was not at all unusual; war drums, along with other things, were decorated with them—with the note that but for his lousy advice, these would have been slaves instead.) There are a few well-documented campaigns in the 19th century though, including two against Dahomey’s arch-rival, the city of Abeokuta in Nigeria. The first involves a sequence of events I would struggle to believe in a novel, in which a Yoruba chief whose town they took along the way gave the Dahomeans a raft of terrible advice for the attack, all intended as sabotage, which they followed to the letter. And then, there were the two very hard-fought campaigns in the 1890s in which France conquered the country. (Dahomey never did destroy Abeokuta, and again with the “doesn’t play well to a modern audience” thing, a royal relative told a later chronicler that this made colonization particularly bitter—though the fact that Abeokuta too was colonized, by the British, was some consolation.)
I’ll stop here, but obviously there’s a ton of information in this book that was new to me, making it well worth the read. At the same time, it is on the dry side, making it hard to recommend widely. And yes, it was written by a white man in 1998, with some of his language seeming much more dated than that, most noticeably in his appending “-ess” to every possible noun applied to a woman (hilariously, he pokes fun at one of his sources for this despite writing “warrioress,” “archeress,” etc., in practically every other paragraph himself: “bayoneteeress,” however, is apparently one step too far). Frankly I’m not sure about referring to the women soldiers as “amazons” either—it’s a convenient term, sure, but also a mythological one from a different part of the world, and not a mythology that parallels Dahomey’s society.
In sum, potentially worth a read for those who don’t mind a somewhat more academic history, and are not expecting it to engage critically with issues of race or gender. I still learned a lot from it and would recommend to those interested in the subject matter.
Helpfully, Alpern begins with a survey of women in combat prior to the modern era, acknowledging that this was far from unheard of. Aside from the famous examples of women who led troops, there were the women who disguised themselves as men, and the crisis situations in which everyone capable of fighting did so, and the surprising number of kings who kept a corps of female guards for themselves (not just for their sequestered womenfolk, though that was also common). I’m not sure I see the distinction between Dahomey’s all-female companies fighting alongside male ones, and seemingly completely integrated forces like those of Boudicca, as being as important as Alpern would have it—especially as we compare to ancient societies from which no records about military organization exist—but Dahomey was still unusual, especially in that its forces operated so close to the modern day. Why haven’t we heard more about them?
After reading this book, I can start to answer that question. The fact that these were African women no doubt has something to do with it, as well as the lack of records from Dahomey itself; this book necessarily relies primarily on the writings of European observers, as well as some oral traditions. But also, it’s a pretty hard for a modern audience to get behind Dahomey. The reason they called up so many women wasn’t because of gender-related enlightenment—in fact, it appears that so many women were happy to be called up precisely because their other options were so bad (wives were expected to present husbands’ meals to them while on their knees, and also not looking them in the face, because that would be too bold. Also, wives did pretty much all the work). Instead, it was because Dahomey wanted to punch above its weight class, population-wise: their goal being to raid other people’s cities and villages, take them prisoner, and then either execute them in human sacrifices via the mob, or sell them to European slave traders at Whydah, which was one of the major ports for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. (Alpern cites sources pointing out that slave raiding was not generally Dahomey’s given reason for their annual military campaigns, which tended to involve something like avenging an insult to their king, but Dahomey would hardly be the only country to trump up ideological reasons for war more inspiring to the troops than “let’s take their stuff!” Though granted, when the troops get to take the stuff personally, that can be pretty inspiring.)
At any rate, Dahomey was very good at this slave raiding thing, and its female troops—unsurprisingly for units with something to prove—particularly effective, often winning praise for being better than the men. (They themselves were very competitive about this, and those of their songs not about their devotion to the king were all about how much better than the men they were. The chapter about their music is surprisingly interesting.) Of course, they weren’t exactly modern feminists, seeing themselves more as being promoted to men rather than proving the capabilities of women, while denigrating (male) troops they defeated as “women.” Their lives and training could be harsh—training exercises regularly involved scaling enormous barriers of thornbushes, also used in town defenses—but also carried rewards, as they could rise to leadership and honors, and meanwhile had their own slaves and lived in the palace compound. All the female troops were officially the king’s “wives” (and the palace an entirely female domain but for the king), but as there were thousands of them this was generally a legal fiction. They were required to be celibate, with transgressions punishable by death for both parties, though this seems to have been rarely carried out.
Without direct sources from among the women, much of the book is about Dahomey in general, its culture and history and warfare, and I found it quite interesting. Said warfare usually consisted of sneak attacks, with a lot of effort and ingenuity put into keeping planned raids a surprise. (On one occasion, a European representative convinced a Dahomean king to declare war in advance, like a European monarch. Against his better judgment, he did so, only to find particularly fierce fighting in the village in question. After securing victory, the king sent the European representative a large number of heads—hauling severed heads about was not at all unusual; war drums, along with other things, were decorated with them—with the note that but for his lousy advice, these would have been slaves instead.) There are a few well-documented campaigns in the 19th century though, including two against Dahomey’s arch-rival, the city of Abeokuta in Nigeria. The first involves a sequence of events I would struggle to believe in a novel, in which a Yoruba chief whose town they took along the way gave the Dahomeans a raft of terrible advice for the attack, all intended as sabotage, which they followed to the letter. And then, there were the two very hard-fought campaigns in the 1890s in which France conquered the country. (Dahomey never did destroy Abeokuta, and again with the “doesn’t play well to a modern audience” thing, a royal relative told a later chronicler that this made colonization particularly bitter—though the fact that Abeokuta too was colonized, by the British, was some consolation.)
I’ll stop here, but obviously there’s a ton of information in this book that was new to me, making it well worth the read. At the same time, it is on the dry side, making it hard to recommend widely. And yes, it was written by a white man in 1998, with some of his language seeming much more dated than that, most noticeably in his appending “-ess” to every possible noun applied to a woman (hilariously, he pokes fun at one of his sources for this despite writing “warrioress,” “archeress,” etc., in practically every other paragraph himself: “bayoneteeress,” however, is apparently one step too far). Frankly I’m not sure about referring to the women soldiers as “amazons” either—it’s a convenient term, sure, but also a mythological one from a different part of the world, and not a mythology that parallels Dahomey’s society.
In sum, potentially worth a read for those who don’t mind a somewhat more academic history, and are not expecting it to engage critically with issues of race or gender. I still learned a lot from it and would recommend to those interested in the subject matter.
April 27, 2012
I ordered this book to deepen my research on the Amazons of the ancient African kingdom known as Dahomey. My earlier research barely scratched the surface of what this book reveals, and offers a look inside the lives of these women through the eyes of men who had traveled through Dahomey as well as some oral traditions passed down through generations. These women were fierce: strong, merciless, and according to the sources, stronger and braver than the men! While some of the terms used may feel offensive to a modern day woman, the reader must keep in mind that the sources quoted are white men that lived in the 18th-19th centuries. Their views are prejudiced as well as sexist, but one must make allowances for the time in which these men existed. Most of them, while prejudiced, had to admit (even grudgingly) that these women were a force to be reckoned with. Some even called them 'beautiful' and awe-inspiring. I definitely gleaned more than enough from this book for my research and have become inspired by the strength of these women and the mark they made on history.
July 2, 2020
More perhaps than any other African state,Dahomey was dedicated to warfare and slave raiding. it may also have been the most totalitarian with the king controlling and regimenting practically every aspect of social life...
Of course this book gave some interesting insight into the Dahomey amazon culture I had expected more on the day to day life of the Warriors but unfortunately it wasn't so.
This book also comes with some racism,misogyny and just overall the negative things to be expected from ancient white men writing about cultures that aren't their so I'd take the citations with a grain of salt
Also the the ridiculousness of words like warrioress, soldieress etc
Of course this book gave some interesting insight into the Dahomey amazon culture I had expected more on the day to day life of the Warriors but unfortunately it wasn't so.
This book also comes with some racism,misogyny and just overall the negative things to be expected from ancient white men writing about cultures that aren't their so I'd take the citations with a grain of salt
Also the the ridiculousness of words like warrioress, soldieress etc
December 15, 2012
My mother gave me this book for Christmas 2010, I think after hearing about it on the radio? I've had great intentions of reading it since then, of course, but until now they have gone the way of many other good intentions. The other day, though - at least partly inspired by Tansy's post about 'Historically Authentic Sexism in Fantasy' (which also appeared over at Tor.com, although be warned that one of the first comments is 'most readers of SF are men' and...I don't even) - I decided it was time to read it. (There's also been a bunch of great stuff written about the historical position of powerful women, as queens and warriors etc recently, calling out people who say women have had basically no part in the Great Historical Narrative That Is Mankind.)
This is a book of history. It appears to be thoroughly researched and meticulously end-noted. Alpern constantly refers to his sources, comparing the differences in their perspectives and attempting to explain them based on time, possible prejudice, and other aspects. This is particularly relevant and important because the sources come from a span of two centuries or so, sometimes using second-hand sources, and occasionally coming long after the actual events.
The book is about genuinely documented, real-life warrior women, who were pretty much automatically called Amazons by European observers, in the kingdom of Dahomey, on Africa's western coast. And these are not from some far-off misty time; no, they date from the late 1700s at the very latest, and last saw action against the dastardly French when those colonisers decided to fight against and take Dahomey... in 1892. They were experts at the use of muskets and spears and - my favourite - the giant razor: said to have weighed 20 pounds or more, it had a blade 24-36 inches long that folded into a wooden handle. It was wielded with both hands and was particularly good for decapitations.
It's not quite the book I was expecting. I think I was anticipating that was more narrative-driven, but only the last quarter or so fits that bill. The first three quarters read more like a catalogue: the recruitment, training, weapons, and everyday life of these women. The narrative comes when Alpern documents the battles that the 'warrioresses' took part in - first against other local tribes for a variety of reasons, then in two set of skirmishes/pitched battles with the French.
There are a lot of fascinating parts to this book - like the fact that the women as warriors may have originated in them being elephant hunters, and the fact that Dahomey had a lot of symmetry going on with women having parallel offices etc to the male hierarchy. One awesome, somewhat incidental bit - and this is for the fabric fetishists - is that the warrior women may have been involved in creating a gigantic patchwork, along with other palace women. It was composed of samples of every type of fabric imported into the kingdom or made locally. At one stage it was apparently up to 400 yards by 10 feet, and exactly it was intended for is unclear. The other mighty fact in the story is that pretty much everyone acknowledges that the women were mighty warriors, as good or better than their male counterparts, and generally even fiercer in actual battle: like, they were the last to retreat, and on a couple of occasions it was only women who got past the enemy's barricades. And before anyone even thinks it, apparently the enemy generally did not realise that they were facing women, at least in the early battles, so no it's not because they let the women in (besides, they were CARRYING MUSKETS or other guns - who would be stupid to let in anyone carrying a GUN? (hmm, perhaps this is a little close to the bone today)).
A very interesting read, and a fascinating period of history in general and in specific.
This is a book of history. It appears to be thoroughly researched and meticulously end-noted. Alpern constantly refers to his sources, comparing the differences in their perspectives and attempting to explain them based on time, possible prejudice, and other aspects. This is particularly relevant and important because the sources come from a span of two centuries or so, sometimes using second-hand sources, and occasionally coming long after the actual events.
The book is about genuinely documented, real-life warrior women, who were pretty much automatically called Amazons by European observers, in the kingdom of Dahomey, on Africa's western coast. And these are not from some far-off misty time; no, they date from the late 1700s at the very latest, and last saw action against the dastardly French when those colonisers decided to fight against and take Dahomey... in 1892. They were experts at the use of muskets and spears and - my favourite - the giant razor: said to have weighed 20 pounds or more, it had a blade 24-36 inches long that folded into a wooden handle. It was wielded with both hands and was particularly good for decapitations.
It's not quite the book I was expecting. I think I was anticipating that was more narrative-driven, but only the last quarter or so fits that bill. The first three quarters read more like a catalogue: the recruitment, training, weapons, and everyday life of these women. The narrative comes when Alpern documents the battles that the 'warrioresses' took part in - first against other local tribes for a variety of reasons, then in two set of skirmishes/pitched battles with the French.
There are a lot of fascinating parts to this book - like the fact that the women as warriors may have originated in them being elephant hunters, and the fact that Dahomey had a lot of symmetry going on with women having parallel offices etc to the male hierarchy. One awesome, somewhat incidental bit - and this is for the fabric fetishists - is that the warrior women may have been involved in creating a gigantic patchwork, along with other palace women. It was composed of samples of every type of fabric imported into the kingdom or made locally. At one stage it was apparently up to 400 yards by 10 feet, and exactly it was intended for is unclear. The other mighty fact in the story is that pretty much everyone acknowledges that the women were mighty warriors, as good or better than their male counterparts, and generally even fiercer in actual battle: like, they were the last to retreat, and on a couple of occasions it was only women who got past the enemy's barricades. And before anyone even thinks it, apparently the enemy generally did not realise that they were facing women, at least in the early battles, so no it's not because they let the women in (besides, they were CARRYING MUSKETS or other guns - who would be stupid to let in anyone carrying a GUN? (hmm, perhaps this is a little close to the bone today)).
A very interesting read, and a fascinating period of history in general and in specific.
August 12, 2010
I was expecting a more insightful anthropological research into the lives of these women but I had a hard time getting past the obvious sexist and racist remarks of the European men he kept quoting in his book about these women. Also his constant use of -ress was annoying like huntress or warrioress or embroideress or archeress. It was repetitive when he would write Amazon huntresses because Amazons were warrior women and huntress is the feminine version of hunter, so it came off as women women hunters. All in all, he had some really useful information derived from the little bit of history he was able to research but he relied too heavily and quoted too many times racist and sexist sources. It was a huge disappointment.
April 27, 2013
I read this several months ago but my lasting impression is that this was one fierce society. In one scene, the Dahomean women warriors scale walls covered in thorny vines and get all bloody just for practice. They fought with next to no protection and tended to get slaughtered. The newly initiated were forced to earn their place by killing a captive or be killed themselves. There is no inner circle dialogue to understand what these women were thinking. The descriptions of events come from Western male visitors. A lot of what I read is violent and revolting to anyone who is sensitive. This is not the kind of African history I learned in school. The other takeaway from this story is a sense of how much the neighbors they were warring with must have dreaded them. If you have a real interest in Western African history and culture, there is a lot to be gleamed from this book, if you can stomach the prejudiced historical commentaries and the gore.
March 11, 2023
An extremely phenomenal book about the famous African warrior women of Dahomey which impressively grabs the readers interest and provides a detailed portrait into the history of the Mino (Agojie). That, and the deep level of research Alpren made is very intriguing too, especially the fiery, yet empowering incorporations of song and dance before battle in Chapter 13, which captures the spirit of the Mino as much more than soldiers. Not to mention, an in-depth window into their lives, relentless training, and the fact they had high renown and respect among their people. Alpren's book is enriched by exceptionally vivid description, eyewitness accounts, photographs, introspection, strengths and flaws, all of it true...it's a wonder that the legacy of these brave militant women resonates in popular culture-especially in the film adaptations of “Black Panther” and Gina Prince-Bythewood's film “The Woman King” (2022).
I first learned about the Mino when I read Joyce Hansen’s “African Princess” in the 6th grade and was instantly captivated by them. As a history buff-with a special interest in that of Africa- I was awestruck with them more when I watched the “History’s Mysteries” episode where the author appears, and they were discussed. Such a history involving capture, courage, sacrifice, and tragically slavery and warfare. This is hard stuff to accept through and through, yet readers will no doubt be able to know the truth and look at the future enlightened in reading it. The best detail that I love in this text is that there's a lot of attention to every aspect of the warrior women, so it never gets boring. Sadly, the prosperity and success of Dahomey was interlinked with the slave trade, it's something for many affected by the Diaspora is hard to stomach but nevertheless important to know and learn from. Incredible use of detailed accounts from Benin and European visitors/colonizers also makes this book look very significant. Forget about what you see in fiction – the real story of the Mino is mind-blowing, and informative is far from the word to describe this amazing, scholarly work.
The history of the Mino’s origins is epic and awe-inspiring, their recruitment highly intense compared to others throughout the wider world, with power and position that made them deeply revered and feared in service to their kings. I was stunned to read that Nanisca, one of the heroines of “The Woman King”, and Nawi (shocking to believe that some of these badass women survived into the 20th century) were flesh-and-blood figures, but learning the truth behind film is much more meaningful. The war songs they sang were highly pulse-pounding and over the top, packed with graphic lines such as: "We must conquer, /Or bury ourselves in its ruins" (Alpren 117). The Agojie war chants resonate with loyalty to the kingdom and honoring the Ancestors and strike deep chords. Despite being a book about strong, powerful women this also addresses the repercussions of their deeds, with Dahomey actively participating in the slave trade. Having ancestral roots in Benin and Nigeria, the complicated truth about the Mino is both mind-blowing yet worth learning from, especially since many generations within the Diaspora are unaware of this history and its significance. There's a definite powerful influence with lots of character, uplifting and devastating that leaves one with a mixed view on the Mino and the kingdom they fought to defend. The legacy of the Mino is tempestuous but there are the harsh truths yet resilient zeal they exude from which anyone can be enlightened by. Most incredibly of all, though, is the fact that they were both heroes and victims in the conflicts and reprehensible “trade” they were caught up in. Hard as it is to reconcile, they had to fight against enemies both foreign and domestic, yet could not defeat the impact of the slave trade singlehandedly. Also, in the books epilogue at the end, it's moving that the Mino are gone yet not forgotten. It makes one better equipped to face the future by embracing the past, that's for sure. Although a phenomenal book in many respects, the voices of many of the Mino are forgotten epics to be sought out, embraced, and taken to heart by future generations...for good or ill.
I first learned about the Mino when I read Joyce Hansen’s “African Princess” in the 6th grade and was instantly captivated by them. As a history buff-with a special interest in that of Africa- I was awestruck with them more when I watched the “History’s Mysteries” episode where the author appears, and they were discussed. Such a history involving capture, courage, sacrifice, and tragically slavery and warfare. This is hard stuff to accept through and through, yet readers will no doubt be able to know the truth and look at the future enlightened in reading it. The best detail that I love in this text is that there's a lot of attention to every aspect of the warrior women, so it never gets boring. Sadly, the prosperity and success of Dahomey was interlinked with the slave trade, it's something for many affected by the Diaspora is hard to stomach but nevertheless important to know and learn from. Incredible use of detailed accounts from Benin and European visitors/colonizers also makes this book look very significant. Forget about what you see in fiction – the real story of the Mino is mind-blowing, and informative is far from the word to describe this amazing, scholarly work.
The history of the Mino’s origins is epic and awe-inspiring, their recruitment highly intense compared to others throughout the wider world, with power and position that made them deeply revered and feared in service to their kings. I was stunned to read that Nanisca, one of the heroines of “The Woman King”, and Nawi (shocking to believe that some of these badass women survived into the 20th century) were flesh-and-blood figures, but learning the truth behind film is much more meaningful. The war songs they sang were highly pulse-pounding and over the top, packed with graphic lines such as: "We must conquer, /Or bury ourselves in its ruins" (Alpren 117). The Agojie war chants resonate with loyalty to the kingdom and honoring the Ancestors and strike deep chords. Despite being a book about strong, powerful women this also addresses the repercussions of their deeds, with Dahomey actively participating in the slave trade. Having ancestral roots in Benin and Nigeria, the complicated truth about the Mino is both mind-blowing yet worth learning from, especially since many generations within the Diaspora are unaware of this history and its significance. There's a definite powerful influence with lots of character, uplifting and devastating that leaves one with a mixed view on the Mino and the kingdom they fought to defend. The legacy of the Mino is tempestuous but there are the harsh truths yet resilient zeal they exude from which anyone can be enlightened by. Most incredibly of all, though, is the fact that they were both heroes and victims in the conflicts and reprehensible “trade” they were caught up in. Hard as it is to reconcile, they had to fight against enemies both foreign and domestic, yet could not defeat the impact of the slave trade singlehandedly. Also, in the books epilogue at the end, it's moving that the Mino are gone yet not forgotten. It makes one better equipped to face the future by embracing the past, that's for sure. Although a phenomenal book in many respects, the voices of many of the Mino are forgotten epics to be sought out, embraced, and taken to heart by future generations...for good or ill.
April 21, 2023
Rather a dry read, but worth persisting with as it documents in fascinating detail the only real-life troupe of 'Amazon' warriors (that we know of) - the female soldiers of the West African kingdom (and slave trading hub) of Dahomey in West Africa - present-day Benin.
Fanatically devoted to their King, trained from childhood in all the arts of war, including insensitivity and endurance training, the female warriors of Dahomey were reputedly braver and deadlier than their male counterparts and struck terror into the hearts of the neighbouring kingdoms they routinely fought and raided for slaves and other booty, and admiration into the breasts of (mostly male) European observers.
By the time Dahomey fell to the French in 1892 the Amazon corps numbered between two and three thousand women, and while a French Captain was said to remark that it was 'neither very chivalrous nor very French' to fight female soldiers, he nevertheless regarded his battalion as 'fortunate' to have the opportunity to do so. The Africans were defeated, of course, and thousands of Amazons killed; and it's we who are now fortunate to have this in-depth research into their lives and history to read, although some of the military detail and sexist language makes it tough going in places.
Fanatically devoted to their King, trained from childhood in all the arts of war, including insensitivity and endurance training, the female warriors of Dahomey were reputedly braver and deadlier than their male counterparts and struck terror into the hearts of the neighbouring kingdoms they routinely fought and raided for slaves and other booty, and admiration into the breasts of (mostly male) European observers.
By the time Dahomey fell to the French in 1892 the Amazon corps numbered between two and three thousand women, and while a French Captain was said to remark that it was 'neither very chivalrous nor very French' to fight female soldiers, he nevertheless regarded his battalion as 'fortunate' to have the opportunity to do so. The Africans were defeated, of course, and thousands of Amazons killed; and it's we who are now fortunate to have this in-depth research into their lives and history to read, although some of the military detail and sexist language makes it tough going in places.
December 12, 2025
Alpern seeks to document all that has been learned of the women warriors of the Dahomey kingdom. He grounds the chronicle in the eye-witness records of the time, complete with conflicting accounts, biases and mutual recriminations between authors. Yet he manages to craft a convincing account of what can be relied upon for their history. He covers everything from their day-to-day, the unique context of their regiment, and the inevitable showdown with the European power that would take over Dahomey. A serious work that is yet accessible to the general reader, with a wealth of references for further reading.
January 18, 2023
An intriguing book on the history of the only pre-modern era all female military unit.
March 13, 2023
Dry, interesting but must be read in context
February 19, 2010
The first chapter included a brief discussion of the term "amazon," as well as a list of historical women warriors and cultures where women fought alongside men. This is an interesting contrast to the Hijra book, in that the Dahomey female warriors considered that they had become men through their fighting and bravery, and were also supposed to remain celibate although apparently often didn't.
July 4, 2016
Very detailed and fascinating. If you're just interested in the military side, you can skip to the end: there's a lot of prior information about their way of life, training, and everything else. It's amazing to think that some of these women were still alive in the middle of the 20th century.
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February 25, 2010good history of south western African coastal countries
June 9, 2017
I liked the beginning (intro) and the end where it all comes together. The middle was a lot of comments by everyone else.
August 15, 2012
I am willing to embrace the nickname I've been given, amazon, in all its negative and positive connotations. A fascinating history and well-researched and -written.
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June 10, 2018WHAT ARE YOU READING?
AMAZONS OF BLACK SPARTA. MY BRAIN FOG HAS BEEN SO BAD THAT I HAVEN'T GOT FAR, BUT WHAT I HAVE READ IS INTERESTING.
AMAZONS OF BLACK SPARTA. MY BRAIN FOG HAS BEEN SO BAD THAT I HAVEN'T GOT FAR, BUT WHAT I HAVE READ IS INTERESTING.
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