The Mino, Women Warriors of the Kingdom of DahomeyThe Kingdom of Dahomey was a small but powerful re

The Mino, Women Warriors of the Kingdom of DahomeyThe Kingdom of Dahomey was a small but powerful realm in East Africa located in what is now the present day country of Benin.  A very militaristic society, the Dahomey became a regional power by conquering the many tribes and cities that neighbored it on the Atlantic coast.  One of the reasons for Dahomey’s great successes was a well organized and professional standing army, something rare among the disorganized tribes and peoples of Africa.  One of the most interesting curiosities of the Dahomey Army was an elite corps of soldiers called the Mino, who were considered the best of the best among the Dahomey.What made the Mino so unique was that it was a unit made entirely of women.  Known as the “Dahomey Amazons” to Europeans, the Mino recruited unmarried women who were often virgins.  They were trained to be tough, disciplined, and fearless.  Often they were unstoppable, and even well equipped European forces such as the French suffered terrible defeats at their hands.   Being captured by the Mino was most unfortunate, as Mino women tended to decapitate captured enemies. According to the account of Jean Bayol, a French officer who visited Dahomey,“I watched as a teenage recruit, a girl named Nanisca who had not yet killed anyone, was tested. Brought before a young prisoner who sat bound in a basket, she walked jauntily up to him, swung her sword three times with both hands, then calmly cut the last flesh that attached the head to the trunk… She then squeezed the blood off her weapon and swallowed it.”Along with their ferocity and skill, the Mino were also successful because they were equipped with the best weaponry in all of Africa.  This included firearms, often acquired from Europeans by trading captured prisoners to European slavers.  Along with clubs, knives, machetes and spears the typical Mino warrior was armed with a flintlock musket.  By the late 19th century the Dahomey had even managed to acquire a number of Winchester repeating rifles with ammunition.  At the height of their power, the Mino numbered 4,000 - 6,000 women, about 1/3rd of the Dahomey Army.In 1890 the Dahomey picked a fight with an enemy they could not conquer; France.  The French declared war after the Dahomey attacked a city that was the protectorate of the French.  They decapitated the French governor of the city and forced his wife to roll her husbands severed head in a French flag.  At first the Mino won several victories against the French, who were unprepared to fire on women or stand up to their ferocity.  According to accounts from the Battle of Kotonou, at one point a Mino warrior who had been deprived of her weapon killed a man by biting him on the throat.  Despite such ferocity French superiority of arms took its toll, as the French were well armed with modern repeating rifles, machine guns, and cannon.  By 1894 the French had defeated and conquered the Kingdom of Dahomey, turning it into a puppet state called the Republic of Dahomey, later renamed Benin.  The Mino were the last Dahomey to surrender, being reduced to only 50 women out of an original 4,000.  Interestingly, most of the last Mino warriors emigrated to the United States, where they were hired by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.  The last Mino warrior was identified as a very elderly woman living in Benin named Nawi, who died in 1978 aged over 100. -- source link

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