africa is a continent full of beauty its beauty can be seen through its places and its people
welcome to the amazing people of africa series where we take
a look at some of the indigenous people of africa we'll be looking at their lifestyle
culture and getting to learn about life through their knowledge and experiences
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now i'm sure many of you have come across the trailer of the movie woman king woman king is
an upcoming american historical epic film about an all-female warrior unit who protected the
african kingdom of the homie in the 19th century but it's just not a film it's a look at our past
the dahomey amazons were an all-female military of the kingdom of the homie which is now present-day
benin they are also known as mino or our mothers at that time the male population in benin was
hit hard with many men facing casualties and death infrequent wars with their neighbors
the lack of men likely led the kings of the homie to recruit women into the army so how did this
mighty and fearless army come to be well some say the third king of the dahomey kingdom originated
the group as elephant hunters called the beto another account claimed that his daughter queen
hang bae who ruled from 1708 to 17 11 established a group of female royal bodyguards for herself
her brother later then used them to defeat neighboring kingdoms in 1727.
so let's look at the lives of a do homie amazon warrior sam enrolled as young as eight years old
some women in the foreign society became soldiers voluntarily while others were involuntarily
enrolled if their husbands or fathers complained to the king about their bad behavior
if you joined the dahomey there's a lot you had to sacrifice first of all you
would not be able to have children or to be married well that's not entirely true
as the homie female soldiers were formally married to the king but he never actually had
relations with any of them so that marriage left them celibate one also had to be very disciplined
they trained with intense physical exercises and learned in difference to pain and death
the women's army had three main wings the right the left wing and the elite center wing and all of
them were well trained in working with weapons by the mid 19th century they numbered between 1 000
and 6 000 women so what did they gain from joining the military well becoming amino was an avenue for
many women to obtain what they didn't have in their previous life wealth status and influence
the dahomey went on to conquer their neighbors in fact after the homies conquest of the coast
slave trade immediately fell from 15 000 slaves in the 1720s to less than 9000 in the 1750s
they also participated in one major battle against the french where thousands of the
homie charged the french lines and engaged the defenders in hand-to-hand combat
the dahomey were disbanded when the kingdom became a french protectorate
oral tradition states that some surviving women secretly remained
in the homie where they quietly assassinated some french officers
according to a historian who chased the lives of almost two dozen dahomians all the women
displayed difficulty adjusting to life as retired warriors orphans struggling to find
new roles in their communities that gave them a sense of pride comparable to their former lives
these days we see our african history and culture dominating the western entertainment scene
the dahomey women warriors have popped up in recent movies like lovecraft country black
panther and now the woman king this just goes to show how much we as a continent have to offer
recently the president of benin purchased talon unveiled three monuments in the capital city of
kotonu to remind their citizens to celebrate their beautiful history and the statue of a dahomey
warrior was one of them the statue stands at 30 meters high and has a metallic structure with
a bronze envelope what are your thoughts about today's video and these majestic women warriors
let us know in the comments below thank you for watching if you haven't subscribed yet please do
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also make sure to watch our other videos we celebrate our mama africa
we have the mysteries of africa series and the amazing people of africa series
it's been me linda from tuna travel be sure to check out my youtube channel
until the next video stay safe and i'll see you then and remember africa is watching