African Amazons Give Frenchmen a Dressing Down
The members of the elite troops of the kingdom of Dahomey were aggressive, ruthless — and female. The French rulers quickly gained respect for the African amazons, who instilled fear through hard training — and gin.
Shrill war cries break the peace of the morning near the port of Cotonou in present-day Benin.
Thousands of warriors of the Dahomey tribe stand on the lawn in front of the city. The 359 French soldiers in the city rush towards the defensive wall, and soon shots rain down on the field.
The French are astonished to see that the vanguard consists of women. The Black Amazons, as the French call them, have white headbands and carry muskets, machetes, and axes.
As bullets whiz around their ears, the female warriors run through the grass. Moments later, the nimble women climb over the ramparts.
The first defender to die is a French sergeant, whose head is decisively chopped off by a 16-year-old amazon.
A French gunman makes a fatal mistake by merely disarming a wounded female warrior. She throws herself upon him and, like a hungry leopard, sets her teeth upon his neck until a French bayonet puts an end to her life.
After hours of fierce fighting, the Amazon army retreats, leaving 120 dead. The French lose eight men and count 26 wounded. The colonial power is shocked.
Although the losses were limited, the Dahomey army, led by Amazons, proved a formidable opponent. The battle of Cotonou in 1890 was the first major battle of the Dahomey Wars, as the French call them.
From elephant hunters to warriors
The female corps was formed in the mid-17th century from a small group of elephant hunters established by the second king of Dahomey, Wegbaja. The hunters were chosen from the king’s harem, which consisted of many hundreds of women. He turned his harem into his personal security service.
