Dahomey Amazons Dahomey Amazons The Dahomey Amazons or Mino, which means "our mothers," were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey in the present-day Republic of Benin which lasted until the end of the 19th century. They were so named by Western observers and historians due to their similarity to the mythical Amazons of ancient Anatolia and the Black Sea. King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Amazons as a corps of elephant hunters called the "gbeto". Houegbadja's son King Agaja
History of the Kingdom of Dahomey only solution and placed General Alfred-Amédée Dodds in charge of the operation to commence in 1892. The Franco-Dahomean War lasted from 1892 until January 1894 when Dodds captured the city of Abomey (January 15) and King Béhanzin (January 25). Notable during the war was the defeat of the Dahomey Amazons in November 1892. Dodds named Agoli-agbo the new king of Dahomey, largely because he was seen as the most malleable of the alternatives, and exiled Béhanzin to French possessions in the Caribbean. The French began changing key aspects of administration and politics in the Kingdom of Dahomey. In 1899, the