For the better part of 200 years, thousands of soldiers fought and died to expand the borders of their West African kingdom of Dahomey.The fiercely militaristic society was renowned for their female warrior, the “Black Spartan”.

Dahomey Women Warriors — Benin — 6,000 strong their last battle was in 1892

While European narratives refer to the women soldiers as “Spartans” or “Amazons,” they called themselves mino — “our mothers,” or Ahosi — “King’s Wives”.

“The Dahomey Amazons or Mino was an all-female military regiment of the Fon people of the Kingdom of Dahomey in the present-day Republic of Benin.

The empire was ruled over by various kings, and there is no evidence that any woman in Dahomey ever became an Ahosi willingly. However, women soldiers were rigorously trained, given uniforms, and equipped with Danish guns (obtained via the slave trade). By the mid-19th century, the Black Spartans numbered between 1,000 and 6,000 women, about a third of the entire Dahomey army.