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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.

Origin[edit]
King Houegbadja, who ruled from 1645 to 1685 as the third King of Dahomey, is said to have founded the group of women who later became the Amazons. He originally assembled them as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto.

Houegbadja's son King Agaja, ruling from 1708 to 1732, established a female bodyguard unit armed with muskets. European merchants recorded the presence of these female bodyguards. According to tradition, Agaja developed the bodyguard into a militia and successfully used them in Dahomey's defeat of the neighboring kingdom of Savi in 1727. Some sources report that the group of female warriors was referred to as Mino, meaning "Our Mothers" in the Fon language, by the male army of Dahomey. Other sources contest that King Agaja's older sister Queen Hangbe was the ruler to establish the units, although there is doubt about whether Queen Hangbe actually existed.

From the time of King Ghezo, the ruler from 1818 to 1858, Dahomey became increasingly militaristic. Ghezo placed great importance on the army, increasing its budget and formalizing its structure from ceremonial to functional. While European narratives referred to the women soldiers as "Amazons," the women called themselves ahosi (king's wives) or Mino (our mothers). Europeans exchanged goods such as knives, bayonets, firearms and fabrics for prisoners that the Dahomey captured during wars and raids.