THE MINO ...the first and only all female fighters in history

THE MINO

...the first and only all female fighters in history

The kingdom of Oyo, of what is today western Nigeria had made Dahomey its tributary state and demanded regular tributes to the Oyo throne. Research indicates that Dahomey kingdom was born out of chaos and resistance to the Oyo Kingdom. It became a truly militarized entity, where a fierce band of an all female fighters unit of the military superstructure, became the king's special guards and the women supervised the men in government and reported to the king. 

These fierce female fighters were known as "The Mino"(meaning 'our mothers' or 'my mother' in the Fon language).

 The king of Dahomey''s throne was built on the grave of a past king known as Da (hence Da and Abomey, the town, made up the name Dahomey. This was after The kingdom broke away from the control of the Oyo kingdom and from then on developed a never fading hatred for the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo. 

The king's throne sat on skulls, cast in gold and bronze; A grotesque symbol of the militarized core of the kingdom from its very foundation.

 The Mino (more popularly known in the west as the Amazons) were formed as female elephant hunters through which the throne obtained elephant tusks and meat. In the 17th century CE, the king of Dahomey did a census and the female elephant hunters were included in the king's army because of their courage. 

 In 1720 CE, the first Mino conquered Whydah as ordered by king Agaja. In 1764 CE, they won the war against the Ashanti to proclaim the sovereignty of Dahomey. Ashanti oral tradition hold stories of war fought with women "who were swift and ferocious." One of the famous and last wars of the Mino was fought in an Oyo kingdom's town of Abeokuta (meaning underneath the rock, in the Yoruba language). This war was remembered by enslaved Africans from this region who became enslaved in Brazil, even up to the 20th century CE. 

...Tata Ajaje, one of the Mino, gutted a man alive using the man's own weapon. They announced their attack on Abeokuta twice, probably in order to show disdain for the Yoruba. But when the Mino went over the walls, they were mostly pulled from the ramparts and killed en masse. Tata Ajaje was written of to have "stopped not far from the ramparts, sat down on a copper caldron and disdainfully turning her back to the enemy, tranquilly began smoking a long pipe, with bullets flying around her but failing to hit her. A Sharp shooting hunter was summoned. Taking his time, he aimed carefully and slew the warrioress with his shot."

  King Gezo of Dahomey was later able to introduce palm oil and other produce as trading commodities between Dahomey and Europe, but this was not bringing in much Firearms from the Europeans as trade in captives of wars had achieved from the 17th century CE.  And the kingdom needed such to keep old enemy kingdoms away from their own polity. The kingdom went into a Sharp decline. The French were among Europeans who were supplying firearms to Dahomey. In the 18th century CE, the king of Dahomey asked the Europeans to set up a firearms factory in the kingdom but this was not responded to.  

When the French came into Dahomey in 1892 CE, this time around, not to obtain slaves but to set up a colonial government, the Dahomey kingdom had nothing much in the form of firepower to resist the French. Besides, the French had penetrated the kingdom to an extent that they had children with African women, the children who proved, in most cases, to be loyal to their fathers' people than their mothers' own tribesmen and women. And the Mino were slowly fading into the ash and dust of history. There was a saying among the people of Dahomey that "the conquest by the French would have been easier to endure if only Abeokuta was destroyed." 

 Chancellor Williams, in his research work, 'The destruction of black civilizations' pointed out that, Africans find it more easier to make enmity of themselves, to an extent that they often forget what the original cause of the fighting was, but would never extend such hatred to foreigners. "It puzzles me," he wrote while commenting on African naivety, "the lord's saying that 'the meek shall inherit the earth...' did He meant the grave?"  Europeans were partially welcomed into Dahomey on the eve of colonialism. 

 

It was firearms that ushered in the invaders. But the same firearms is what Dahomey (now Benin republic) had not been able to put together for over a hundred years. They still depend on Europeans for such. "When would Africa wake up from her long slumber?"