Dahomey Amazons — the most feared women in history

Dahomey Amazons — a unique phenomenon in world history because it is the only documented female military division. This group of women-"terminator", lived South of the Sahara and terrifying European colonizers, foreigners called the Dahomey Amazons. And they call themselves'n Nonmiton, which means "our mothers".

The Dahomey Amazons were considered the elite troops of the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern Benin). N Nonmiton defended his king during the most bloody battles and was untouchable. And the highlight was considered the beheading of victims.

Amazon are not mythical characters. The last surviving Amazon of Dahomey died recently, in 1979, at the age of 100 years. It was a woman named Navi, which the researchers found living in a remote village. And in the XIX century in the case of the Amazons served 6,000 women soldiers (only the army had 25,000 people, i.e. the Amazon was about one third of the entire Dahomey army).

Their history began in the XVII century. Scientists suggest that the original body of the Amazons was formed to hunt elephants. But women have managed so to impress the king of Dahomey their skills that the king wanted to see them with our telohraniteli. Another theory suggests that because women were the only people who were allowed to remain in the Palace king after dark, it is not surprising that women have become the bodyguards of the king.

Were collected in N Nonmiton the strongest, the healthiest and most daring women. They then underwent the process of careful preparation, during which turned into a real fighting machine for the murder, who feared throughout Africa for over two centuries.

Amazon Dutch were armed with muskets and machetes. By the early nineteenth century, their body turned into a full-fledged military unit devotional to their king. Girls'n Nonmiton gained (and gave them weapons) starting with only eight years old. Some women in society became soldiers voluntarily, and the other in the bodyguard gave men who complained of unruly wives, which they could not control.

From the beginning of the Amazons trained to be strong, fast, ruthless and able to withstand a lot of pain. Exercises that resembled a form of gymnastics, included jumping through the walls, covered with spiny branches of an acacia. Also, the training was part of the expedition into the jungle without equipment with one machete, which lasted for 10 days. It is not surprising that in the battle of the Dahomey Amazons fight to the death... someone else's or his own.

Women N Nonmiton were not allowed to marry or have children while serving as soldiers. Moreover, it was believed that they married with the king, but the king did not dare to break their vow of chastity. And if Amazon has touched any other man, and not the king, it meant for him to die.

In the spring of 1863, the British Explorer Richard Burton arrived in West Africa to establish a British mission in the coastal Dahomey, and to try to make peace with damacai.

Dahomay was warring nation that is actively used slaves — they basically turned the captured enemies. But most of all, Barton was struck by elite Dahomey warriors: "those women were so well-developed skeleton and muscles that only the presence of the breast to determine their sex".

The main weapon was a Dutch gun, and a machete Dahomey Amazons used to decapitate and dismember their victims. Among dahomeyan then it was decided to return home with their heads and genitalia of their opponents.

Despite the brutal training for many women, this was a chance to escape the boring life that they were doomed in his society. When entering'n Nonmiton women were given the opportunity to climb the social ladder of the local society, to hold command posts and gain influence. They could even become rich, but this rarely happened.

Stanley Halpern, the author of the only full treatise in the English language devoted to the study of the Amazons, wrote: "When Amazon came out of the Palace, in front of them was definitely a slave with a bell. The ringing of the bell told to every man that you should turn from his way, to retire to some distance and look the other way".

Even after the French with the support of the Foreign Legion in the 1890‑ies conquered Dahomey, the Board of fear of the Amazons continued. French soldiers remained at the Dahomey women at night, often found in the morning dead with a slit throat. Underestimating opponents, the women very often led to an increase in the number of casualties among the French invaders.

By the end of the Second Franco-his war, the French began to win only after the support of the Foreign Legion. Latest hand of the king surrendered, most of the Amazons were killed in 23 fights during the Second world war. The Legionnaires later wrote about the "incredible courage and audacity" of the Amazons. They also stated that in this place are the worst woman on earth.