AFRICAN QUEENS THE WARRIOR 'AMAZONS' OF DAHOMEY

New Hollywood blockbuster The Woman King brings the remarkable story of the female soldiers of 19th-century west Africa to the fore. Jonny Wilkes reveals how this elite fighting force of highly trained and disciplined warriors built such a fearsome reputation

- Jonny Wilkes

The assault on Abeokuta was going to fail. The soldiers of Dahomey, a powerful kingdom in west Africa, were trained, disciplined and courageous, so threw themselves across the deep ditches and up the high walls without hesitation – only to be cut down by the gun placements and numerous defenders waiting at the top. The city, capital of Dahomey’s rivals the Egbas, was too big and too well fortified. Much as it had been 13 years earlier at the first attempted siege, defeat was a matter of time on that day in 1864.

If this was to be their doom, however, one Dahomey soldier would meet it on their own terms with a gesture of contemptuous defiance. Having scaled the wall, they stopped on the ramparts in a spot the defenders could not reach, sat down facing away from the enemy, and began smoking a pipe.

Such fearlessness came as no surprise to the Egbas, for the soldier belonged to a regiment especially revered among their enemies and the Europeans who made the journey to west Africa. It was made up entirely of women, relentlessly trained and furious in battle, the likes of which could not be found anywhere else in the world. The Europeans dubbed them the ‘Amazons’, and it was a French doctor and historian, Edouard Dunglas, who recorded the deeds of the pipesmoking warrior.

Her defiance lasted only so long, but her actions served to illustrate the ultimate fate of the Dahomey Amazons. For all their bravery and skill, this female fighting force would be undone before the end of the 19th century by the same thing that befell many indigenous populations around the world: superior firepower. At Abeokuta, the defenders simply sent for a sharpshooter. "Taking his time," wrote Dunglas, "he aimed carefully and slew the warrioress with his first shot".