Before I go on let me talk a bit about why I'm doing this. One of the reasons is quite selfish. If my family could be traced back to Africa somewhere, I'd like to believe there was a Griot (a tribal story teller and keeper of the oral histories) or two in there. When casting myself in medieval inspired stories or in rpg's with a fantasy flavor I'm rarely the warrior and usually the scholar or the mage. Another reason I do this is because there are loads of interesting stories that you just don't usually get to see and finally, because it's Women's history month and even someone like me, who considers himself relatively aware of women's history has blindspots. As such, I also write to help educate my fellow men who may need some more information to address our own blindspots. As for the women who may or may not read this blog I assume in many cases there are elements of this you'll know more of than I will. If so, I welcome the checks and extra information you may provide and if there's something new here as well, even better.
With that in mind, let's talk about Amazons.
 |
| I do not blame you for thinking of Wonder Woman here. No I do not. |
No, not that particular amazon. She's awesome but no.
 |
| Nubia. Do yourself a favor and look her up. |
Women have always fought. In every war, in every conflict everywhere, some where if you dig deep enough you'll find women on the battlefield and my consistent theory to this day is that the modern desire to keep women out of combat roles is a ploy to hide the idea that the women may just be better at war. The Dahomey Amazons put that idea into brutal practice. Most accounts claim they started as either a tribe of elite elephant hunters or the personal royal guard of the king of Dahomey. Some say both things are true. Other accounts suggest that originally, these women were the 3rd or 4th tier wives of the king who acted as body guards and police within the kingdom. In their time they were known for their ruthlessness, ability to withstand pain and their utter fearlessness in battle.
Fighting with spears, knives and razor sharp double edged machetes these women were trained and fought just as hard as their male counterparts according to some accounts harder, enduring pain and physical rigors that even the male recruits didn't deal with.
The Dahomey were strict and disciplined to a level that would have had them on par with or surpassing pretty much every military ever. Essentially the women were all married to the king but since he never took them to his bed, military service essentially rendered the Amazons celibate (there were rumors of the women's sexual voraciousness but these were callous and malicious lies and propaganda). Furthermore, any man who so much as touched a member of this all female military force was put to death. That said, it wasn't just the king conscripting women for his miltary units here. Many women voluntarily joined to avoid rocky marriages, poor prospects financially or if they just decided they'd rather be cutting heads off the enemies of the country rather than doing housework. Retreating from battle was forbidden.
These women warriors were so dangerous, trained and skilled they allowed Dahomey to hold up and best enemies with far superior numbers. The only thing that kept them from continuing to to be unmitigated and unquestionably militarily dominant was the European colonialization of Africa and the French attacking repelling them with gattling guns and canons. The Dahomey had outdated flintlock muskets, spears and machetes. If it weren't for that massive difference in tech it's doubtful they'd have fared so well.
There's a lot more to talk about here. These ladies are far too fascinating to confine to a blog post I'm trying (and admittedly failing) to keep short. I encourage you all to go out learn more about them and to find out more about other female warriors throughout history and around the world. Tomorrow we put down the swords and pick up the camera as we turn our attention to a famous starlet with beauty, class and brains to match.
No comments:
Post a Comment