An interesting article from the Smithsonian giving a brief overview of the female soldiers of Dahomey:

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/09/dahomeys-women-warriors/

^^^^Why don't you want to post the pictures?

Women have always played important roles in African cultures, and we are the first race of people to worship goddesses..

shymmex: ^^^^Why don't you want to post the pictures?

What do you mean?

[img]http://1.2.3.12/bmi/blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/files/2011/09/Amazon-with-severed-head-347x500.jpg[/img]

[img]http://1.2.3.13/bmi/blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/files/2011/09/Amazon-officers1-305x500.jpg[/img]


[img]http://1.2.3.10/bmi/blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/files/2011/09/Gezo-king-of-Dahomey.jpg[/img]

PhysicsQED:

What do you mean?

Post the full article, including the pictures of these iconic women..

^^^
The reason I didn't is because it's full of hyperlinks that give additional information on places, people and things mentioned, and there's also a discussion in the comments section where the author gives some additional information due to a comment from someone else. I thought it made more sense to read everything in context and with additional information so I left it as it was. If you want to post the article complete with the hyperlinks, pictures, and comments, that's fine. I didn't think it was necessary though.

These women were pretty badass.

Description: Dahomey Amazons
Date: c. 1890
Source: ALPERN, Stanley B. Amazons of Black Sparta : The Women Warriors of Dahomey

^^^^Are they the same women that almost defeated the Yoruba calvary army?

I also heard that they were brutal against the Egbas..

shymmex: ^^^^Are they the same women that almost defeated the Yoruba calvary army?

I also heard that they were brutal against the Egbas..

Dahomey invaded Ketu (Yoruba) and defeated them more than once, although I don't think Ketu used horses in warfare, but Oyo's cavalry invaded and defeated Dahomey multiple times.

This link gives a brief overview of Oyo vs. Dahomey:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Bn3OLJa9DFoC&pg=PA137


On the Egbas, my understanding is that the Egbas defeated them in 1851 and 1864 when Dahomey invaded (Abeokuta was a fortified city at that time).

Couldn't have this great women be called something different from the Amazons?. The amazon is not usually associated with West Africa, I think in Brazil.

Well they were not really called Amazons within their society or by other Africans that came across them. European visitors in the 18th century labeled them Amazons after the women warriors of the Greek myth and the label stuck.

There's always something fascinating about women warriors especially of old. How did their husbands react, relate with and treat them?or they were young unmarried maidens?

ifyalways: There's always something fascinating about women warriors especially of old. How did their husbands react, relate with and treat them?or they were young unmarried maidens?

Nice one.
The women warriors of old for example, the women from Umuahia and Aba regions that carried out Aba Womens revolution of 1928-29, were mostly married women. The husbands of this women who caused the Aba revolution had a second thought about them. Belief, respect, trust and dignity set in from the men's angle. It wasn't long after that that the likes of Margaret Ekpo emerged in the east. It wasn't a surprise that during the Biafran war, some of this women could go to the war front to play different roles.

the dahomey warriors were all considered the king's personal combatants and werent allowed to marry, for the most part, with a few exceptions.

PhysicsQED: An interesting article from the Smithsonian giving a brief overview of the female soldiers of Dahomey:

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/09/dahomeys-women-warriors/

Always nice to learn a new piece of history every day on Nairaland…Wow, these women were beasts !!! I remember Dahomey being mentioned in passing in my history classes a few years ago but I never took the time to delve deeper as I was interested in reading other things….going through its history was interesting to say the least since I was reading it for the first time but am appalled at the extent of human sacrifice and slave trade. It was quite unpopular with its neighbors because of its cruelty…in one instance sacrificing some 4000 people after conquering their Kingdom. Reminds me of Mayan “civilization”. It’s clear those who were sold to slavery were the "luckier" ones as the alternative was human sacrifice or simply execution. Let me ask, can someone explain why human sacrifice was so prevalent in some west African states? Is there an anthropological explanation on origin of these heinous crimes? I’m sure they didn’t even consider it a crime. Did they borrow the practice from a single source for example? While I admire the level of organization of this state, it must have been the most terrifying place to live in at that time. And the “insensitivity training” was just too cruel!!!!!!!!!

I don't know about 4,000 (who was counting?), but yeah they were into sacrifice.

I'm not quite sure what motivated the sacrifice aspect of their society, although it's something I've also thought about.