BEWARE THE MINO

The Mino warriors were brave and ruthless. A formidable all-female military regiment in the Kingdom of Dahomey, West Africa (modern-day Benin), these women struck fear into the hearts of their enemies and those who observed them.

There are a couple of different stories regarding the founding of the kingdom, with one tradition claiming that it was founded around 1625 by Do-Aklin. Likewise, there are several theories about the origins of the Mino warriors themselves, stories that have been passed down either through oral history or taken from the written sources of contemporary European colonists. These Europeans referred to the Mino as the ‘Dahomey Amazons’, taking the name from the race of women warriors in Greek mythology. However, the term ‘Mino’, the word for ‘our mothers’ in their native Fon language, is used to refer to these women today.

It is frequently claimed that the Mino was formed when women became bodyguards to either King Houegbadja or to his younger