Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey
Stanley B. Alpern1998

History is rife with tales of fighting women. More often than not, these stories prove more legend than history. Dating back to the Amazons of ancient Asia Minor, myths of fierce, autonomous women of martial excellence abound. The only thoroughly documented amazons in world history are those who fought for the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Yet no book had appeared about them in English until Stanley Alpern filled that surprising and deplorable gap with Amazons of Black Sparta, a fact-filled narrative. Originally palace guards, the Dahomean amazons evolved into royal bodyguards and, by the 1760s or 70s, into professional troops armed mainly with muskets, machetes and clubs. Theoretically wives of the king and quartered in his palaces, they were sworn to celibacy. In compensation they enjoyed a semi-sacred status and numerous privileges, including their own slaves. In the 1840s, the number of amazons swelled from hundreds to as many as 6,000 as Dahomey sought to offset a huge manpower advantage held by its chief trading rivals, the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria. Under Gezo, Dahomey s greatest king (1818-58), the previously topless women warriors were dressed in uniforms and became the frontline shock troops of the army, a role they would perform with distinction until the kingdom's final defeat by France in 1892. They served in their own units under their own women officers, with their own marching bands, flags and insignia. Intensively trained, they outdrilled, outshot and outfought their more numerous male comrades. Renowned for their ferocity and fearlessness, they terrified neighboring peoples, and proved the martial potential of women in general. The product of meticulous archival research, Amazons of Black Sparta is defined by Alpern's gift for narrative and will stand as the most comprehensive and accessible account of the woman warriors of Dahomey.