August first is Independence Day in Benin, so we’d like to share a little piece of Beninese history with you!
The people in this photo are a military regiment called Agojie - sometimes referred to as Dahomey Amazons by Europeans. The Agojie were soldiers in the army of Dahomey - now Benin - in West Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Agojie were all assigned female at birth but they expressed their gender in a variety of ways. Some renounced womanhood, and identified themselves as men. At other times, the group embraced womanhood in their war songs, comparing themselves to lionesses, and linking womanhood to their superiority over male regiments.
Numbering around 8000 at their height in the 1840, the Agojie were renowned for their fearlessness in battle, and considered the backbone of the Dahomean army.
Check out our podcast to learn more!
[Image source: Wikimedia commons]
