The Kingdom of Dahomey
Armed women with the King at their head, going to war. 1793
The history of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom of Africa - New York Public Library.
Illustration by Archibad Dalzel
Much of the early history of the Kingdom of Dahomey was passed down through oral traditions. Written records about the kingdom appear starting in 1716.[1] Most of that information was collected by European foreigners such as traders, missionaries, and the military.
The Kingdom of Dahomey had an unlimited monarchy which included a king and a queen mother or kpojito. In the 1700’s, the kpojito was one of the wives of the previous ruler who was selected by a newly crowned king for her support in aiding the prince in becoming the new king.[2] These women wielded an immense amount of political power, were very wealthy, and held their own court which paralleled the kings in organization.[3]
“The palace population of women was a cross-section of Dahomean society that included slaves and war captives, free-born commoners, women from the upper classes and from various branches of the royal family and, at least in the late nineteenth century, sisters and daughters of the reigning king.”[4] Anyone who resided in the palace was considered the wife or dependent of the king. The women held various jobs in society to benefit both themselves and the king.[5]
[1] Stanley B. Alpern, Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 19.
[2] Edna G. Bay, “Belief, Legitimacy and the Kpojito: An Institutional History of the 'Queen Mother' in Precolonial Dahomey.” The Journal of African History 36, no. 1 (January 1, 1995): 2.
[3] Bay, Belief, 8.
[4] Bay, Belief, 7.
[5] Ibid., 7.