The Warriors
“As the blacksmith takes an iron bar and by fire changes its fashion so have we changed our nature. We are no longer women, we are men.”[1] This song fragment epitomizes the extreme changes that the women warriors of Dahomey went through to become elite personal guards and soldiers of the king. This process took them away from their families and submerged them into a closed society, which would challenge their core beliefs on womanhood and transform them into ferocious fighters who attacked without fear or pity.
[1] Robert Edgerton, Warrior Women: The Amazons Of Dahomey And The Nature Of War. (Basic Books, 2000): 26.
[1] Robert Edgerton, Warrior Women: The Amazons Of Dahomey And The Nature Of War. (Basic Books, 2000): 26.