The Women Who Went to War: The Untold Story of Tassi Hangbé and the Agojie of Dahomey

The statue of a woman, a warrior with weapons in her hands, stands facing the Presidential Palace in Cotonou, Benin. The woman looks as if she is ready for battle, and her bronzed body towers over the surrounding area at 30 metres high.

This monument stands at an impressive 30 metres tall.

To the passing visitor, it looks like just another big African monument.

But she represents something much deeper.

She is a warrior memorializing the Agojie, female soldiers who were part of the military might of the ancient Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful in West Africa.

Dahomey’s female warrior corps was also inspired by the woman Tassi Hangbé who has been traditionally associated with its early development.

This is the story of women, of power, of war, of politics, of courage and of of great sacrifice and it is a huge part of African history that is largely overlooked.

Before Benin was Benin, there was Dahomey

Benin as we know it today didn’t exist. Instead, there was the powerful Kingdom of Dahomey, also known as Danxomè in the native language. The kingdom was established in the 17th century in what is today southern Benin. It was a highly militarized and organized kingdom that went to war with its neighbors to expand its territory.

It was in the 17th century that the Kingdom of Dahomey, also known as Danxomè, was established in the region where the present day Republic of Benin is located.

Dahomey was a highly organised and militarised kingdom.

When later the Kingdom of Benin was conquered by the French in 1892, the territory became a French Colony known as French Dahomey, in 1960 Dahomey became the independent Republic of Benin.

It was within this environment of constant warfare and military expansion that something remarkable developed:

women became soldiers.

Not ceremonial guards.

Not simply palace attendants.

Not women standing behind the men.

They fought.

They trained.

They guarded the royal palace.

They went into battle.

And many of them died on the battlefield.

Most of the European visitors who stumbled upon these warrior women were awestruck to the point of comparing them to the Amazons of Greek mythology.

This is where the Western term “Amazon” originated.

But "Amazon" was not their original name.

There were other names for these women too. The Fon term for them included Agojie/Agojié, and Mino/Minon. The term Mino, was commonly used to refer to ‘our mothers’.

So while Europeans called these female fighters Amazons, they were known and recognized by their own names and identity within their history and tradition.

Then came Tassi Hangbé

One of the personalities interesting to read is that of Tassi Hangbé.

She was a daughter of King Houegbadja and a twin sister of King Akaba.

Her life and reign are traditionally recorded and an account of her as King has been preserved for us by oral tradition. For this reason, the early history of Dahomey has many versions.

But one thing makes Hangbé extraordinary:

She is remembered as the only woman to have held the throne of Dahomey.

Beninese historical tradition reports that after the death of her twin brother King Akaba Hangbé became the leader of Dahomey approximately 1708–1711 years ago.

Reports from Benin also confirm that for about three years Tassi Hangbé, the twin sister of the King ruled the Kingdom.

The Beninese government dates her reign to approximately 1708–1711.

And this is where her story becomes particularly fascinating.

The woman who reportedly led women into battle

After King Akaba’s death his sister was left to manage the palace and help get Houegbadja’s women into battle.

By another account of her, Tassi Hangbé even dressed up as her deceased brother and went to battle with her soldiery.

Her victory reportedly helped establish her authority.

Much more important to know about Hangbé, the legendary queen, are the stories about the women warriors she organized to fight for the kingdom and its palace.

Tassi Hangbé is remembered in Benin as one of the founders of the Agojie, the female warriors of the Kingdom of Dahomey.

But there is a fascinating historical caveat.

Is Hangbé really the mother of all the Agojie warriors?

Some sources suggest the traditions of female warrior combatants in Dahomey may have dated back even earlier.

In other sources even female war fighters from Dahomey in the 16th century are spoken of as having been organized by women into a war fighters' corps. They are said to have been female professional elephant hunters, called Gbeto, or women that Hangbê, long before the Agojie, had organized as a corps of palace guards.

Therefore the legend of the founding of the Agojie by Tassi Hangbé should not be confused with the historical facts, even if some historians are leaning towards the proof that this woman invented the female warriors.

Tradition in Benin, where Hangbé originated, credits this woman and her contemporaries with the founding of the female warriors of the Agojie, while historians search for the precursors of this famous military corps.

So there is uncertainty about this story and that is what is even more interesting.

From palace guards to a feared military force

Women in Dahomey fought in various roles as the kingdom developed.

The women fighters went from being palace guards to becoming a major component of Dahomey’s military force during the reign of King Ghezo (1818–1858).

Ghezo reorganised the women of the female military corps in order to arm them even more in order to greatly increase their numbers and form a great part of the Dahomean army, from that time onwards the Agojie became a permanent force of great military value, that was used for all wars.

Trained to fight using both modern firearms as well as more traditional local weapons.

Some served as palace guards.

Others fought on the front lines.

They also served as hunters, scouts and soldiers.

Their military discipline became legendary.

European visitors were astonished at the presence of women on the battlefield.

You expect a male-dominated space on the battle field of a West African kingdom in the 19th century and are astonished to find an organized military force consisting entirely of women on the palace grounds.

That was the reality of Dahomey.

But their history is much more than just female empowerment on the battlefield.

This is where the history becomes more complicated.

It is easy today to tell the story of the Agojie as “African women who defeated the patriarchy and became warriors.”

"Female African Warriors Defeat the Patriarchy to Become Soldiers."

But history is rarely that simple.

The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful military state that was involved in many wars and battles to extend its territory. As a powerful military state Dahomey was also involved in the slave trade.

Yes, some of the Agojie fought in battles where they took prisoners, who were later sold into slavery.

Many of the women were conscripted or forcibly recruited into the female corps. This makes a big difference to how we can characterize the Agojie.

So the Agojie can simultaneously be understood as:

highly skilled female soldiers, symbols of women's participation in the military, and of the Dahomean kingdom's defense; women who were part of a kingdom at war with the slave trade.

It all makes very interesting reading and gives greater depth to the history of the Agojie.

Why did Dahomey need women soldiers?

There was another practical reason.

Dahomey was constantly at war.

As had happened to many other African Kingdoms, the constant wars fought by Dahomey would take a big toll on its male population over time. Many women would join the armed forces in order to help protect the Kingdom and it would eventually become a vast army of women.

Under King Ghezo, the female corps expanded dramatically.

While it is difficult to obtain information on the exact number of women fighting in the army, thousands of them were involved. In accordance with the French government’s heritage publication Chemins de mémoire, under King Ghezo women represented about 25-30% of Dahomey’s armed forces.

This was not a symbolic army.

They were professional combatants.

And they fought.

The battles with the French

The battle had finally arrived for Dahomey’s female warriors: they were to face off against an enemy equipped with far greater and more varied weapons and military technology than their own.

That enemy was France.

By the late 19th century, France had expanded its colonial control over most of West Africa.

Dahomey resisted.

The female warrior fought alongside the male soldier during the Franco-Dahomean Wars.

Their final campaigns were devastating.

The French had better armed troops in 1892 when they clashed with Dahomey’s forces.

Even though the women of the Agojie fought bravely in the last of the kingdom’s battles, they were no match for the vastly superior technology of the French.

The Agojie in their last military battles.

Dahomey eventually fell under French colonial control.

The kingdom that had so proudly marched thousands of its female population to the battlefield, was finally defeated.

And then history almost forgot them

One of the saddest things about this story is what happened next.

Colonial narratives of the female fighters of Dahomey were often published by European observers and today read by historians with the exoticizing commentary stripped away.

They became "Amazons."

The name was dramatic.

It was memorable.

Also, linking the African women to a European myth instead of portraying them in their entirety.

Historians and academics interested in old historical events have written about the Agojie for decades but the story has remained largely unknown outside of their small circle of interest.

Films, books, and documentaries, as well as a renewed interest in history focusing on Africa, have recently started to reappear the Agojie women in public discourse.

The 2022 film The Woman King inspired in part by the Agojie brings the historical female warriors to the attention of a much wider public around the world.

But the real history behind the movie is far more complicated than what is portrayed on the screen.

This history is worth telling.

And then there is the giant woman standing in Cotonou

Today, we can find a huge monument of Cotonou.

On the Esplanade des Amazones, near the Atlantic Ocean, right behind the Palais de la Marina in Cotonou, stands the Monument Amazone.

It was inaugurated on 30 July 2022.

30 meters (or 102 feet) tall without counting the base of the statue, over 150 tons, the metal structure supporting the statue is covered with bronze.

The monument does not represent one woman, it represents all the female warriors of Dahomey.

Important: this is not a statue of Tassi Hangbé the Queen.

The statue is not Tassi Hangbé.

Many online users mistook the huge bronze structure for a giant portrait of Dahomey’s Queen Tassi Hangbé when photos of the Statue under construction surfaced on the net.

The misconceived perception has been clarified by Benin’s public broadcaster that this huge bronze monument represents the Amazone/Agojie warrior, not Dahomey Queen Tassi Hangbé as misinterpreted when pictures of the under-construction monument surfaced online.

That distinction matters.

Because the statue is bigger than one queen.

It represents generations of women who served in the military tradition of Dahomey.

A statue facing the seat of power

There is another symbolic thing: the Amazon Monument stands a few hundred meters away from the Boulevard de la Marina, near the seat of the presidential palace, and faces it.

It is placed near the Boulevard de la Marina, in front of the presidential palace.

A woman warrior today stands near the popular Boulevard de la Marina looking over towards the presidential palace.

Historically, women fought to protect the Kingdom of Dahomey.

Today their image stands out in the heart of modern Cotonou.

It is almost as though history has come full circle.

The palace guards of yesterday have become the monumental guardians of memory today.

What should we remember about Tassi Hangbé?

Hopefully the press does not go overboard and creates an ‘legend’ out of Tassi Hangbé.

She was a woman who lived in a complicated period of African history.

Her kingdom was powerful.

It was militarised.

It was involved in regional warfare.

And it was connected to the slave trade.

And yet it was in the midst of this complex past that the woman found her way to the throne and, through her legacy, became the forerunner of a military tradition culminating in the well-known female fighting force of African history.

Her story may challenge many people’s understanding of history of African women because although in many cultures men rule and women watch, African history shows many instances of women ruling, becoming hunters, being soldiers and playing other major roles as political actors and being in control of power.

Women were rulers.

Women were hunters.

Women were soldiers.

Women were political actors.

Women could stand at the centre of power.

And sometimes, they went to war.

The women behind the monument

Thus, the next time you pass Cotonou, do not only stop to look at the enormous bronze warrior in front of the monument of the Amazon.

Look beyond the word "Amazon."

Think of Danxomè.

Think of Tassi Hangbé.

Think of the women known as Agojie and Mino.

The palace guards, the trackers, the soldiers and the generals – all of them female – had trained for war long before they were called upon to fight it.

Think of the battles they fought.

There were thousands of women like this who history has never even bothered to record their names.

Also, the vast legacy of a woman in bronze does not have to be transformed into a saint. History can be remembered perfectly well with all the human features of the people who lived in their time.

Remembering history does not have to be done by turning historical figures into saints or villains. They are and were human beings who lived in their own time and made their own choices and decisions to serve their kingdoms and have fought their wars.

That woman in bronze is not simply a statue.

She is a reminder.

That African women have been part of Africa’s political and military history for centuries.

A reminder that the past is much bigger than the stories we were taught.

It is also a reminder that some of the most powerful voices from the past were able to survive without ever being written down!