The Woman King, written by Dana Stevens, is set in Dahomey (located in present-day Benin) during the 1820s.
Dahomey was tiny
It was a small kingdom in the northeastern corner of what is now the country of Benin. The area was called “The Slave Coast” because that is where many enslaved African were kidnapped and taken to be sold off America
King Gezo built up their numbers.
A popular rumor is of King Gezo who ruled from 1818-1858. He was so impressed by the gbeto hunters that he complimented them publicly
We don’t know where they came from.
One tale says they were wives of a 16th-century king. He made a security force of the ones he deemed “ugly” and who could not have children
The Amazons may also have huntress origins.
The other rumor is that the tribe had teams of women hunters called gbeto. One French naval officer wrote that he witnessed 20 gbeto go into a herd of 40 elephants.
Each Dahomey soldier was celibate.
They were married to the king, but the king never slept with them so that was that! However, this rule only fueled the rumor that the women became men after their first kill.
Dahomey was tiny
It was a small kingdom in the northeastern corner of what is now the country of Benin. The area was called “The Slave Coast” because that is where many enslaved African were kidnapped and taken to be sold off America.
These facts should also send you to the history books. There have got to be more stories out there about warrior women, right? Oh, there are and some of those stories are more extraordinarily