The historical setting
The emergence of an all-female military regiment was the result of Dahomey's male population facing high casualties in the increasingly frequent violence and warfare with neighbouring West African states. This led to Dahomey being one of the leading states in the slave trade with the Oyo Empire, which used slaves for commodity exchange in West Africa until the slave trade in the region was ended through British pressure. The lack of men likely led the kings of Dahomey to recruit women into the army. The formation of a female-only army unit was a retaliation and maneuver around the forced tribute of male slaves to Oyo each year.
King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would later become the Mino as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto.
Recruitment
Ghezo recruited both men and women as soldiers from foreign captives. Female soldiers were also recruited from free Dahomean women, with some enrolled from as young as eight years of age. Other accounts indicate that the Mino were recruited from among the ahosi ("king's wives"), of which there were often hundreds. Some women in Fon society became soldiers voluntarily, while others were involuntarily enrolled if their husbands or fathers complained to the king about their behaviour. Membership among the Mino was supposed to hone any aggressive character traits for the purpose of war. During their membership they were not allowed to have children or be part of married life (though they were legally married to the king). Many of them were virgins.
The regiment had a semi-sacred status, which was intertwined with the Fon belief in Vodun. Oral Dahomean tradition holds that, upon recruitment, the Amazons were subjected to female circumcision. The Mino trained with intense physical exercise. They learned survival skills and indifference to pain and death, storming acacia-thorn defences in military exercises and executing prisoners. Discipline was emphasised. Serving in the Mino offered women the opportunity to "rise to positions of command and influence" in an environment structured for individual empowerment.
Organization, weapons, and court politics
The Mino took a prominent role in the Grand Council, debating the policy of the kingdom. From the 1840s to 1870s (when the opposing party collapsed), the majority of Mino generally supported peace with the Egba of Abeokuta arguing instead to raid smaller, less defended tribes. This set them at odds with their male military colleagues, who supported a full-on assault of Abeokuta. Civilian council members who allied with the Agojie also advocated for stronger commercial relations with Britain, favouring the trade of palm oil above that of slaves. Apart from the council, the Annual Customs of Dahomey included a parade and reviewing of the troops, and the troops swearing an oath to the king.
The celebrations on the 27th day of the Annual Customs consisted of a mock battle in which the Agojie attacked a "fort" and "captured" the slaves within, a custom recorded by the priest Francesco Borghero in his diaries. The women soldiers were rigorously trained in pain, endurance and speed. Once training was completed they were given uniforms. By the mid-19th century, they numbered between 1,000 and 6,000 women, about a third of the entire Dahomey army, according to reports written by visitors.
First Franco-Dahomean War
The European encroachment into West Africa gained pace during the latter half of the 19th century, and in 1890 King Béhanzin started fighting French forces in the course of the First Franco-Dahomean War. European observers noted that the women "handled admirably" in hand-to-hand combat, but fired their flintlocks from the hip rather than firing from the shoulder. The Mino participated in one major battle: Cotonou, where thousands of Dahomeans (including many Mino) charged the French lines and engaged the defenders in hand-to-hand combat. The Mino were decisively crushed, with several hundred Dahomey troops being gunned down. Reportedly, 129 Dahomey fighters were killed in melee combat within the French lines.
By the end of the Second Franco-Dahomean War, special units of the Mino were being assigned specifically to target French officers. After several battles, the French prevailed in the Second Franco-Dahomean War and put an end to the independent Dahomean kingdom. French soldiers, particularly of the French Foreign Legion, were impressed by the boldness of the Amazons and later wrote about their "incredible courage and audacity" in combat. Against a military unit with decidedly superior weaponry and a longer bayonet, however, the Dahomey Mino could not prevail.