The Women Soldiers Of Dahomey

by UNESCO (Editor)

1 pages, Paperback

Published November 13, 2015

About the author

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (in French, L'Organisation des Nations unies pour l’éducation, la science et la culture) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. Its stated purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law and human rights including the fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter. Projects sponsored by UNESCO include literacy, technical, and teacher-training programmes; international science programmes; the promotion of independent media and freedom of the press; regional and cultural history projects; the promotion of cultural diversity; international cooperation agreements to secure the world cultural and natural heritage (World Heritage Sites) and to preserve human rights, as well as attempts to bridge the worldwide digital divide.

Reviews

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dahomey female warriors are the fictionalized subjects of the 2022 quasi-historical epic film The Woman King, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. After enjoying this captivating film featuring a strong screen performance by Viola Davis, I became interested to read more on the accurate history. This 44-page UNESCO pamphlet has at its core comics-style panels by Pat Masioni and text by Sylvia Serbin. As is related, Dahomey, reeling from male population loss and having huntresses that had basically exterminated the regional elephant population using them as the kernel of an all-woman military unit in the 17th Century. Rising in drilled proficiency and number the successful corps came to include multiple units specific to weaponry. That majority were musketeers despite the implicit bias toward edged weapons suggested in the film.

[Link to a PDF of the pamphlet which appears to be out of print.]