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The Dahomey Amazons or Nonmiton, which means "our mothers," were an all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey in the present-day Republic of Benin which lasted until the end of the 19th century. #CelebratingWomen
King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Amazons as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto.
Houegbadja's son King Agaja (ruling from 1708 to 1732) established a female bodyguard armed with muskets. European merchants recorded their presence. 
Agaja developed the bodyguard into a militia and successfully used them in Dahomey's defeat of the neighbouring kingdom of Savi in 1727. By then there were about 3000 Amazons in the all-female militia.
Membership among the Nonmiton was designed to hone aggressive character traits for the purpose of war. Amazons were not allowed to have children or be part of married life. Many of them were virgins. The regiment had a semi-sacred status, intertwined with the Fon belief in Vodun.
The Nonmiton trained with intense physical exercise. They learnt survival skills and indifference to pain and death, storming acacia-thorn defenses in military exercises and executing prisoners. Discipline was emphasised.
The last survivor of the Dahomey Amazons is thought to have been a woman named Nawi. In a 1978 interview with a Beninese historian, she claimed to have fought the French in 1892. She died in November 1979, aged well over 100.
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