The last amazon
She was born in the 1870s, when King Glele ruled Dahomey and the kingdom was at the height of its power. She joined the Mino -- the all-female military corps that Europeans called the Dahomey Amazons -- as a young woman. She fought the French invasion in 1892 and 1894, charging colonial machine guns with nothing but courage and a machete.
And she lived to tell the story.
Nawi, the last surviving Dahomey Amazon, died in November 1979 in the village of Kinta, in what is now the Republic of Benin. She was well over 100 years old. A year before her death, she was interviewed by a Beninese historian. Her testimony is the last direct voice we have from the legendary Mino.
Who was Nawi?
Very little is known about Nawi's early life. She was born in the Dahomey heartland, likely on the Abomey plateau, during the reign of King Glele (1858-1889). The Fon people of southern Benin have never kept the kind of written birth records that would pin down a precise date, but historians estimate she was born around 1875 to 1880.
As a young woman, she was enrolled in the Mino -- the royal female corps that served as both the king's bodyguard and an elite fighting force. By the 1880s, the Mino numbered between 4,000 and 6,000 women. They included:
- Ahosi ("king's wives") -- women married symbolically to the king, who formed the core of the corps
- Recruits -- women drafted from across the kingdom
- Captives -- women taken in war who chose military service
Nawi would have undergone rigorous training: weapons handling, hand-to-hand combat, endurance marching, and psychological hardening. The Mino were not ceremonial troops. They were professional soldiers.
The war against France
In 1890, France and Dahomey went to war. Nawi was likely in her late teens or early twenties. The First Franco-Dahomean War ended inconclusively, but both sides knew a second round was coming.
It came in 1892. The Second Franco-Dahomean War was one of the most brutal colonial conflicts in West Africa. The French had modern rifles, machine guns, and artillery. The Dahomey army had rifles too, but far fewer, and many Mino still fought with machetes, bows, and captured weapons.
Nawi fought in this war. In her 1978 interview, she described charging French positions, the chaos of battle, and the courage of her fellow Mino. She did not describe the horrors she must have seen -- the women cut down by grapeshot, the bodies left to rot in the jungle, the final French march on Abomey.
She didn't need to. The facts speak for themselves. The Mino fought with a ferocity that terrified the French. They charged into machine-gun fire. They refused to surrender. They died in hundreds.
When King Behanzin surrendered in January 1894, the war was over. The kingdom was gone. The Mino were disbanded. Women who had spent their adult lives as warriors had to find a new way to live.
Life after the kingdom
Most former Mino returned to their villages or found refuge in the households of former officers and nobles. Some found husbands and started families -- something they had been forbidden to do during their service. The institution that had defined their lives simply ceased to exist.
Nawi settled in Kinta, a village in the Zou department of Benin, not far from the old Dahomey heartland. She lived quietly, as an old woman in a rural village. The world changed around her.
Dahomey became the French colony of Dahomey. Then it became the independent Republic of Dahomey in 1960. Then it became the Republic of Benin in 1975. Colonial rule came and went. Independence came and went. And through it all, Nawi remained.
By the 1970s, the Dahomey Amazons had become famous worldwide. Hollywood films, historical books, and African pride movements all told their story. But the women who had actually lived that story were almost all gone. Nawi was one of the very last.
The 1978 interview
In 1978, a Beninese historian travelled to Kinta to meet Nawi. She was already over 100 years old, but her mind was clear. She agreed to be interviewed and to share her memories of the Mino.
The interview is the only known recorded testimony of a Dahomey Amazon. In it, Nawi confirmed that she had fought in the war against the French in 1892. She described the Mino's training, their discipline, and their loyalty to the king.
She was asked if she had been afraid. Her answer was not recorded in the historical texts that survive, but the question itself suggests the answer. She had charged French machine guns with a machete. What did she have to fear from an interviewer?
It was the interview that brought Nawi to wider attention. Stanley Alpern, the British historian who wrote the definitive English-language study of the Dahomey Amazons, learned of her and helped document her story for an international audience. Alpern's book, Amazons of Black Sparta, remains the most comprehensive account of the Mino, and Nawi's testimony is a crucial part of it.
Death and legacy
Nawi died in November 1979 in Kinta. She was, by the most careful estimates, between 100 and 110 years old. Her death marked the end of an era. With her passed the last living connection to the Mino warriors.
But her legacy is complicated. She was a warrior in a kingdom that practised slavery and human sacrifice. She fought for a system that was, by modern standards, brutal. But she was also a woman who defied every expectation of what women could do. She was a soldier, a veteran, and a survivor.
In modern Benin, the Mino are celebrated as national heroes. Monuments honour them. The Women's Museum in Abomey includes their story. The international success of The Woman King (2022) brought their story to millions. But Nawi's voice -- the voice of an actual Mino -- is irreplaceable.
She was the last to speak for them.
Explore further: The Mino Amazons of Dahomey -- the full history of the female warriors · Did the Dahomey Amazons have children? -- the rules of Mino life · Dahomey vs Kingdom of Benin · The Woman King historical accuracy · Queen Hangbe
Plan your visit
Walk the land where Nawi once trained and fought. Our complete travel guide covers Abomey's royal palaces, the Women's Museum, and the living heritage of the Fon kingdom.