Also known as Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh

“Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, meaning “God Speaks True” in Fon, was a leader of the Dahomey Amazon army in the Bight of Benin region. These female soldiers were known as ahosi. This image shows her in war uniform, holding rifle in one hand and decapitated head of enemy in the other. According to Forbes, “the amazons are not supposed to marry. . . All dress alike, diet alike. . . what the males do, the amazons will endeavor to surpass. They all take great care of their arms, polish the barrels, and, except when on duty, keep them in covers. There is no duty at the palace, except when the king is in public, and then a guard of amazons protect the royal person. . . The amazons are in barracks within the palace enclosure, and under the care of eunuchs. . . In every [military] action (with males and females), there is some reference to cutting off heads” (vol. 1, pp. 23-24). For a modern study of amazons, see Robert Edgerton, Warrior Women: The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of War (Westview Press, 2000). Frederick E. Forbes went to Dahomey on a British anti-slavery mission in 1849 and 1850. On his first voyage, he “rescued” an Egbado princess, Sara Forbes Bonetta, whom he “gifted” to Queen Victoria.” Quote Article Link

The image above comes from Frederick E. Forbes' Dahomey and the Dahomans, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,London 1851. It is his travel journal. On page 24 he begins describing the Dahomey Amazons, discussing the way in which they would dance around a victim while “sawing” his head off, thus the picture of her standing there with a decapitated head.

Agbidinoukoun's barebones introduction of Ahangbe was considerably augmented in 1949 by Anatole Coissy (a/k/a Coyssi), a Dahomean school director, writing in Etudes Dahomeennes. He said that on Akaba's death (generally dated to 1708), Ahangbe was ap- pointed regent because Akaba's designated successor, his son Agbo- Sassa, was still a minor. (This contradicted Agbidinoukoun, who said Akaba exceptionally chose his brother Dosu as his heir to avoid any conflict between his and Ahangbe's sons.22) Ahangbe's regency lasted only three months. A court faction resenting her bacchanalian life-style assassinated her only son. She resigned the regency in melodramatic fashion, stripping before the throne council and pub- licly washing her private parts in a gesture of vast contempt. Dosu/ Agaja then took over and later thwarted Agbo-Sassa's efforts to ob- tain the crown.“ The story implies that Ahangbe became an official non-person because she opposed Agaja's irregular ascension to the throne.” (13) Source: Alpern, Stanley B.

This is further supported by Suzanne Blier who confirms that Tassi-Hangbe (name variation) was a ruler. “Whatever the answer, today it is Huegbadja's wife's tohuio, Aligbonu, who is worshipped by this king's descendants as the ancestress of the royal dynasty, for she is the tohujo of his children, the early rulers Akaba, Tassi- Hangbe and Agadja” (Blier 409).

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