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Amazons of Black Sparta - The Women Warriors of Dahomey (Paperback, 2nd Revised edition)
Loot Price: R457
Discovery Miles 4 570
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Amazons of Black Sparta - The Women Warriors of Dahomey (Paperback, 2nd Revised edition)
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Loot Price R457
Discovery Miles 4 570
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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History is rife with tales of fighting women. More often than not,
these stories prove more legend than history. Dating back to the
Amazons of ancient Asia Minor, myths of fierce, autonomous women of
martial excellence abound. And yet, the only thoroughly documented
Amazons in world history are the women warriors of Dahomey, an
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western African kingdom. Once
dubbed a "small black Sparta," residents of Dahomey shared with the
Spartans an intense militarism and sense of collectivism. Moreover,
the women of both kingdoms prided themselves on bodies hardened
from childhood by rigorous physical exercise. But Spartan women
kept in shape to breed male warriors, Dahomean Amazons to kill
them. Originally palace guards, the Amazons had evolved by the
1760s into professional troops armed mainly with muskets, machetes
and clubs. Theoretically wives of the king and quartered in his
palaces, they were sworn to celibacy on pain of death. In
compensation they enjoyed a semi-sacred status and numerous
privileges, including the right to own slaves. By the 1840s their
numbers had grown to 6,000. The Amazons served under female
officers and had their own bands, flags and insignia: they
outdrilled, outshot and outfought men, became frontline troops and
fought tenaciously and with great valour till the kingdom's defeat
by France in 1892. The product of meticulous archival research,
Amazons of Black Sparta is defined by Alpern's gift for narrative
and will stand as the most comprehensive and accessible account of
the woman warriors of Dahomey.
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