The Rise of Women: Story of Abdaraya Toya and Jean-Jacques Dessalines

The world would not have been a better place for a person to live in if women were non-existent. The female gender plays a critical role in the world and our societies in general. They are the mothers to the world, the helpers in marriages and without them, most activities in our homes such as chores, cleaning, and cooking would not run well. Women, in general, are important and they deserve all the respect in the world. The most disturbing thing is that some people think that the female gender is weak and cannot function in complex political positions or other positions. I believe that women are the strongest and most courageous people in the world.

This is because, in the old times, some kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Dahomey involved women in military activities. These women were called the Dahomey Amazons. The world was aware of the Dahomey Amazons through French interaction. The French and their African allies venerated the all-female fighting battalion, proclaiming that the Dahomey Amazon fighters gave evidence of incredible bravery.

One of these Dahomey Amazon fighters who were very brave was called Abdaraya Toya. She is the Dahomey Amazon warrior who ensured the wrath of the Amazons would have the final say against the French in the Haitian revolution. Abdaraya Toya fought in the war against the French in Haiti, a country in the Caribbean. Moreover, she is a vital figure in the life of Dessalines, the leader of the Haitian revolution. Abdaraya Toya being a woman who was in the center of the revolt is an amazing thing and it gives more credit to the female gender. Before we discuss the story of Abdaraya Toya and how she met with Jean-Jacques Dessalines, it is important to highlight some vital things. Things that will help you understand this article better in general.

The Kingdom of Dahomey

The Dahomey Empire was an African Empire that existed from the 17th century to the 20th century (1600-1904) when the French defeated the last ruler, Behanzin. The French nation annexed the state into the French colonial kingdom. The Kingdom of Dahomey was located within the region of the modern-day nation of Benin. Dahomey grew and developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon tribe in the 17th century and became a local power in the 18th century by seizing chief cities on the Atlantic coast.

For much of the 18th century and the 19th century, the Dahomey Empire was a main regional country, finally ending tributary status to the Oyo Kingdom. The Empire of Dahomey was a vital local power that had a planned local economy established on slave labor, a centralized administration, taxation systems, and an organized army. Notable in the empire were significant artwork, an all-female fighting unit known as the Dahomey Amazons (European term), and the religious acts of Vodun with the festival of the Annual Customs of Dahomey, which included human sacrifice. They traded prisoners that they took during raids and wars and exchanged them with foreigners (Europeans) for items such as bayonets, knives, guns, clothes, and spirits.

MORE:

The Dahomey Amazons

The Mino (our mothers) or the Dahomey Amazons were a Fon all-female military unit of the Empire of Dahomey, as mentioned earlier. Under the political role, the Mino took a major role in the Grand Council, discussing the law of the Empire. From the 1840s-1870s, they supported harmony with Abeokuta and better commercial associations with England, favoring the trade in palm oil. The Annual Customs of Dahomey involved a march or parade and reassessing of the soldiers and the troops swearing of an oath to the ruler.

Combat professionals trained and gave the women warriors uniforms. By the middle of the 19th century, they numbered between 1000 and over 5500 women. Structurally, the women soldiers were in parallel with the military as a whole, with a middle wing flanked on the sides, each under a different commander. Some accounts note that each male fighter had a female soldier partner. The army of the women comprised several regiments (huntresses, reapers, rifle women, gunners, and archers). Each troop had separate uniforms, weapons, and leaders. In the latter times, the female warriors of Dahomey had Winchester rifles, clubs, and knives. The units were under female rule or control. The Dahomey women fighters also fought in several slave raids.

Later, the troops separated when the Empire became a French territory. According to oral traditions, some remaining Amazons remained in Abomey, where they killed several French officers. Other stories say that the women promised their services in defending Agoli-agbo, the sibling of Behanzin, disguising themselves as his wives to protect him. According to a historian who traced the lives of ex-Amazons, all the women showed challenges in adapting to life as retired fighters, often trying to find new tasks in their society that gave them a sense of pride comparable to their earlier lives.

In popular culture, the Dora Milaje, fighters and bodyguards of the Marvel Comics character Black Panther, have their basis on the Dahomey Amazons.

Brief Description of the Haitian Revolution

The Haitian Revolution was a successful slave rebellion against the French colonial rule in St. Domingue, present-day the country of Haiti. The uprising started on 22nd August 1791 and ended in the early 19th century (1804) with the earlier territory’s self-governance. It involved Africans, mulattoes, Spanish, French, and British members with Toussaint Louverture, the ex-slave, emerging as Haiti’s most fascinating person. The uprising was the only slave rebellion that resulted in the founding of a state which was free from the act of slavery and non-whites ruled it. People see the Haitian revolution as a glorious and huge moment in the history of humankind. They also see it as a defining moment in Atlantic World’s history.

The uprising symbolized the biggest slave rebellion since Spartacus’ failed uprising or revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 2 millennia earlier. Second, it challenged the European beliefs about alleged black weakness and about slaves’ capacity to get and maintain their liberation.

The Relationship between the name Mino and the Empire of Whydah

The 1st documented use of the name Mino as warriors was in the 18th century when the female fighters seized the Whydah Empire. The Empire of Whydah was an Empire on the coast of West Africa in what is today the state of Benin. It was a major slave trading center. In the early 18th century (1700), it had a coastline of more than 10 kilometers under King Haffon. The Empire of Whydah was in Savi. It also had a connection to the city of Ouidah. The Kingdom of Dahomey conquered the Empire of Whydah.

Who are Montou and Dessalines, and what is their Story?

Abdaraya Toya is also called Victoria Montou (foreign name). Victoria Montou was a Dahomey Amazon warrior and fighter in the army of Jean-Jacques Dessalines during the Haitian Revolution. Before the Revolution, she and her spiritual nephew Dessalines were slaves on the same estate and the 2 remained close throughout her life with Dessalines calling her Aunt Toya. In Montou’s early life, researchers believed that she was born in the Empire of Dahomey. According to accounts, it is not clear when her enemies abducted, enslaved, and shipped her to Haiti where she met with her nephew.

Before the uprising, Victoria worked alongside her nephew as a slave on the estate of Henry Duclos. She was intelligent and energetic. She shared a very close association with Dessalines and the same hatred towards the act of slavery. During the slave uprising and civil war, she combated as a fighter in service. During the uprising, at the head of over 45 slaves was Toya with a Faulx in her hand, a hoe on 1 shoulder, and a knife suspending from the belt of her camisole. Toya had a powerful voice; her orders were similar to those of a general.

In 1804, Dessalines, whom Toya trained the art of fighting before the revolt, became the Emperor of Haiti and he gave Victoria the title of Duchess. When Victoria was dying, Dessalines begged a French doctor to save her life. Victoria Montou received a state funeral with a procession of more than 5 sergeants and the Empress (Marie-Claire Heureuse Felicite) clothed in black.

Other Dahomey Amazon Warriors

Apart from the tough Aunty Toya, there are other Amazons who were brave and who made significant marks. Some of these Dahomey Amazons were Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, Nawi, Sofignan, and Tata Ajache. Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh (God speaks true) was a leader of the Dahomey Amazons. In the mid-19th century (1851) she led an all-female military comprising over 5000 soldiers against the Egba fortress of Abeokuta, to get slaves from the Egba group for the Dahomey slave trade.

People think that the last survivor of the Dahomey Amazons was a woman called Nawi. In 1978, a Beninese historian met Nawi, who claimed to have combated the French power in the late 19th century (1892). Nawi died in 1979 at an old age. Sofignan was a general among the Mino army while Tata Ajache was just a young Mino warrior.

MORE: