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Queen Hangbé V was born into the royal family of the ancient Dahomey lineage. She is a direct descendant from the first credited king, King Houegbadja, who reigned from 1645 until his death in 1685. King Houegbadja was succeeded by his son, Akaba, who had a twin sister, Tassi Hangbé. What little we know of her life is based primarily on oral histories, and there are disparate versions of when, and for how long, she became regent.

The oral histories recount that Akaba died in military combat in 1716. We know that Tassi Hangbé’s younger brother, Agaba, was made king in 1718. It is generally considered that Tassi Hangbé acted as the regent of Dahomey in the time between the reigns of Akaba and Agaba, as King Akaba’s oldest son, Agbo Sassa, was still too young to become king. Some say that, upon the death of her twin during a battle in the Ouémé River valley, Tassi Hangbé donned her brother’s armour and continued leading the army in the fight. Some reports indicate that she led several military expeditions.

Queen Tassi Hangbé is remembered as being a driving force behind the formation of the female army called Agojie, or Minon a.k.a. the Dahomey Amazons. Author Torild Skard writes about the Dahomey female warriors: “(They) were renowned for their zeal and ferocity. The most fearsome were armed with rifles. There were also archers, hunters and spies. They exercised regularly to be physically and mentally fit for combat… When not in combat, they guarded the royal palaces in Abomey and grew fruit and vegetables. They could also go out and take captives to sell as slaves.” Historian Toler describes the female warriors as follows: “By all accounts, they were fearsome, excellent marksmen. They were skilled with hand-to-hand fighting, using weapons that were a lot like machetes. And there was absolutely nobody there to tell them that they shouldn’t be involved in combat, or that they didn’t have the upper body strength as you heard in European and North American history until recently.” The Agojie comprised about 30 to 40% of the total Dahomey army. They were given special privileges denied to the ordinary women of the time. They were forbidden to marry or raise children and lived within the confines of the royal palace. A women warrior was permitted to own land and to earn an income trading slaves, thereby becoming fully independent, while the average Dahomey woman was the property of her family or husband. The fact that Queen Tassi Hangbé amassed a squadron of women willing to die protecting her and their kingdom was an impressive feat in the deeply patriarchal Dahomey society.

In modern-day Dahomey, now called the Republic of Benin, in a town called Abomey, there is a humble temple dedicated to Queen Hangbé. There the current Queen Hangbé V resides, surrounded by her Agodjie. She is a woman well into her eighties and has a dignified and regal presence. As part of a small South African delegation led by the South African Ambassador to Benin, Amb. Robina Marks, I was fortunate to have an audience with Queen Hangbé in March 2004. Our interpreter assisted us in our communication, as the Queen only speaks Fon, the most widely spoken local language. Given the opportunity to ask but one question, I asked what role the modern-day Agodjie serve in Benin, considering that there are no longer wars being waged. The Queen replied that her role, and that of her Agodjie, is to fight inequality, to fight for the rights of women in Benin!

R 80 000