Hello and welcome to Queer's Facts, the podcast bringing you queer history from around the world

and throughout time. My name's Alice. I'm Irene and I'm Eli. And today we're talking about the

Aguji, the West African soldiers also known as the Dahomey Amazons.

Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Wurundry Woyang people of the Koolen Nation

as the traditional owners of the land on which we record this podcast, and Paymar respects their elders past and present.

They're the custodians of an oral history tradition far older than this podcast.

We have some content warnings for this episode.

This episode will include discussions of slavery and the European colonization of Africa.

It will also include historical and modern racism, sexism and queer phobia.

There'll be discussions of war, including death and serious injury in war, as well as torture

and execution.

And there'll also be mentions of

self-harm and the use of human remains in a ritual context.

So if any of that is something you don't want to listen to, feel free to skip this episode and

check out our other content instead.

Briefly speaking, just so you have some context, the Agogier were regiments of female

soldiers who served from around the early 1700s until

1894 in the Kingdom of Dahomey in present-day Benin.

So, first off, where's Benin, guys?

It's on the south of that sticky out bit.

Of...

Of Africa.

...