The Forgotten Legend: Ella Abomah Williams, the Amazon Warrior

This photograph was taken in the year 1900. The woman standing in front is not a nanny, nor a servant—she was one of the personal bodyguards of the King of Dahomey, an ancient West African kingdom in what is now Benin. The kingdom was renowned for its fierce all-female military regiment: the Dahomey Amazons.

According to reports from that era, she stood over 2.5 meters tall, was said to lift a grown man with one hand, and possessed a strength and endurance that bordered on mythical. Her combat skills were the stuff of legend.

Yet, the colonial gaze sought to reduce her to spectacle. British newspapers wrote about her as if she were a sideshow attraction: “This dusky beauty… will soon be visiting our great cities,” they reported—failing to see that they were not witnessing a curiosity, but a living legend.

Her name was Ella Abomah Williams—also known as Madame Abomah—and history has largely forgotten her. But her story remains a powerful reminder: true heroines often walk among us, unseen by those who never learned how to truly see.

Source: A Solo Traveler