This photograph was taken in 1900.
The woman in front wasn’t a nanny. She wasn’t a maid.
She was one of the personal bodyguards of the King of Dahomey—an ancient West African kingdom (in present-day Benin) known for its elite female warriors: the Dahomey Amazons.
According to reports of the time, she stood over 2.5 meters tall.
She could lift a grown man with one arm.
Her strength, stamina, and skill in combat bordered on the mythical.
But colonialism didn’t know how to handle a woman like her.
Instead of honoring her legacy, the British press reduced her to a sideshow:
“This dark-skinned beauty… will soon visit our major cities,”
they wrote, treating her like an exhibit—not a warrior.
Not a legend.
Not the living embodiment of power and pride.
Her name was Ella Abomah Williams—also known as Mme Abomah.
And though history tried to forget her, we will not.
Because women like her didn’t just stand guard for kings.
They stood guard for truth, for legacy, and for the forgotten strength of their people.
All you had to do was look.
~ The Two Pennies
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