In Black Panther, the Dora Milaje are the personal bodyguards to the King of Wakanda: T’Challa, otherwise known as Black Panther himself. They are fierce warriors, and unlike most armies, are comprised entirely of women. They are also entrusted as the gatekeepers of their country, which has famously never been colonized. The Dora Milaje resemble a group of women from West African history. Dating back to possibly as early as the 17th century, there was a group of women warriors in Africa dubbed the Dahomey Amazons, a name [coined] by European explorers in reference to the mythical female soldiers. However, these great warrior women were known amongst their people as the Ahosi (“king’s wives”) or Mino (“our mothers”). The Dahomey women were among the only all-female documented in modern military history.

Residing in the present-day Republic of Benin, the Dahomey were of the Fon, a large ethnic group in West Africa. According to Stanley Alpern, author of the only full-length English-language study about the Dahomey, they were first drafted to guard the palace doors. According to the royal dictate during King Agaja's reign (1708-1740), “No man [shall] sleeps within the walls of any of [my palaces] after sunset but myself.” Man were banned from living in the palace, so guards had to be women. 

Every Dahomey warrior woman was considered married to the king, although he rarely took up sexual relations with them. Instead, the women were seen as his sisters, daughters, and soldiers.

The Dahomean female soldiers went through fierce and rigorous physical training, which consisted of arms exercises. The women wrestled one another, climbed walls, underwent vicious physically painful tasks, and were sent to fend for themselves for up to nine days with small rations to build and test their endurance. They were even more applauded for how their clothes stayed clean and tailored, their tools kept sharp, and their marches crisp and quiet.

Sure sounds familiar to the Dora Milaje, right? And people highly anticipating Black Panther made the comparison long before the movie even premiered in theaters. Fans pointed out similarities between T'Challa's army and the Dahomey Amazons back when all we had was a peek at the Marvel film.

The Dahomey Amazons were originally recruited from foreign captives and prisoners. Between the middle of the 18th and 19th century, the Dahomey army's numbers swelled from about 600 to about 6,000, with some estimates putting the total at about 8,000. By the peak of their reign, most of the warriors were natives. Many observers at the time counted thousands of female warriors among the army's ranks.

The Dahomey kingdom, with the help of the Amazons, conquered neighboring nations, taking thousands as captives of war, and the land grew greatly in size up until the latter half of the 19th-century.

The Dora Milaje first appeared in Black Panther Vol. 3 #1 by Christopher Priest, the first widely known African-American comics writer. He helped further build the fantastic world of Wakanda, the Black Panther, Dora Milaje, and more. His imagination was largely responsible for its success, but it’s not too far-fetched to believe his inspiration was rooted in the beautiful wonders of warrior women from ancient African history.