7 Most Insane Historical Attempts To Create A Super Soldier

It might’ve taken the world until the 2017 incarnation of Wonder Woman to fully appreciate the badass-ity of Amazons, but the citizens of Dahomey (modern Benin, West Africa) had that stuff figured out since the 18th century.

One of the most elite military regiments in the kingdom’s history were the N'Nonmiton ("our mothers.”) They were an all-female unit of soldiers that evolved from Dahomey female elephant hunters, which, just to remind you, is sort of like hunting an armored vehicle with human intelligence. This is also the least impressive thing about the N'Nonmiton regiment.

For one, their training was straight-up insane. They held gladiator death matches with POWs, they scaled walls lined with thorny bushes without being allowed to show pain, they were expert markswomen, and, according to the French, “excelled at hand-to-hand combat.”

Unfortunately, it was also the French who ended up slaughtering most of the N'Nonmiton during their conflicts with the kingdom. But they were so impressed by their ferocious bravery that they nicknamed them “Amazons,” which one N'Nonmiton really took to heart by emulating Wonder Woman and living to be over a 100, finally dying in 1978.