Roman Chacon

Mardi Gra Indian Portrait

The Cambridge academic Robin Bunce said: “There is a fundamental danger of erasing the very notion of a struggle at all. I’ve been researching this for four and a half years and there have been so many occasions when people have said to me: ‘There was no black struggle in Britain. You’re thinking of South Africa or America.’“

The narrative that feeds it is the one that Britain is the utopia of fair play. We have such a commitment to individual rights, we have such a commitment to common sense and decency that there is no systematic racism in Britain.”…

Here are some proceedings of the Greenlandic parliament, the Inatsisartut, which are conducted in Greenlandic.

Here is a radio show in Greenlandic, from Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa.

The Dahomey Amazons, known in their native Fon language as Mino (“Our Mothers”) or Agoji, were an all-female military regiment that served the Kingdom of Dahomey (in present-day Benin, West Africa) from the 17th century until the late 19th century. They are a unique and celebrated part of world history, recognized for their ferocity, discipline, and military prowess. They were named Amazons by Western Europeans who encountered them, due to the story of the female warriors of Amazons in Greek mythology.

The exact origin of the Dahomey Amazons is debated, with various oral traditions and historical accounts offering different theories. Some scholars suggest the group began in the 17th century during the reign of King Houegbadja (1645-1685), possibly as a corps of elephant huntresses known as Gbeto. Another theory credits King Agaja’s older sister and predecessor, Queen Hangbe (1716-1718), with forming an all-female bodyguard unit. Regardless of the precise origin, the unit became a formal and significant part of the Dahomey army under the rule of King Ghezo (1818-1858).

During the reign of King Ghezo, Dahomey became increasingly militaristic, and he formalized the female regiment, transforming it from a ceremonial group into a formidable military force. He significantly increased the army’s budget and placed great importance on the women’s unit. At their peak in the mid-19th century, the Amazons numbered between 1,000 and 6,000 women, comprising roughly one-third of the kingdom’s entire army.