This photograph was taken in 1900. The woman in front wasn’t a nanny or a maid — she was one of the personal bodyguards of the King of Dahomey, an ancient West African kingdom (modern-day Benin) famed for its fierce female warriors: the Dahomey Amazons.

Standing over 2.5 meters tall, according to reports of the time, she was said to lift a grown man with one arm and possessed strength and endurance that bordered on mythical. Her skill in combat was legendary.

Yet, colonial exoticism tried to reduce her to a spectacle. The British press wrote of her as though she were a sideshow attraction: “This dark-skinned beauty… will soon visit our major cities,” they reported, failing to recognize they were witnessing not a curiosity, but a living legend.

Her name was Ella Abomah Williams — also known as Mme Abomah — and history has largely forgotten her. But her story reminds us that true heroines often walk among us, unseen by those who don’t know how to truly look.

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I recently had a great loss. One that is semi paralyzing. She was my mother’s sister, but she raised me. I miss her so much my heart breaks. Thus, why I have been quiet. I dunno, I know I am on my way to just not breaking every day, I will tell you about an amazing woman named Veda. I am just not there yet. I am figuring it out. But, my loss doesn’t start there. My loss starts with their mother. My grandmama. The 4 daughters. 2 are left. Of which, 1 left, raised me. Both love me. But one I know left, does. My aunt R. I know my mother loves me in her own weirdly cruel loving way. Yeah. I know she loves me. But, her cruelty knows no limit, even in her youth. I always thought she would become nicer with age? I thought she would become nicer with religion? Fuck, I thought she would become nicer when she was sick? I was so wrong. She really is just cruel. I can’t figure it out.

Life is complicated. There is no easy journey. The very best you can do is look up unto the stars, smell the wind, if you are lucky the ocean, and touch Heaven, and the Universe. Just know, you are part of not just something big, but of something AMAZING. Everyone of us are filled with stardust. We are born stars. We just have to remember that, and to SHINE BRIGHT! Not like a star, but like a Universe filled with our own stars. I say, I love you to the moon and back, and beyond the Universe. It never even occurs to me about how small OUR UNIVERSE is. I know it is sooooooo much bigger.

I am so beyond blessed. I am beyond grateful. I appreciate every thing. God knows I have been to hell and back. We ALL have. My shoe is no bigger than yours, my hardship is not to be compared, for we ALL have suffered our own battles and hardships. The fact is, we FIGHT for survival. I AM A SURVIVOR! And I fight! Not just for me, but for all that fight. Whenever I can.

Now you have learned a little about me.

Namaste, and I love you.

Leila