Mino Tote

The leather tote is made from full-grain leather and hair-on-hide. It has a separate compartment that can fit a slim laptop from size 14 inches and below. Mino leather tote also has a zipped pocket that is perfect for your smaller valuables like your phone(s) and flash pockets for your stationery. 

We name the tote after the Dahomey Amazons also refereed to as Mino (means our mother) of the Republic of Benin. It was a women-only army of the republic of Benin. It is said to have been formed by King Houegbadja with the intention of the policing the elephant hunters. However, when his daughter, Queen Hangbe became queen, she established a female bodyguard. Her successor King Agaja won the fight against the neighbouring kingdom using their help. King Ghezo formalised the Dahomey Amazon to a serious military.

During the reign of King Ghezo, women joined the Amazon from the free women from the age of 8 years. The Amazon fired their rifles from the hips, not from the shoulders. The First Franco-Dahomean War saw the Europeans win the war with hundreds, oh Dahomey being gunned down. It was not until the  Second Franco-Dahomean War that the Dahomey Kingdom stopped being a free state and the Europeans took over. Some of the Mino women sore their aligned to  Agoli-Agbo and disguised themselves as his wives in order to guard him. Some women got married and got children. Nawi, the last known amazon claimed to have fought the French during the Second war. She died in November 1979 at well beyond 100 years.

We name this tote after the Mino women because she comes in different colours. This is to accommodate all your different moods and personalities. Just like the different women who formed the Dahomey Amazon. We hope you will love her as much as we do.