The Cancer Journals

In her journal entry from September 21, 1978, Lorde wonders how the woman warriors of Dahomey—the only known all-female army in history—coped with losing one of their breasts. The warriors come from what is now southern Benin. Lorde uses the term “Amazon” as an adjective to describe the fighters of Dahomey, though the former were chronicled by the Greeks and were rumored to have cut off their right breasts to have better bow control. The Amazon warriors and the Dahomey warriors were not part of the same civilization, though Lorde conflates them. Lorde, however, has accepted the myth and wonders how the woman warriors must have felt when cutting off their breasts, particularly as girls. She refrains from mentioning the act of mutilation directly to the reader, either because it is implied or because it is too painful to mention, or both. She acknowledges that their sense of purpose overrode their feeling of loss. Lorde compares her sacrifice to theirs, while acknowledging that it is difficult for her to draw this comparison while still in a state of mourning.

Lorde’s identification with the Dahomey women ties into her feeling of being a warrior. Instead of wielding swords or bows and arrows, she uses words as her weapon and, like the Dahomey warriors, exists within a community of women.