The end of Dahomey's women soldiers is fixed with certainty: 4 November 1892, when they fought the French for the last time at the gates of Cana. Their beginning is not. Alpern observes that published guesses about the corps's founding stretch across more than two centuries, from the reign of Wegbaja to that of Glele.

Weighing the candidates, Alpern rules out both kings, while granting Wegbaja much the stronger claim. That claim rests on a tradition crediting him with the gbeto, a corps of elephant huntresses, together with the conjecture that this unit became the first body of women soldiers. Even the tradition wobbles: one version has him merely reorganizing huntresses who already existed, and another explanation holds simply that palace women supplied the king's table with game. Reports that he kept women as guards are unsourced or unprovable, and nobody has claimed he sent women into battle.