The Gbetto Warrior Fairytales.
The Gbetto Warriors of Dahomey were not called the Agojie. That is wrong like everything the Kotomayikpa tells his colonial masters.
Those Ewe/Ge/Fon people who were born into such Vodun villages know for sure that when we were children and the elders said, some Trorn People (Vodun Sect) have gone “Agojie” that it meant they have gone to a secret meeting for days, sometimes even for months.
This was serious. No one knew where they went. Going “Agoji” or “Agojie” was a serious event among Vodun People. Secretive and Frightening. I lived in an Ewe village most of my life, and even I never saw anyone going “Agojie,” although it was always talked about.
“Agojie” just means a Secret Meeting of a Vodun Sect. Since I have never been to one, I know nothing about what happens there.
Which brings me to some of the fairy tales about the Gbetto Warriors. My grandfather hailed from Abomey proper, and even he was not privy to sighting Gbetto Warriors every day while growing up there with his grandmother.
The Gbetto were indeed a special force, and they were exceedingly secretive as they were frightening. In fact, before a platoon of the Gbetto passed by a village, a sacred gong would go off for people to get inside their homes until the Gbetto passed through the village. (They never really quite passed through villages. They passed by villages.)
In Ewe/Fon land, it was never like people, not even people in Abomey, saw Gbetto warriors like we see soldiers walking on the streets today. The Gbetto was a special force, with special treatment, with near secretive existence. (You have to understand Vodun Philosophy to appreciate this fact.)
Sounds like some western reporters have been using google translator to write about cultures they know nothing about.
If you saw them, you were either one or wouldn’t be in a position to tell other people about them. Of course that level of secrecy cannot be understood by the vast masses who share every aspect of their lives on social media.