The True Story Behind ‘The Woman King’ Isn’t So Clean Cut

The Woman King, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, is a historic epic that takes a detour from the standard Eurocentric trappings of Hollywood to concentrate on an actual group from West African historical past, the mighty kingdom of Dahomey. Starring Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, and Thuso Mbedu, The Girl King facilities across the Agojie, certainly one of historical past’s all-female warrior teams who protected Dahomey for almost three-hundred years between the 18th and early twentieth centuries. Jam-packed with riveting motion sequences, a dramatic screenplay, and a primarily Black feminine forged, The Girl King is a completely unique effort of current blockbusters. In addition to its excessive leisure worth, The Girl King is a departure from typical big-budget movie productions, embodying an aspirational spirit of feminine empowerment by its narrative whereas shining a light-weight on a interval of African historical past unrepresented in mainstream filmmaking. Let’s check out the real-life historical past behind The Girl King.

What Is ‘The Girl King’ About?

The Girl King takes place throughout the 1820s and facilities across the African kingdom of Dahomey, the place a rebellious teenage woman referred to as Nawi (Mbedu) is pushed by her household to hitch the Agojie, a fierce feminine warrior troop that holds the accountability to guard the area of their individuals. As Nawi is formed into the mannequin Agojie, she creates deep connections along with her fellow feminine corps, notably with the stoic and highly effective Basic Nanisca (Davis), chief of the troops. As Nawi, Nansica, and the remainder of the Agojie warriors toil to protect their group from neighboring kingdoms and encroaching European slave merchants, the 2 girls uncover a fact that brings their private histories nearer collectively than they ever imagined. Effectively-balanced between spectacular battle scenes and melodramatic rigidity, The Girl King provides a compelling viewing expertise for each viewers.

What Was the Kingdom Of Dahomey?

The Kingdom of Dahomey was positioned in Western Africa on the Gulf of Guinea and existed between the 1620s and the early-1900s. Beneath the central energy of a king, who was granted rule by his ancestral heritage, Dahomey maintained a thriving cultural and socio-economic system that allowed the dominion to evolve continually. Not like most western cultures, the ladies of Dahomey held many roles of significance outdoors home duties — every male palace official even had an equal feminine counterpart — contributing to the respect and esteem held by the Agojie warriors. Depicted because the central battle in The Girl King, Dahomey was in frequent battle with its neighboring kingdom, the mighty Oyo Empire.

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Whereas Dahomey did stimulate its financial system by commerce with neighboring kingdoms and communities, it primarily counted on buying and selling with European retailers, simply accessed attributable to Dahomey’s advantageous location on the shoreline. Palm oil manufacturing was important to Dahomey’s progress, however the kingdom relied mainly on the slave trade with Europeans for its financial progress. Dahomey didn’t promote their very own individuals into slavery, however captives of battle, as portrayed in The Girl King. The dominion’s dependency on the slave commerce allowed it to prosper till the mid-Nineteenth century, when the abolition of the commerce occurred in European territories and the Americas, resulting in the decline of Dahomey’s prosperity. The Girl King options John Boyega as King Ghezo, an precise ruler of Dahomey between 1818 and 1858, who led the dominion throughout a very tumultuous interval in its historical past.

Who Have been the Agojie Warriors?

The all-female warrior troops of Dahomey have been referred to as the Agojie or the Mino of their tradition, solely turning into coined because the “Dahomey Amazons” by the French throughout the Nineteenth century. The Agojie developed from a practice of feminine elephant hunters, codifying into organized troops starting within the 1720s. By the mid-1800s, the Agojie battalions reached their peak numbers between 6000 and 8000, making up most of Dahomey’s army. In the course of the peak of their energy, the Agojie recruitment sought out tall, agile, athletic teenage ladies from native villages who underwent in depth coaching, requiring a lot self-discipline, bodily prowess, and conditioning in intense fight. This laborious coaching course of is illustrated in The Girl King by the bodily and psychological transformation of Nawi’s character, enjoying a major function within the build-up of the movie’s narrative. When the younger conscripts had accomplished their troublesome coaching, the ladies have been absolutely ready to serve and defend the Kingdom of Dahomey.

The popular battle ways of the Agojie girls included shut hand-to-hand fight, shock assaults, and ambushing their enemies. The soldiers primarily employed bows and toxic arrows, daggers, and spears but in addition utilized muskets and canons. Consequently, the Agojie have been extensively feared for his or her bravery and ferocity in battle, including to their notoriety on the African continent. Whereas most of The Girl King and its characters have been largely fictionalized, a couple of of its central roles have been impressed by precise accounts of Agojie girls, Mbedu’s adolescent character Nawi was generally known as one of many final of the Agojie warriors, who passed away in 1979 at over 100 years in age. Davis’s matriarchal function as Basic Nanisca bought her moniker from the historic account of a French service provider who had met an Agojie warrior named Nanisca throughout the late-Eighteen Nineties.

The Darkish Historical past About Dahomey, The Agojie, and Slavery That ‘The Girl King’ Did not Totally Discover

The historical past surrounding Dahomey, the Agojie and the slave commerce is a little more layered and troublesome than The Girl King portrayed. Agreeably, they couldn’t cram a complete historical past lesson into two hours and quarter-hour. Nevertheless, The Girl King touches on this and doesn’t absolutely dive into how a lot Dahomey’s wealth was tied to the slave commerce, as talked about above. From a historic standpoint, the dominion actively participated within the commerce. Extra particularly, they contributed as much as 3.5% of the full exports throughout Africa, which nonetheless interprets to 1000’s of individuals. Sadly, The Agojie warriors have been additionally a part of this method, possible collaborating in royally-sanctioned slave raids, regardless of the movie’s portrayal of Nanisca as a robust advocate in opposition to the commerce. So, this is a historical lie to say the very least.

Now, that doesn’t negate the actual fact that there have been moments of resistance. The truth is, leaders like King Adandozan brazenly opposed Dahomey’s continued involvement within the commerce. However, The Girl King was set round 1823, and on the time, the Kingdom was additionally targeted on getting out of paying tribute to the Oyo Empire. The movie’s story of liberation and doing the appropriate factor takes away from the difficult actuality. As acknowledged earlier, Dahomey was an enormous participant in slave commerce for a lot of, a few years although components of the society, together with some Agojie warriors, pushed in opposition to it. Including this contact of darkness to The Girl King’s storyline wouldn’t have taken away from the progress and impression of the Agojie. It might have enriched the storyline by highlighting the fragile stability between the dominion’s advances and the role it played in slavery in Africa as an entire.

What Occurred to Dahomey?

Dahomey started to break down over the past years of the Nineteenth century. When the abolition of the slave commerce occurred, French imperialism started to place a chokehold on the West African coast, pressuring Dahomey for pure assets and territory. After unceasing battle with neighboring areas managed by the French, the First Franco-Dahomean War befell in early 1890. After months of battle between the Dahomey and the troops of France, the French proved victorious, and a peace treaty was signed in October of the identical 12 months. Sadly, the respite didn’t final lengthy: two years later, one other battle started — the Second Franco-Dahomean War. Extra violent than the primary, the Second-Franco Dahomean Battle noticed many battles, resulting in the decimation of the Agojie warriors. In 1894, Dahomey lastly capitulated to the French, and Dahomey was merged with the French colonies of West Africa. Immediately, the land of Dahomey now resides throughout the borders of the Republic of Benin.

The Girl King stands out from standard inspirations for the historic epic style, which too generally depends on the bygone occasions of European historical past. As an alternative, the movie and its portrayal of Dahomey’s individuals and tradition have revealed the previous nation’s wealthy previous to an infinite viewers by The Woman King‘s commercial success worldwide. Since its launch, many critics and audiences have praised the film for its compelling storytelling and spectacular craft. Whereas some detractors have slammed the movie’s historic accuracy and screenplay {that a} white girl penned, The Girl King is an unprecedented Hollywood movie that may hopefully make room for extra inclusive storytelling in future mainstream productions.

How Does ‘The Girl King’ Maintain up In opposition to Different Historic Motion pictures?

Regardless of every little thing, The Girl King made fairly the trouble to stability embellishing storytelling and onerous details. Like different historic biopics, earlier than and after it, the movie takes a inventive liberty or two — however what movie doesn’t? Let’s take Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, his tackle the French Emperor makes use of summary inventive decisions. Scott didn’t shrink back from rearranging timelines or straight up making stuff up, just like the odd however memorable taking pictures of a pyramid. Evidently, it faced its own share of criticism. Even in an enormous manufacturing like Braveheart, a lot of the historic accuracy is sacrificed for leisure worth. Wallace’s well-known kilt? Utterly off by centuries. Nevertheless it’s onerous to not admire the dramatics and larger-than-life portrayals.

In the identical vein, The Girl King offers viewers motion and robust characters, albeit smoothing over and reshaping components of historical past. Certain, it doesn’t discover the extra complicated features of Dahomey’s involvement within the slave commerce. Nevertheless, it does precisely what most biopics do — hones in on a particular narrative whereas shifting details to suit the story, and sometimes that works. Very similar to The Biggest Showman, certainly one of the most inaccurate biopics of all time, which turned P.T. Barnum into a captivating underdog, The Girl King reshaped historical past to go well with its message. With all this in thoughts, the principle concern right here isn’t historic inaccuracy, however the features they select to showcase. Whereas The Girl King confronted criticism for obscuring an vital a part of the total image, it nonetheless highlights an vital chapter of historical past.

The Girl King is at the moment streaming on Hulu within the U.S.

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