{"id":43804,"date":"2022-09-21T16:42:48","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T16:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=43804"},"modified":"2022-09-21T16:42:48","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T16:42:48","slug":"real-warriors-behind-the-woman-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/real-warriors-behind-the-woman-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Warriors Behind \u2018The Woman King\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Real Warriors Behind \u2018The Woman King\u2019<\/h1>\n

A new film stars Viola Davis as the leader of the Agojie, the all-woman army of the African kingdom of Dahomey<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Woman King\u00a0<\/em>tells the story of the Agojie, an elite, all-woman army in the West African kingdom of Dahomey. Photo by Chris Hellier \/ Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Meilan<\/div>\n
\n

Meilan Solly<\/a><\/p>\n

Associate Editor, History<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

At its height in the 1840s, the West African kingdom of Dahomey<\/a> boasted an army so fierce that its enemies spoke of its \u201cprodigious bravery<\/a>.\u201d This 6,000<\/a>-strong force, known as the Agojie, raided villages under cover of darkness, took captives and slashed off resisters\u2019 heads to return to their king as trophies of war. Through these actions, the Agoije established Dahomey\u2019s preeminence over neighboring kingdoms and became known by European visitors as \u201cAmazons<\/a>\u201d due to their similarities to the warrior women of Greek myth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Woman King<\/em><\/a>, a new movie starring Viola Davis as a fictionalized leader of the Agojie, tells the story of this all-woman fighting force. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, the film takes place as conflict engulfs the region, and the specter of European colonization looms ominously. It represents the first time that the American film industry has dramatized the compelling story.<\/p>\n

As the Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Rebecca Keegan writes, The Woman King <\/em>is \u201cthe product of a thousand battles\u201d fought by Davis and Prince-Bythewood, both of whom have spoken out about the obstacles the production team faced<\/a> when pitching a historical epic centered on strong Black women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe part of the movie that we love is also the part of the movie that is terrifying to Hollywood, which is, it\u2019s different, it\u2019s new,\u201d Davis tells Keegan. \u201cWe don\u2019t always want different or new, unless you have a big star attached, a big male star. \u2026 [Hollywood studios] like it when women are pretty and blond or close to pretty and blond. All of these women are dark. And they\u2019re beating \u2026 men. So there you go.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the origins of the Agojie to Dahomey\u2019s eventual fate, here\u2019s what you need to know about the true history behind The Woman King <\/em>ahead of its arrival in theaters on September 16.<\/p>\n

Is The Woman King <\/em>based on a true story?<\/h2>\n

In short, yes, but with extensive dramatic license. Though the broad strokes of the film are historically accurate, the majority of its characters are fictional, including Davis\u2019 Nanisca and Thuso Mbedu<\/a>\u2019s Nawi, a young warrior-in-training. (Nanisca and Nawi share names with documented members of the Agojie but are not exact mirrors of these women.) King Ghezo<\/a> (played by John Boyega) is the exception; according to Lynne Ellsworth Larsen<\/a>, an architectural historian who studies gender dynamics<\/a> in Dahomey, Ghezo (reigned 1818 to 1859) and his son Glele (reigned 1858 to 1889) presided over what\u2019s seen as \u201cthe golden age of Dahomean history,\u201d ushering in an era of economic prosperity and political strength.<\/p>\n

\"Viola<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Viola Davis (left) as Nanisca and John Boyega (right) as King Ghezo Sony Pictures<\/p>\n

The Woman King <\/em>opens in 1823 with a successful raid by the Agojie, who free captives bound for enslavement from the clutches of the Oyo Empire<\/a>, a powerful Yoruba<\/a> state in what is now southwestern Nigeria. Dahomey has long paid tribute to the Oyo but is beginning to assert itself under the leadership of Ghezo and General Nanisca. A parallel plotline finds Nanisca, who disapproves of the slave trade after experiencing its horrors personally, urging Ghezo to end Dahomey\u2019s close relationship with Portuguese slave traders and shift to production of palm oil as the kingdom’s main export.<\/p>\n

The real Ghezo did, in fact, successfully free Dahomey from its tributary status in 1823. But the kingdom\u2019s involvement in the slave trade doesn\u2019t align as neatly with the historical record. As historian Robin Law notes<\/a>, Dahomey emerged as a key player in the trafficking of West Africans between the 1680s and early 1700s, selling its captives to European traders whose presence and demand fueled the industry\u2014and, in turn, the monumental scale<\/a> of Dahomey\u2019s warfare.<\/p>\n

Though the majority of individuals taken prisoner by Dahomey were enslaved abroad, a not-insignificant number remained in the kingdom, where they served on royal farms, in the army or at the palace. In truth, Ghezo only agreed to end Dahomey\u2019s participation in the slave trade in 1852, after years of pressure<\/a> by the British government<\/a>, which had abolished slavery (for not wholly altruistic reasons<\/a>) in its own colonies in 1833<\/a>. Though Ghezo did at one point explore palm oil production as an alternative source of revenue, it proved far less lucrative, and the king soon resumed Dahomey\u2019s participation in the slave trade.<\/p>\n

\"Agojie All of the Agojie were considered\u00a0ahosi<\/em>, or wives of the king. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n

In response to concerns<\/a> about how her movie will depict Dahomey\u2019s engagement with European slave traders, Prince-Bythewood told the Hollywood<\/em> Reporter<\/em>,<\/a> \u201cWe\u2019re going to tell the truth. We\u2019re not going to shy away from anything. But also we\u2019re telling a part of the story which is about overcoming and fighting for what\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portraying the Agojie, through Nanisca\u2019s actions, as critics of the slave trade makes for a \u201cnice story,\u201d says Larsen in an interview. \u201cDo I think it\u2019s historically accurate? I\u2019m skeptical.\u201d She adds, \u201cThese women are symbols of strength and of power. But \u2026 they\u2019re [also] complicit in a problematic system. They are still under the patriarchy of the king, and they are still players in the slave trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria Bello, an actress and producer who co-wrote the story The Woman King<\/em>\u2019s script is based on, first learned about the Agojie during a 2015 trip to Benin. Recognizing the subject\u2019s cinematic appeal, she persuaded producer Cathy Schulman to find a studio willing to finance the project. Prince-Bythewood and Davis joined the team soon after. \u201cIt was a constant push and fight to convince people that we deserve a big budget, that we deserved to tell a story like this,\u201d Prince-Bythewood tells the Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Nakia The all-woman Dora Milaje regiment featured in\u00a0Black Panther<\/em>\u00a0is based on the Dahomey warriors. Marvel \/ Disney<\/p>\n

That the film was greenlit at all likely stems<\/a> from the blockbuster success<\/a> of 2018\u2019s Black Panther<\/em><\/a>, which testified to the demand for entertainment created by and featuring Black creatives. The movie\u2019s Dora Milaje<\/a> regiment was inspired<\/a> by the Agojie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so long, Hollywood has only ever framed Africa in stereotypical ways,\u201d Aje-Ori Agbese<\/a>, an expert on African cinema at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, tells Ms. <\/em>magazine<\/a>. \u201cSo [The Woman King<\/em>], centered on African women and African history, will generate a conversation. We have Black Panther<\/em> to thank for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who were the Agojie?<\/h2>\n

The first recorded mention of the Agojie dates to 1729<\/a>. But the unit was possibly formed even earlier, toward the beginning of Dahomey\u2019s existence, when King Huegbadja (reigned circa 1645 to 1685) created a corps of woman elephant hunters<\/a>. Alternatively, Hangbe<\/a>, who briefly ruled as regent following the death of her brother in the early 18th century, may have introduced the women warriors as part of her palace guard. Either way, the Agojie reached their peak in the 19th century, under Ghezo, who formally incorporated them into Dahomey\u2019s army. Thanks to the kingdom\u2019s ongoing wars, Dahomey\u2019s male population had dropped significantly, creating an opportunity for women to replace men on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore perhaps than any other African state, Dahomey was dedicated to warfare and slave-raiding,\u201d wrote Stanley B. Alpern in Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey<\/em><\/a>, the first full-length, English-language study of the Agojie. \u201cIt may also have been the most totalitarian, with the king controlling and regimenting practically every aspect of social life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Viola<\/p>\n

\n

Viola Davis (center) as Nanisca in\u00a0The Woman King<\/em> Sony PicturesDahomey\u2019s standing army was an anomaly<\/a> in and of itself, as most other African kingdoms disbanded their forces when not actively at war. The fact that the Agojie and their male counterparts wore uniforms also set them apart, establishing the Dahomean military as an organized, highly visible fighting force.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re meant to have a public face,\u201d says Larsen. \u201cThey wanted to \u2026 be feared by their neighbors. This was a slave trading kingdom, so warfare was part of their annual cycle. They needed to gather humans to be part of this heinous transatlantic slave trade,\u201d as well as for human sacrifices<\/a> to posthumously deified kings.<\/p>\n

The Agojie\u2019s ranks included volunteers and forced conscripts<\/a> alike. \u201cRegiments were recruited from slaves, some of them captured as early in age as 10 years old, also the poor, and girls who were rebellious,\u201d said<\/a> Terri Ochiagha<\/a>, an expert on colonial and postcolonial Nigeria at the University of Edinburgh, in the 2018 Smithsonian Channel documentary series \u201cEpic Warrior Women<\/a>.\u201d In The Woman King<\/em>, Nawi ends up in the army after refusing to marry an elderly suitor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

During the 17th century, the Agooji were a battle-hardened, all-female warrior force that held a special place within the African kingdom of Dahomey. Most were former slaves, with only the bravest and toughest admitted into the fold.<\/p>\n

All of Dahomey\u2019s women warriors were considered ahosi<\/em>, or wives of the king. They lived in the royal palace<\/a> alongside the king and his other wives, inhabiting a largely woman-dominated space. Aside from eunuchs and the king himself, no men were allowed in the palace after sunset.<\/p>\n

As Alpern told Smithsonian <\/em>magazine<\/a> in 2011, the Agojie were considered the king\u2019s \u201cthird-class\u201d wives, as they typically didn\u2019t share his bed or bear his children. Because they were married to the king, they were restricted from having sex with other men, although the degree to which this celibacy was enforced is subject to debate<\/a>. In addition to enjoying privileged status, the warriors had access to a steady supply of tobacco and alcohol. They also had enslaved servants of their own.<\/p>\n

To become an Agojie, recruits underwent intensive training, including exercises designed to harden them to bloodshed. In 1889, French naval officer Jean Bayol witnessed Nanisca<\/a> (who likely inspired the name of Davis\u2019 character in The Woman King<\/em>), a teenager \u201cwho had not yet killed anyone,\u201d easily pass a test of wills. Walking up to a condemned prisoner, she reportedly \u201cswung her sword three times with both hands, then calmly cut the last flesh that attached the head to the trunk. \u2026 She then squeezed the blood off her weapon and swallowed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Officers Recruits underwent intensive training to become members of the elite Agojie. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n

Another common form of training involved mock assaults that found recruits scrambling across towering walls of acacia thorns. In the words<\/a> of a British traveler who examined the barriers, \u201cI could not persuade myself that any human being, without boots or shoes, would, under any circumstances, attempt to pass over so dangerous a collection of the most efficiently armed plants I had ever seen.\u201d The warriors bore the pain without complaint, and the bravest among them received acacia thorn belts marking their stoicism.<\/p>\n

The Agojie\u2019s divisions consisted of five branches: blunderbuss or artillery women, elephant hunters, musketeers, razor women, and archers. Surprising the enemy was of the utmost importance. Warriors snuck up on villages at or before dawn, taking captives and decapitating those who resisted. Though European accounts of the Agojie vary widely, what \u201cis indisputable \u2026 is their constantly outstanding performance in combat,\u201d wrote Alpern in Amazons of Black Sparta<\/em>. With the rest of the Dahomean army, these women warriors were \u201cthe scourge and terror of the whole surrounding country, always at war and generally victorious,\u201d as an American missionary later recounted.<\/p>\n

What happened to the Agojie?<\/h2>\n

Dahomey\u2019s military dominance started to wane in the second half of the 19th century, when its army repeatedly failed to capture Abeokuta<\/a>, a well-fortified Egba capital in what is now southwest Nigeria. An 1851 battle with the Egba, who\u2019d settled in the region following the decline of the Oyo Empire, resulted in the deaths of up to 2,000 Agojie; in 1864, King Glele, who succeeded Ghezo a few years earlier, sought to avenge his father\u2019s defeat at Abeokuta but was forced to retreat after just an hour and a half of fighting. Dahomean forces continued to target Egba villages until the early 1890s, when war with the French threatened the kingdom\u2019s very existence.<\/p>\n

Dahomey\u2019s encounters with European colonizers had historically revolved mainly around the slave trade and religious missions<\/a>. As the Scramble for Africa<\/a> ramped up, however, tensions between Dahomey and France escalated. In 1863, the French declared the neighboring kingdom of Porto-Novo<\/a> a colonial protectorate, angering Glele, who considered Porto-Novo a vassal of Dahomey. Glele also clashed with the French over the port city of Cotonou<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"B\u00e9hanzin B\u00e9hanzin in 1895 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \"A A British illustration of French and Dahomean forces fighting at Cotopa in 1893 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n

As Larsen articulates, the existence\u2014and dominance\u2014of Dahomey\u2019s women warriors upset the French\u2019s \u201cunderstanding of gender roles and what women were supposed to do\u201d in a \u201ccivilized\u201d society. The women\u2019s \u201cflaunting of ferocity, physical power and fearlessness was manipulated or corrupted as Europeans started to interpret [it] in their own context of what they felt societies should be,\u201d she says. For the French, the Agojie were simply \u201cmore fuel for their civilizing mission<\/a>,\u201d which sought to impose European ideals on African countries.<\/p>\n

The First Franco-Dahomean War<\/a> began on February 21, 1890, just two months after the accession of Glele\u2019s son Kondo, who took the name B\u00e9hanzin<\/a> upon claiming the throne. On March 4, the Dahomean army attacked the French at Cotonou, only to fall to the Europeans\u2019 vastly superior firepower. Nanisca, the teenager who\u2019d left such an impression on French officer Bayol the previous year, decapitated the enemy\u2019s chief gunner but died on the battlefield. Upon seeing Nanisca\u2019s body, Bayol wrote<\/a> that a \u201ccleaver, its curved blade engraved with fetish symbols, was attached to her left wrist by a small cord, and her right hand was clenched round the barrel of her carbine covered with cowries.\u201d<\/p>\n

After facing a similar defeat at the Battle of Atchoupa on April 20, Dahomey agreed to a peace treaty assenting to French control over Porto-Novo and Cotonou. The lull in warfare lasted less than two years\u2014an intermediary period that B\u00e9hanzin spent equipping his army with weapons equal to, or at least better matched with, the French\u2019s. According to Alpern, upon receiving news of the French\u2019s declaration of war, the Dahomean king said<\/a>, \u201cThe first time, I was ignorant of how to make war, but now I know. \u2026 If you want war, I am ready. I wouldn\u2019t stop even if it lasted 100 years and killed 20,000 of my men.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

B\u00e9hanzin proved true to his word. Over the course of seven weeks in fall 1892, Dahomey\u2019s army fought valiantly to repel the French. The Agojie participated in 23 separate engagements during that short time span, earning the enemy\u2019s respect for their valor and dedication to the cause. As one marine noted<\/a>, \u201c[N]either the cannons, nor the canister shot, nor the salvo fire stops them. \u2026 It is really strange to see women so well led, so well disciplined.\u201d Though sources disagree on the number of women warriors who fought in the Second Franco-Dahomean War<\/a>, Alpern cites 1,200 to 2,500 as a likely range.<\/p>\n

\"An An illustration of Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, a leader of the Agojie, holding the severed head of an enemy Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n

At the village of Ad\u00e9gon on October 6, the Agojie suffered arguably their worst losses yet, with just 17 soldiers returning from an initial force of 434. B\u00e9hanzin\u2019s brother Sagbaju Glele, who lived until the 1970s, told a local historian that the battle brought a moment of clarity for Dahomey\u2019s courtiers, who now realized the inevitability of their kingdom\u2019s destruction. The Dahomean army made a final stand at Cana in early November. The last day of fighting, reported<\/a> a French marine colonel, was \u201cone of the most murderous\u201d of the entire war, beginning with the dramatic entrance of \u201cthe last Amazons \u2026 as well as the elephant hunters whose special assignment was to direct their fire at the officers.\u201d The French officially seized the Dahomey capital of Abomey on November 17.<\/p>\n

Between 2,000 and 4,000 Dahomean soldiers\u2014including both men and women\u2014died during the seven-week war. Of the roughly 1,200 Agojie in fighting shape at the beginning of the war, just 50 or 60 remained ready for battle by its end. Comparatively, the French side lost 52 Europeans and 33 Africans on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

After the war, some of the surviving Agojie followed B\u00e9hanzin into exile in Martinique or served his brother, a puppet king installed by the French. Others tried to reenter society, to varying degrees of success. Still others toured Europe and the United States, performing dances and battlefield reenactments at \u201cliving exhibitions<\/a>\u201d that played into racist stereotypes<\/a> of African people. At the 1893 World\u2019s Columbian Exposition<\/a> in Chicago, visitors to the \u201cDahomey Village<\/a>\u201d were welcomed by a pair of juxtaposed paintings: an Agojie holding up an enemy\u2019s severed head and a white colonizer raising his helmet. \u201cYou have these parallel images of what was considered barbaric and what the civilizers were here to correct,\u201d says Larsen.<\/p>\n

\"The The Dahomey Village at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, Leonard Wantchekon<\/a>, an economist at Princeton University and native of Benin<\/a> who leads research seeking to identify the Agojie\u2019s descendants, told the Washington Post<\/em><\/a> that French colonization proved detrimental to women\u2019s rights in Dahomey, with colonizers barring women from political leadership (in addition to serving as warriors, ahosi could become royal cabinet ministers) and educational opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe French made sure this history wasn\u2019t known,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey said we were backward, that they needed to \u2018civilize us,\u2019 but they destroyed opportunities for women that existed nowhere else in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nawi, the last known surviving Agojie with battlefield experience (and the probable inspiration for Mbedu\u2019s character), died in 1979<\/a>, at well over 100 years old. But Agojie traditions continued<\/a> long after Dahomey\u2019s fall, with descendants of the warrior women sharing stories<\/a> about their formidable ancestors and participating in religious rituals. When actress Lupita Nyong\u2019o<\/a> visited Benin for a 2019 Smithsonian Channel special<\/a>, she met a woman<\/a> identified by locals as an Agojie who\u2019d been trained by older warriors as a child and kept hidden within a palace for decades.<\/p>\n

Speaking with History.com<\/em><\/a>, Wantchekon emphasizes the central role played by women in Dahomean society. \u201cWhen we push back against [colonialist] misconception[s] and embrace the culture of gender equality that was thriving in Benin and places like it before colonization,\u201d he says, \u201cit is a way to embrace the legacy of this exceptional group of African female leaders that European history tried so hard to erase.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Agoli-Agbo Agoli-agbo (seated, center), a puppet king installed by the French in 1894 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>

\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Real Warriors Behind \u2018The Woman King\u2019 A new film stars Viola Davis as the leader of the Agojie, the all-woman army of the African kingdom of Dahomey The Woman King\u00a0tells the story of the Agojie, an elite, all-woman army in the West African kingdom of Dahomey. Photo by Chris Hellier \/ Corbis via Getty Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[56,54,133,1],"tags":[1546,1547,1088],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43804"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43807,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43804\/revisions\/43807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}