The Woman King

[Art]

This movie is based very loosly on the part a brigade sized unit of women soldiers played in the wars between the kingdom of Dahomey in West Africa and the Oyo Empire.

In a nutshell, in the early to mid 1800s the Kingdom of Dahomey was a tributary, or client state, to the Oyo Empire. They had in fact been so beaten down at the end that they put women in the rear ranks of the army to give the impression that the force was larger than it was. When the "metal met the meat" the women warriors, the Agojie, proved surprisingly effective and became an important wing of the Dahomey military. They were especially highly regarded for their proficiency with firearms. Under their most successful king, Gheza, the people of Dahomey were able to free themselves from the Oyo empire and that forms the basis of the story.

Now to the movie.

On a scale of historical accuracy the film doesn't rate more than a "40" on a scale of "100." First, the only non fictional character in the movie is King Gheza. Everyone else is a fictitious character. Second, the role of the Agojie, while important is exagerrated. Finally, and most important, the idea that the Kingdom of Dahomey in some way came to the conclusion that the slave trade was a bad thing is total B.S. Slavery was endemic to their society, not only for the war captives they kept as slaves but the vast numbers of people they sold to the Europeans in the triangular trade. Their activity was curtailed by the British abolition of the slave trade in 1808 and pressure from the British government to find a substitute income. They did go into the export of palm oil eventually but that was never more than a supplement. Lupita Nyongo, an actual African actress and Academy Award winner turned down the role because she would not play a part in glorifying the slave trade in any way. Finally, I found the most serious flaw of the movie is its slow moving plodding pace. I can tolerate some historical inaccuracy but not a slow moving action movie.

In the 1890s Dahomey was subjugated by the French after two brutal wars and the former Kingdom of Dahomey is now part of the country of Benin where it has local autonomy.