Last night, we turned on a film on Netflix that is not at all like the type of film we usually watch. The film was The Woman King, released in 2022, starring Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu. It got 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDB gave it 6.9 out of 10.

The story is fiction; the setting is historical. One character (I think only one) is based on an historic figure, King Ghezo of Dahomey.

In the film, Davis plays Nanisca, the leader of an all-female military force (the “Agojie”), who, after a victory over a neighborhood dominating tribe, is selected by King Ghezo to serve along with him as a female king. She had defeated the leader of the Oyo, a neighboring and dominating tribe. Within the mix is the relationship of the Dahomey, the Oyo, and other tribes, to the enslavement of fellow Africans.

The story is sort of silly – with a young Thuso Mbedu (Nawi), joining the Agojie at age 19 and becoming a top recruit, learning she was the abandoned daughter of Nanisca, falling in love with a half-African, half-Brazilian man who accompanied a slave trader to visit his mother’s homeland, and deciding – after the battles were won – that she was an Agojie, and would forgo leaving Africa with the man she loved. Throughout were Agojie’s participation in battles, showing great courage, a more luck than a real person could possible ever have.

But what the film did was get me into looking at the history of Dahomey (basically now the nation of Benin, although it was still Dahomey when I was young and actively collecting stamps) in the 19th century. And, what little I looked at, is pretty interesting.

The Oyo tribe dominated the region from what is now Nigeria I think, collecting tribute from neighboring tribes, including the Dahomey. Both tribes were also active participants in the slave trade, collecting people (often after military victories) to sell to traders, who landed at their port of Ouidah. In the film, the traders were Portuguese speaking Brazilians. In fact, they may have been the most common traders in Ouidah, as the buyers of more slaves than any other New World groups.

At the same time, the smaller Dahomey tribe was known for a number of things, including their use of female warriors, the Agojie. And King Ghezo was a real monarch, ruling for about 40 years during the earlier years of the 19th century.

Agojie fought for centuries for Dahomey, but their numbers were increased by King Ghezo from about 600 to about 6000. As in the film, the Agojie fought to end the dominance of the Oyo in the 1820s. The film also has a subplot where Nanisca convinces the king to stop participating in the slave trade, and instead concentrate on the production and export of palm oil. This didn’t really happen. There apparently was an attempt to export palm oil at this time, but it was not very successful, and participation in the slave trade did not end until the 1850s. In fact, according to Wikipedia, more than 1 million enslaved people were sold in and transported from Ouidah.

It apparently also true that, during the time the Agojie were active, there were Women Kings in Dahomey. They were selected by the Male King (they were not his sexual partners or queens) and shared power with him (with the King having ultimate say, when they disagreed).

During the 19th century, Dahomey and most of Africa was still free of European political dominance. France took over Dahomey as a colony in 1894, and all this changed (well after the events as portrayed in the film). It was at this time, I have read, that the last Agojie were disarmed and dismissed.

The film itself gets an A for energy, a C for plot, and a B for general interest. It is leaving Netflix in 3 days. If you happen to miss it…..that is okay.