As audiences around the world become fascinated by the female warriors of Dora Milaje in Wakanda, actress Viola Davis (Suicide Squad) will bring the story of the real-life African woman warrior to screen. woman king. Today, first-look photos of The Woman King are released, showing Davis and her supporting cast of actresses who are ubiquitously similar to the Agoji Army of the West African Kingdom of Dahomey, a dynasty largely forgotten by history — until now.
“The Woman King” tells the story of the Agoji, a veritable army of female warriors who have defended the powerful Kingdom of Dahomey in West Africa for centuries – and which history has largely forgotten.
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– VanityFair 5 July 2022
Dahomey (now known as Benin) was defended by Agogi in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and Western explorers dubbed them the “Dahomey Amazon”, due to their similarity to the Amazon in legend. The Women’s Military Regiment was created out of necessity after the male population of Dahomey declined due to the ongoing war with neighboring states and the slave trade, which required annual sacrifices of healthy males to oppressive forces such as the Oyo Empire.
The kings of Dahomey compensated for losses by conscripting females into military service. Initially, women were deployed in elephant hunting. When the daughter of King Huigbadja assumed the throne as Queen of Hanegbi, she created a series of bodyguards. Hangbe’s successors (the history has become a bit murky) steadily transformed this bodyguard unit into a women’s army over the next century and a half.
Viola Davis will play General Nanska, an Agogi commander. Johnb Boyega will play King Ghezo, the ruler who is credited with turning the Agoji into a full army, during a military era in Dahomey.
Davis said, “I’ve never had a role like this before. It’s transformative.” Vanity Fair. “And to be a producer of it, knowing I had my hand in making it pay off… I knew what it would mean to us as black people. Something that hadn’t been done before. And what it would mean for the black women sitting in that movie theater. The responsibility is really big.”
“We didn’t want to show them that they were just one woman who was murdered,” adds director Gina Prince-Bethwood. “They also laughed and loved and cried. We wanted to show their full humanity, not just the cool part that would look good in a trailer.”
As for the “modernity” of the masses that see African women as champions in military action, woman king They may end up getting support from the fictional heroes who inspired them: Black Panther’s Dora Milaje. But for Prince-Bythwood, recreating reality would be much better than fiction: “If you can digest symbol picture, Then you can absorb this.”
The Woman King arrives in theaters September 16. It also stars Thoso Mbedo, Lashana Lynch, Adrian Warren, Sheila Atem, Jimmy Lawson, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin.
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