Tony Malick


WOMEN warriors have long captured the imagination, especially among modern entertainment producers — and understandably so. The idea of an all-female battle regiment, experienced at warfare and fighting on behalf of a West African kingdom called Dahomey for three centuries is intriguing in character, admirable in scope and irresistible in content to Hollywood executives.

The Woman King, based on an idea pitched to Viola Davis by Maria Bello at an awards ceremony, written by Dana Stevens and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, is the latest contemporary cinematic rendition of the African Amazon. She has turned up in novels, video games, in a Werner Herzog movie — Cobra Verde, the TV series Lovecraft Country, and, most recently, as Dora Milaje in Black Panther, proud protectors of Wakanda. In The Woman King, she rules as the Agojie. These tough women don’t rule the kingdom, they rule the battlefields of the ancient West African terrain. Their very existence lends itself to Afrocentric archetypes; otherworldly warriors seemingly out of time, in defiance of the mighty Oyo Empire and an all-pervasive patriarchy.

 Going into The Woman King on my return to the cinema since March, I was curious to see how a cinematic challenge so completely African would be approached by Hollywood — notorious for its cultural dishonesty and historical inaccuracies.



The movie began with eerie suspense and suddenly exploded into bloodshed when the Agojie warriors, led by their commander Nanisca (Viola Davis in another lead role where she contorts her facial features for hours), and a detachment of Oyo warriors, who had captured slaves from Dahomey, clashed in a brutal battle on the border of the Kingdom. I almost jumped off my seat in excitement. Barely five minutes in and the director was already cooking, or so I thought.

After the thrilling opening scene, the film settled into trying to peel the layers beneath the Kingdom which the Agojie warriors die in numbers for. Nanisca is concerned and is recruiting more warriors to replace the dead; girls who are willing to confirm to authority, sacrifice matrimonial duties and fight like men. But what does she get? Nawi (played by Thuso Mbedu and named after the last existing Agojie in history), a mouthy, disobedient teenager with coconut head who her good-for-nothing father wants to marry off to King Ghezo (John Boyega) in order to pay off debts. His plans come to nothing when, instead of a beautiful girl and potential queen, Izogie (Lashana Lynch) sees a promising warrior in the defiant girl and recruits her into the army. This is when convolution begins to plague the movie as the story begins to take on historical questions and romantic conflicts at the same time.


The Agojie promises freedom to all members, but not to those they conquer. The captured are offered as tribute to the tyrannical Oyo Empire, who then sell their fellow Africans to slave traders from Portugal, Brazil, etc. in exchange for guns, mirrors and whiskey (Izogie's favorite brew). So basically, we're introduced to the story of the Agojie at a time when this cycle of oppression bothers the guilt-ridden Nanisca and which she wants King Ghezo to break. Critics will argue that this is revisionist history bordering on the Tarantinoesque, that the real-life Agojie participated in the slave trade without remorse until they were disbanded in the 19th century. Meanwhile, Nanisca is troubled by dreams foreshadowing consequences of events from her past, to the concern of her lover, Amenza (Sheila Atim) and Nawi, true to character, wants a relationship with Malik (James Bolger) the son of a Dahomean slave and Brazilian slave trader.

Consequently, the narrative soon became clunky. The Woman King excelled when its costume-drama features and John Boyega quips were combined with eye-catching fight sequences but struggled when it had to switch from these well-acted  scenes to Telemundo-like plot twists and romance. Within a few minutes, Malik rejected his Caucasian heritage for his Dahomean heritage and renounced the slave trade after meeting Nawi. The romance is rushed and awkward but that’s how love works, right? Also, the movie barely hid its desire for Dahomey to be seen as modern, progressive, and revolutionary in its portrayal of colonial slavery, institutional discrimination and racial differences. It’s a revisionism of history that is difficult to ignore for those who have studied the story historically because the broader The Woman King got in ideological themes, the less convincing it appeared.



However, the writers and director can be excused for taking the same sort of liberties with history that blockbusters like Braveheart and Gladiator did over two decades ago in order to satisfy cinema goers — and streamers now. Though the era of Hollywood hits when costume-drama sensibilities were combined with a flamboyant approach to bloodshed is what The Woman King throws back to, there’s an extra element which sets the movie apart from its contemporaries and may elevate it to cult-classic status: the message of sisterly, African love and respect vis-à-vis the appreciation for the indigenous African story on screen. The Woman King may yet be a pioneer and inspiration for a new subgenre of contemporary cinema. 


Movie rating: 7/10