The first trailer dropped for an upcoming historical drama called The Woman King with Viola Davis and John Boyega, and I broke my Excitement Meter at an over-9000 level burst. Then I did some research on the subject, and I’m very very very worried, guys.

First the good: this movie looks AMAZING. It’s focus is on the Agoji (the Dahomey Amazons), an elite group of badass female warriors that existed for several centuries in the Kingdom of Dahomey in present day Benin. I’m not going to drop much info on them here since I don’t want to make this post too long, but I encourage everyone to look them up because HOLY fuckin MOLEY were they awesome. In the movie, Viola Davis plays the lead, a fictional character who is the leader of the Agoji. The cast looks great, but I’m going to point out John Boyega’s role as the real King Ghezo, because this is important.

Before I get to the worrying bits, check out the trailer: https://youtu.be/3RDaPV_rJ1Y

One description of the movie says it’s about the women warriors who “fought enemies who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they have lived for.”

Sounds awesome, right? Bad ass elite female warriors smashing the skulls of European colonists and slave traders. Who wouldn’t want to bask in the righteous glory of a swole Viola Davis slaughtering slavers’ in droves?

But the actual history is where is gets... problematic. We can date the exact time the movie is set by the inclusion of King Ghezo, played by John Boyega.

And here’s the problem. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a major player in the Atlantic Slave trade. They weren’t the only west African kingdom to sell slaves to colonialists, but they certainly had a huge role. But King Ghezo -- duuude. Much of Ghezo’s rule (1818 - 1858) was spent at war with various other African kingdoms, but also notably with the British Empire. Why, you ask? Because at this time, slavery and participation in the slave trade had been banned in England. Their navy was working actively to end the Atlantic Slave Trade. And Dahomey was one of the biggest sources of African slaves still active. Ghezo not only encouraged this, but was firmly committed to it’s slave-based economic deals with other colonial powers like France. They lied to the Brits several times, saying they would stop the practice, but always reneged on their word. The British Navy spent much of Ghezo’s rule blockading his ports. 

How is the Woman King going to deal with the fact that the King represented was the very person who enslaved their people (technically they were mostly prisoners of war) and fought the keep the Atlantic Slave Trade from crumbling? Dahomey was a slave-driven society, as it had been for centuries. This was far from uncommon, but will The Woman King even deal with this?

My huge huge huge worry is that The Woman King is going to do the old Hollywood Wash on the problematic historical events during this period. Y’know, they could have chosen to represent an earlier time period, like when the Agoji were first formed. And hell, they might just use the hypocrisy of this Slaver King to create a great interpersonal drama between the King and the main character who served him, who despises the slave trade but is strained by her loyalty to him. But will they? Is this going to be a complex tale of loyalty coming to grips with the actions of those who command said loyalty? I hope so. I really do. But everything tells me that it isn’t. The trailer makes it sound like it’s going to be another Braveheart, but FAR worse. Like Hamilton and Braveheart had a child who inherited only the bad parts of each work. And look - I don’t care about certain inaccuracies in historical movies. It doesn’t bother me that soldiers in so-and-so action epic have the wrong color buttons on their uniforms. But this shit -- I don’t even know what to call it. A bizarre form of white washing? Or just an epic Hollywood fuck up that is going to change the true history of it’s subject in the public consciousness?

Lupita Nyong’o to Trace History of Real Life All-Female ‘Amazons’ African Army

  Lupita Nyong’o will be delving into the story of the Agoji, an all-female army with up to 4,000 members, who Europeans called Amazons.

The women fought African and European opposition between the 17th and 19th centuries in the West African kingdom of Dahomey, which is now known as Benin.

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The Agojie Warrior: An African Queen

a really ugly work in progress. 

I do like where this if going, or at least where i hope it ends up when i’m done.