{"id":1650608,"date":"2022-09-21T08:06:45","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T12:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1650608"},"modified":"2022-09-21T08:08:37","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T12:08:37","slug":"anti-historical-the-woman-king-lies-about-africas-slave-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-historical-the-woman-king-lies-about-africas-slave-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Historical \u2018The Woman King\u2019 Lies About Africa\u2019s Slave Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fanti-historical-the-woman-king-lies-about-africas-slave-trade%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1650608&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe Woman King,\u201d a new \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/movies\/newsletter\/2022-09-16\/indie-focus-woman-king-pearl-moonage-daydream-indie-focus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">historical action epic<\/a>\u201d starring Viola Davis, has been treated to laudatory reviews by the corporate press. It has been called \u201cindelible and truly inspiring\u201d in an <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/GMA\/Culture\/review-woman-king-indelible-inspiring\/story?id=89966332&amp;cid=social_twitter_abcn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ABC News review<\/a> which features the subhead \u201cBlack women only \u2014 no white saviors need apply.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/obsessed\/the-woman-king-review-viola-davis-black-feminist-action-movie-is-a-tour-de-force\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Daily Beast<\/a> labeled it \u201can absolute blast of a cinematic experience,\u201d praising its \u201cthick layers of history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Set in 1823 in the West African kingdom of Dahomey (modern Benin), the movie pits the innocent Dahomans, protected by the elite all-female Agojie army, against the evil Oyo Empire, which operates as a brutal arm of the European slave trade and wishes to force Dahomey into providing slaves. Dahomey is portrayed as a kingdom that only wishes for peace and autonomy, whose king, Ghezo (John Boyega), is looking for alternatives to the awful trade in which his tribe has been reluctantly forced to participate. Besides manfully defending the citizens and king of Dahomey, the Agojie, under their leader Nanisca (Davis), are also proponents of ending the slave trade and replacing it with the cultivation of palm oil.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the film, Dahomey is presented as a small, put-upon kingdom that only seeks harmony and desires the destruction of the evil trade in human bodies \u2014 led by greedy Europeans \u2014 which plagued the region. In the words of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/movies\/story\/2022-08-31\/woman-king-true-story-agojie-dahomey-fall-arts-preview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Los Angeles Times<\/a>, \u201cThe Woman King\u201d is an \u201cincredible true story\u201d about \u201cthis amazing group of female soldiers who caused such an act of resistance that slavery paused for a time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The problem? Almost none of this is true.<\/p>\n<p>Not only does the movie massage the events of the past to fit a progressive narrative, it outright reverses the polarity of history entirely and makes heroic a kingdom that was, in reality, one of the biggest drivers of the slave trade. It only takes a brief look at the primary sources to completely debunk the entire plot of \u201cThe Woman King.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The biggest issue with the movie\u2019s historical depiction is how it discusses Dahomey\u2019s involvement in the slave trade. In the film, King Ghezo is shown as a leader who wishes to escape involvement in the trade, which has been forced on him by the evil Oyo and their European allies. In reality, Ghezo was put in power by a <a href=\"https:\/\/neusroom.com\/king-gezo-of-dahomey-west-africas-most-notorious-slave-trading-monarch-who-had-an-all-female-army\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">coup supported heavily by Brazilian slave traders<\/a>, one which transformed Dahomey into \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/dli.ministry.11733\/E12919_Dahomey_and_the_Dahomans_vol_I\/page\/n21\/mode\/2up?view=theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the dreaded oppressor of neighboring nations<\/a>.\u201d The king who Ghezo deposed was, in actuality, the one who briefly attempted a switch to agriculture; the scholar I.A. Akinjogbin writes that Ghezo\u2019s coup was intended to \u201csucceed where his predecessors had failed\u201d in maintaining a prosperous slave trade. The new king had a deep relationship with the European slavers who helped put him on the throne, especially Francisco Felix de Souza, who \u201cwas considered the second king of Dahomey\u201d due to his influence in court.<\/p>\n<p>According to Frederick E. Forbes, a commander in the British Royal Navy who <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/dli.ministry.11733\/E12919_Dahomey_and_the_Dahomans_vol_I\/page\/n21\/mode\/2up?view=theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote of his visits to Ghezo\u2019s Dahomey<\/a>, the kingdom became extremely militaristic after the coup and actively attacked its neighbors: \u201c\u2026should a neighboring people become rich, it is regarded as sufficient insult to call forth an immediate declaration of war from the court of Dahomey.\u201d Ghezo was called \u201ca monarch whose whole existence depends on the slave trade, whose every exertion is to supply a larger number to the market of the preceding year.\u201d One victim of this slave-raiding aggression was a nearby independent community of Igbo tribes, which was put under unprovoked Dahoman assault. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk\/viewer\/BL\/0000155\/18590324\/007\/0003?browse=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bradford Observer of March 24, 1859<\/a> \u2014 noting the death of Ghezo, whom they label \u201ca scourge of the human race\u201d \u2014 has the details: \u201cHe attacked them, burnt their towns, carried off the choicest people, and when his own violence was unsuccessful, his intrigues introduced civil war, which completed their ruin.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Forbes also described Dahoman culture as inherently militaristic and driven by conquest and booty: \u201cThe nucleus of the national power, the throne, is occupied at the pleasure of the militant people, who claim an annual war as a birthright.\u201d These regular wars were undertaken purely for the capture of slaves and the expansion of Dahomey as a kingdom; Forbes describes Dahoman combat as \u201ca war of extermination, and with the conquest falls the very name of the kingdom, never more to be revived.\u201d Ironically enough for the woke historians who decry imperialism, Dahoman officials favorably compared their kingdom to England: \u201cYour queen can conquer all white nations, Ghezo can take all blacks.\u201d A munificent and peaceful ruler Ghezo was not.<\/p>\n<p>What of the film\u2019s supposed focus on female empowerment? Well, the Agojie warriors \u2014 known to Europeans as Amazons \u2014 did exist and were a fearsome fighting force. In terms of history corroborating \u201cThe Woman King\u2019s\u201d fiction, the similarities end there. Contrary to the film\u2019s depiction, the Agojie were primarily slave raiders who carried out wars of conquest on Dahomey\u2019s neighbors. Forbes describes them as \u201cexceeding their male coadjutors in cruelty and all the stronger passions\u201d and quotes them as chanting, \u201c[we] will conquer or die!\u201d The supposedly-progressive King Ghezo himself had \u201cthousands of wives,\u201d including many forcibly captured by the Agojie for his sexual enjoyment. To top this, human sacrifice was common, with the Bradford Observer humorously remarking that upon Ghezo\u2019s death:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cIt had been proposed to facilitate Ghezo\u2019s admission into the other world by the slaughter of 2,000 Africans, but, whether from the difficulty of procuring that number or from their greatly increased value to the Spaniards, the massacre was happily limited to 800.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>None of this has stopped the film\u2019s boosters from pushing the idea that \u201cThe Woman King\u201d is a meaningful historical work. For instance, NBC ran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/think\/opinion\/the-woman-king-may-not-be-100-percent-factual-but-its-a-must-see-rcna48103?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a review titled<\/a>: \u201c\u2018The Woman King\u2019 may not be 100% factual. But that doesn\u2019t stop it from being a must-see.\u201d Yahoo, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/woman-king-director-gina-prince-155512458.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discussing the issue<\/a>, labeled these historical problems as merely \u201cperceived inaccuracies,\u201d while the movie\u2019s director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, has declined to see any issues whatsoever with the way the reality of Dahomey is depicted in her work.<\/p>\n<p>This attitude of denial in the face of historical truth echoes the response by proponents of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2019\/08\/14\/magazine\/1619-america-slavery.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1619 Project<\/a>, who flat-out refuse to accept the criticisms of that work\u2019s factual basis. This proves that between progressives in academia, woke journalists in the corporate media, and Hollywood liberals, the left has a firm grasp on the levers of historical truth, with which they intend to promote their political ideology. As George Orwell presciently wrote in his masterwork <em>1984<\/em>, \u201cWho controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, the left tends to overreach and make unforced errors; the laughable treatment of history in \u201cThe Woman King\u201d seems to be one of them. Conservatives and historians could ask for no better example of this absurdity than a film that presents a genocidal, slave-raiding kingdom as beneficent defenders of freedom. If you\u2019re looking for accurate history (or general enjoyment) in a film, you\u2019d be better off watching \u201cInglourious Basterds.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Mike Cot\u00e9 is a writer and podcaster focusing on history, Great Power rivalry, and geopolitics. He blogs at rationalpolicy.com, hosts the Rational Policy podcast, and can be found on Twitter @ratlpolicy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe Woman King,\u201d a new \u201chistorical action epic\u201d starring Viola Davis, has been treated to laudatory reviews by the corporate press. It has been called \u201cindelible and truly inspiring\u201d in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1373,"featured_media":1650612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1650608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1650608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1650612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1650608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1650608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1650608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}