African Amazons

The Woman King (2022) was one of our most anticipated films of 2022. Finally showed up.

It's set in 1830s Dahomey, ruled by king John Boyega. His kingdom is protected by a group of women warriors called Agojie, lead by Viola Davis. They are forced to pay tribute to the larger neighboring kingdom of Oyo, who have recently taken a group of Dahomey women for the slave trade. Davis leads the Agojie on a successgful raid to retake them. This battle gives you some idea of what to expect - lots of amazing fight scenes.

Thuso Mbedu plays a young woman whose family keeps trying to marry off. She greets each old man suitor with violence, so her family finally send her to become Agojie. She meets tough drill sergeant Lashana Lynch, who will be her mentor, tormentor and friend.

Viola Davis begins to lobby the king to get out of the slavery trade, which he justifies by saying they never sell Dahomey people, only war prisoners. Meanwhile, the Oyo come for their tribute, bringing along some Portuguese slaver traders, including Jordan Bolger, whose mother was from Dahomey. Although the Agojie are not allowed outside relationships, Mbedu begins a friendship with him. The Oyo demand 40 slaves to make up for the raid Davis made, and the king and Davis send them off.

But of course, it's a Trojan Horse situation, and the slaves are really Agojie, who fight free. However, Mbedu and Lynch, among others are captured. Davis wants to lead a raid to recover them, but Boyega doesn't want all-out war, and forbids it. Do you think that stops her?

In some ways, this is a simple movie: Viola Davis, the leader, John Boyega, her king, Thuso Mbedu, the ground-level kid, and Latasha Lynch as the hardened veteran. There are big battle scenes, and the theme of slavery in Africa. But it's all a little deeper than that. Boyega's king wants to be a good man, but but doesn't want to give up slavery as a basis for the economy. Davis, the warrior, values discipline even above, for example, hot intelligence on the enemy. Yet, she becomes entangled with Mbedu, and disobeys an order from her king. The Portuguese, at least, are just plain bad guys.

We haven't followed the movies of director Gina Prince-Blythewood, except The Old Guard (which I guess I didn't blog because I used to skip a lot of streaming). So it looks like she can handle action. It was also interesting to see so many women and Africans (and African women) behind the scenes of this movie. Not that that would be a reason to watch or not, but interesting.