Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Americans are calling for boycott of The Woman King movie as they said the film is about the Dahomey & Benin that traded slaves into the Transatlantic”. (Read More Here).
According to some American critics, it’s movie about a African tribe famous for selling slaves to Europeans that was made into a female empowerment story by two White women writers. You don’t have to be very “woke” to see the problem here.
According to some American critics again, It sheds light on the dynamics of how many African tribes were involved in the slave and it’s impact on Africa and the people, particularly the women.
A few Africans born in Africa said The film is about the Dahomey & Benin that traded slaves into the Transatlantic”
History of DDahomey and Benin:
The Kingdom of Dahomey (/dəˈhoʊmi/) was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by conquering key cities on the Atlantic coast.
The Kingdom of Dahomey was established around 1600 by the Fon people who had recently settled in the area (or were possibly a result of intermarriage between the Aja people and the local Gedevi). The foundational king for Dahomey is often considered to be Houegbadja (c. 1645–1685), who built the Royal Palaces of Abomey and began raiding and taking over towns outside of the Abomey Plateau.
For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey was a key regional state, eventually ending tributary status to the Oyo Empire. European visitors extensively documented the kingdom and it became one of the most familiar African nations to Europeans. The Kingdom of Dahomey was an important regional power that had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and slave labor, significant international trade and diplomatic relations with Europeans, a centralized administration, taxation systems, and an organized military. Notable in the kingdom were significant artwork, an all-female military unit called the Dahomey Amazons by European observers, and the elaborate religious practices of Vodun.
The growth of Dahomey coincided with the growth of the Atlantic slave trade, and it became known to Europeans as a major supplier of slaves. As a loosely centralised kingdom, it was constantly organised for warfare for defenses purposes. As stated by King Kpengla, “We Dahomeans are surrounded by enemies who make incursions, we must defend ourselves. Your countrymen, therefore, who allege that we go to war for the purpose of supplying your ships with slaves, are grossly mistaken.” Captives taken in warfare were sold to Europeans or became slaves in Dahomey, where they worked on royal plantations and were routinely mass executed in large-scale human sacrifices during the festival celebrations known as the Annual Customs of Dahomey. The Annual Customs of Dahomey involved significant collection and distribution of gifts and tribute, religious Vodun ceremonies, military parades, and discussions by dignitaries about the future for the kingdom.
In the 1840s, Dahomey began to face decline with British pressure to abolish the slave trade, which included the British Royal Navy imposing a naval blockade against the kingdom and enforcing anti-slavery patrols near its coast During this time period, Dahomey was also weakened by military defeat from Abeokuta, a Yoruba city-state which was founded as a safe haven for refugees escaping slave raids from Dahomey. Dahomey later began experiencing territorial tensions with France which led to the First Franco-Dahomean War in 1890, resulting in French victory. The kingdom finally fell in 1894 when the last king, Béhanzin, was defeated by France in the Second Franco-Dahomean War, leading to the country being annexed into French West Africa as the colony of French Dahomey.
Reactions below:
Michael: On one hand this actress says #TheWomanKing is historical, it’s real but when promoting this movie they never discuss the REAL history that the Dahomey were African Slave Traders. This movie does not sit right with my soul. #BoycottWomanKing.
Stephanie: As someone with Jewish lineage I am blown away that @Sony green lit #TheWomanKing a film written by two white women which revises and fictionalises the Kingdom of Dahomey’s utter brutality.
This kind of disrespect wouldn’t fly with a Nazi film… why #ADOS?
#BoycottWomanKing.
Johnson: Twitter is undefeated. I had no idea these women were actually deep in the slave trade. I’ll pass. #BoycottWomanKing.
Paula: The Dahomey warriors were not just slave traders
They would take all the young healthly people, murder the elderly & disabled and burn down everything left in the village
The term for what they did is #GENOCIDE
#BoycottWomanKing
#TheWomanKing.
Matthew: #BoycottWomanKing ..Do not take ur children 2 see this movie, rather explain these r vicious Slave Traders. Jewish folk would not dare glorify murderous Nazi’s.
Abel: I am not telling you to #BoycottWomanKing but I am telling you to do your research on the Dahomey Tribe. If then, you decide to watch it, so be it. But being willfully ignorant of the destruction caused by their involvement in the Slave Trade isn’t the flex Hollywood thinks it is
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