Viola Davis’ highly anticipated film The Woman King dominated the box offices on Friday, pulling in over $19 million in sales and astonishing audiences across America. But while some fans praised Davis for her stunning portrayal of the brawny general, Nanisca, on-screen, a few critics slammed the movie’s director Gina Prince-Bythewood for downplaying some of the controversial historical contexts behind the film’s plot.

 

Who were the Agojie soldiers?

The epic drama, tells the powerful story of the Agojie soldiers, a fierce 6,000-strong female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey between the 17th and 19th centuries. Viola Davis plays the army’s fictional leader in the buzzing movie. In real life, the Agojies were known for their fearlessness. The warrior troupe was notorious for raiding nearby villages. During times of war they would slash off their resisters’ heads and return them to their king as “trophies,” the Smithsonian noted.

Prince-Bythewood’s riveting film celebrates the Agojie for their power and strength, but a few history buffs weren’t too pleased with the way the movie appeared to whitewash Dahomey’s dark historical involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Dahomey and their female military regime played a large role in the trafficking of West African slaves. The African tribe sold off their captives to European traders who in turn, helped boost Dahomey’s wealth during the horrific period.

 

Critics accuse Sony and Gina Prince-Bythewood of whitewashing the Agojie’s dark past

After the film’s release on Friday, some critics flocked to social media with the hashtag boycott the woman king. A slew of users slammed the film’s production company Sony and Prince-Bythewood for attempting to “rewrite” the sordid past of the Agojie. Podcaster Antonio Moore called the historical epic “the most offensive film to Black Americans in 40-50 years.”

Time to Boycott the Woman King movie. The film is about the Dahomey & Benin that traded slaves into the transatlantic. #BoycottWomanKing — Click Here: https://t.co/lzsubGvs5W — This may be the most offensive film to Black Americans in 40-50 years. pic.twitter.com/PwKmLQCTPP

— Antonio Moore (@tonetalks) September 16, 2022

Another user accused the Hollywood bigwigs of “glorifying and whitewashing” the “truth” behind the Dohomey ‘s involvement in the slave trade. While a third user criticized award-winning actress Viola Davis for participating in the film.

“If you’re a Black American that cares about your ancestors #BoycottTheWomanKing,” a Twitter-goer named @TBMW wrote.” I don’t know @violadavis’s motives for going through with such dishonest and shameful movie but #TheWomanKing let it flop! The Dahomey fought to uphold slavery in Africa, just like the Confederacy.” 

If you’re a Black American that cares about your ancestors #BoycottTheWomanKing

I don’t know @violadavis’s motives for going through with such dishonest and shameful movie but #TheWomanKing let it flop

The Dahomey fought to uphold slavery in Africa, just like the Confederacy pic.twitter.com/zDSARVcx80

— TBMW (@TBMW8) September 18, 2022

 

Imagine celebrating a revisionist account of your history by turning slave traders into “Superheroines.” Our ancestors deserve better. We deserve better. #boycottTheWomanKing #TheWomanKing #Dahomey pic.twitter.com/pPONWAI3Bo

— International M + = Sweet Tea & Bakes (@INTL_MJ) September 11, 2022

On the other hand, a few fans of the film argued that Prince-Bythewood and Sony did address the Dahomey’s controversial role in the slave trade. Some social media goers claimed that the historical fact played a large part in the film’s storyline. Here’s a spoiler alert, per the Smithsonian:

The Woman King opens in 1823 with a successful raid by the Agojie, who free captives bound for enslavement from the clutches of the Oyo Empire, a powerful Yoruba state in what is now southwestern Nigeria. Dahomey has long paid tribute to the Oyo but is beginning to assert itself under the leadership of Ghezo and General Nanisca. A parallel plotline finds Nanisca, who disapproves of the slave trade after experiencing its horrors personally, urging Ghezo to end Dahomey’s close relationship with Portuguese slave traders and shift to the production of palm oil as the kingdom’s main export.

Historians note that at one point, Ghezo, the king of Dahomey, did consider switching to palm oil production in real life, but the alternative revenue source proved to be far less lucrative than the exportation of slaves. The Dahomey participated heavily in the slave trade all the way up until 1852 when the tribe finally agreed to halt exportation after years of pressure from the British.

Film writer @Nijla1 on Twitter said she appreciated how the film “wrestled with questions of humanity, freedom, and autonomy in its characters, especially in their views about their society and ways to reform it.”

She added: “Historical context plays a large role in understanding motivations of that time.”

I saw “The Woman King” and was incredibly moved by it. It’s an epic war movie, full of raw emotion, full-bodied performances and masterful action sequences. Lashana Lynch was phenomenal. It does not try to gloss over the slave trade or the role it played in the kingdom.

— Nijla1 (@nijla1) September 17, 2022

 

While critical race theory scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw urged fans to go see the film before boycotting the movie.

Yes I sure did go see The Woman King for the third time this week! Yes it is that good!! Yes, it awakens our thirst for new storytelling. Yes it raises timeless questions about intra- African complicity. And yes these performances are breathtaking. See it. And then we talk. https://t.co/1aOxHGj5uP

— Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks) September 17, 2022

Gina Prince-Bythewood addresses the boycott hysteria

After backlash and criticism took the internet by storm, Prince-Bythewood addressed some of the criticism during an interview with IndieWire.

“I learned early on you cannot win an argument on Twitter,” the filmmaker explained, before arguing that she did carefully address the Dahomey’s historical past in the film. “ I know all of that is going to go away once they see the film. There’s an assumption we’re not dealing with it and we are dealing with it. So I have to live in that confidence. They’re going to see the film and they’re going to see it.”

Cathy Schulman, a producer behind the film, also chimed in on the backlash. “I really wish that the conversations could happen around the film as opposed to around the anticipation of the film, because I think that we did not hesitate to investigate those areas,” she said. “The fact is that slavery is driven by material gain. It offered up people on this continent an option to make money that should not have been offered up or forced upon them. And, once it was, it created all sorts of internal conflict, and we don’t hesitate in visiting that within the film.”

Schulman added, “I’m a big believer that information is power, and I think that understanding issues surrounding slavery from the standpoint of the African perspective is relevant. We look at it most of the time from what happened once these people were enslaved and were actually landing here in America versus what was going on on the other side.”

Viola Davis has not responded to the backlash as of yet, but she did urge fans to support the film’s all-Black female cast and Prince-Bythewood, who is a Black filmmaker.

Like I said at @TIFF_NET, if you don’t plop down money on opening weekend, you’re not going to see…Black females leading a movie AGAIN. Please continue supporting #TheWomanKing   , NOW PLAYING exclusively in theaters. Agojie https://t.co/bnYTq7FLcy pic.twitter.com/lHOBBxPAwW

— Viola Davis (@violadavis) September 18, 2022

SEE ALSO:

7 Black Women Action Heroes That Deserve To Be Celebrated

You Still Mad ‘House Of The Dragon’ Added Black People? Get Over It.

The post Explainer: Why Are Critics Urging Viewers To Boycott ‘The Woman King’? appeared first on NewsOne.