The business of slavery is what brought Dahomey most of its wealth. They also kept some slaves for themselves to work on royal plantations. Many of the slaves they sold ended up in America. They conquered neighboring African states and took their citizens as slaves, selling many in the Atlantic slave trade in exchange for items like rifles, tobacco, and alcohol. It was customary for the Dahomey to return home with the rotting heads and genitals of those they killed in battle. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a bloodthirsty society bent on conquest. In answering the question, "How accurate is The Woman King?" we learned that in real life, the Dahomey are much more the villains than the heroes. Her actions contradict the anti-slavery stance of Nanisca in the movie. Only about 1,200 Agojie warriors survived the lengthy battle. Their swords, spears, and bows were largely ineffective against Egba's European cannons. In 1851, Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh led an army of 6,000 Dahomey female warriors against the Egba fortress of Abeokuta in order to obtain slaves for the Dahomey slave trade. For example, General Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh (depicted in the image below) commanded the Agojie during at least part of the reign of King Ghezo (portrayed by John Boyega). While conducting The Woman King fact-check, we learned that Viola Davis' character was significantly fictionalized when compared to the real-life female generals of Dahomey. She then cut the remaining bit of flesh that held the head to the trunk and "squeezed the blood off her weapon and swallowed it." While Viola Davis' character is much older, it's possible her name was inspired by the teenage Nanisca the French officer observed. Nanisca took her sword in both hands and swung three times, almost entirely decapitating the prisoner. While she appears to be almost entirely fictional, French naval officer Jean Bayol, who visited the region in December 1889, wrote of watching a teenage recruit named Nanisca, "who had not yet killed anyone." He describes her approaching a young prisoner sitting bound in a basket. In movie, Nanisca (Viola Davis) is the general of the Agojie (Dahomey Amazons). This makes some sense given that men were forbidden from being in the palace precincts while Dahomean women were not. Later, the gbeto evolved into the Dahomey Amazons (Agojie) after they were initially recruited for a palace guard unit in the early 1700s, possibly under the reign of Queen Hangbe (1708-1711). Another theory suggests the Agojie's origins can be traced to Dahomey's skilled female hunters who operated in teams known a gbeto. In the least, this seems to explain the Agojie's expansion under King Ghezo (portrayed by John Boyega) from the hundreds to the thousands. One theory is that the creation of an all-female military regiment became necessary due to the high number of casualties the kingdom was suffering in conflicts with neighboring West African states. They made their first appearance in written history in 1729. French slaver Jean-Pierre Thibault observed them at the Dahomean port of Ouidah in 1725. 1600-1904), forming either sometime during King Houegbadja's reign (1645-1685) or in the early 1700s. The Agojie existed for much of the Kingdom of Dahomey's existence (c. They were referred to as the Dahomey Amazons by Western Europeans who wrote about them, an obvious nod to the fierce female warriors in Greek mythology. The Woman King true story confirms that the all-female military regiment existed and was called the Agojie or Mino (Our Mothers). Is the regiment of female fighters in the movie based on an actual group of female Dahomey warriors?
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