When I first about this movie I was curious and expecting to see a kingdom whose king is a woman as the name sounds "THE WOMAN KING" even though Royal women are either princess or called Queen but what I saw was amazingly different, I gave no attention at first but since everyone was recommending the movie I decided to give it a try and discovered it was super interesting.
The story line is focused on the kingdom of Dahomey who had its new king "GHEZO", Ghezo was enthroned king of Dahomey as a result of the battle Nanisca fourth on his behalf, here she comes the woman king " she fought for him during the coup, put him on the throne "those are the words of king Gheze's closest servant, I call him the female man because he always act like one anyways that's not our concern, let's talk on Nanisca.
Nanisca is a fierce and fearless woman and warrior who has this great concern for the people of dahomey, all her efforts were channeled towards bringing an end to the selling of dahomey's citizens for slave trade to the Europeans slave masters in exchange for weapons, Nanisca once sujested to king Ghezo that there were other resources to trade with, instead of trading dahomey's citizens they could sell palm oil and others and yes, I agree with her on this one, the slave trade is only a slow poison in fact if they keep selling out their citizens I wonder who will use the weapons after selling all their citizens.
Alright guys I think its time to introduced to you one special person among the Agojie solders, if I were to be the producer of this movie I will say she is the next WOMAN KING in the next episode but unfortunately there's only one episode for this movie but anyways it one interesting episode and trust me you would like to try it. "NAWI", Nawi's courage to be the best soldier surprised me and I must say that she beautifully perfect in the character she tock in fact it totally suites her appearance.
Let's Talk a Little About The Storyline.
It started with a terrifying base sound, then a voice follows of which I think Amenza's one of the Agojie solders.
The voice (Amenza) practically summarized the hole movie, she mentioned that king Ghezo was recently enthroned and that the armies of Oyo empire medged forces with the mahi people to raid Dahomey village and sell Their captives to the Europeans slave masters, one thing she Also said that got me captured was the the Oyo empire had new guns and horses as weapons but king Ghezo's weapon were " an elite force of female solders, the agojie, led by their general Nanisca" exactly the way she said it.
The next thing I could see were people warming themselves around a seted fire, to be frank, I was expecting to Amenza telling a story to some people as it appeared to lock like from the beginning, bit no, the people warming themselves were farmers who also raided Dahomey and other villages, tock as at their captive in order to sell them to the Oyo solders.
Here comes Nanisca as she throw an ambush, the agojie solders dealt with them as if they were children, tock back the captives with a suspicious mindset that the Oyo empire were behind it.
In the village of Dahomey, its now a custom that whenever the agojie solder returns from battle, every single villager stops what he/she is doing, line up outside and then bow down their faces in order not to see them, if I were asked I would say why line up outside and then bow down their faces, what's the point in coming out when you are not allowed to see the solders.
The report latter reached the king Ghezo that the Oyo solders were behind the raiding of Dahomey village, it was this part I spoke of earlier, where Nanisca told them that selling of Dahomey's citizens is a slow poison.
This same scenario made me understand why King Ghezo favoured Nanisca, it is because she earned it when she fourth for him, so she practically enthroned him as a result of the fight she won.
While all this was going on, Lawi ( which I earlier called the feature woman king) parent arrange with a rich man to marry her without her consent, it was done by her dad, There are sometimes poverty or lack should not push you to do, I can't imagine selling out my child in marriage (yes I call it selling out) because of lack. It turned out that the marriage thing didn't work so out anger her father forced her to the king's palace and gave her away to join the palace solders since she was obviously useless to him (but I would not say he is heartless, frustration caused it), he never knew he was sending her to destiny and where she always wanted to be.
After a season of training (the train was not only for Lawi but others also who were captured in the beginning) it was time for their final test, anyone who does not pass this test cannot be among the Agojie solders, Lawi even trained personally with her super coach Izogie one of the experience solders who latter died on trying to rescue Lawi while escaping from the Oyo solders.
That day seemed to be like a festive day as the local drums were played and the warriors sang in fogbe (I think that's their language), before the final test propaly began the festival was interrupted by Oyo solders led by their new general, king Ghezo matched up to meet them while Nanisca and other solders accompanied him, while the new general was introducing himself, he pulled off the sacff used to cover his face and immediately Nanisca was frightened because of the mark she saw on his left ear, she also remembered that he was the one who raped her while she was captured at her early age.
After all the drama of bargaining for the tribute, king Ghezo concluded to give them twenty agojie as tribute but Nanisca had her plan.
Alright guys let's lock at the scenes that captured me the most.
One of the scenes I love is at the final test, where Lawi jumped from the wooden fence so she could be the first at the test, you could imagine such courage, it's actually a risky one but to be the beat you must take risk.
Right still at the final test, the punch lawi's friend gave the masked man who stood on her way (asa arranged to be part of the test) gives me joy, "here you go (with a punch) you masked man, that's what you get when you stand on my way" I'm pretty sure that would have been in her mind while punching him.
This scene is rather emotional, after gaining victory over the Oyo solders, Nanisca unvailed the truth to Lawi after her discovery, telling her (Lawi) that she (Nanisca) is her mother, you could imagine, after a long period of suffering as an orphan someone walks up to you and tells you she is you mother, so painful but its better to accept the truth, God knows why.
