Award-winning actress, Lupita Nyong’o, recently took a trip to the ancient city of Benin to uncover the astounding real story of the Agoji, Benin’s female army. It seems like the trip turned out fruitful as she may have found last surviving warrior which she has now put together for an upcoming documentary.
The story told by Lupita Nyong’o in this documentary is connected to the 2018 blockbuster Black Panther, in which Nyong’o starred as Nakia, a spy for Wakanda’s Afro-futurist, all-female army, the Dora Milaje.
Following Nyong’o’s arrival in Benin, she was taken to the palace in Abomey where a centuries-old frieze depicted panthers and crossed swords. “All the kings of Dahomey are the children of the Panther King,” said the palace guide, to Nyong’o’s amazement. Between the 17th and 19th ages, the Dora Milaje had a real-life equivalent: the Agoji, from the Kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin. Armies of eroticised, exoticised and “unnaturally” aggressive women are a common trope in the victor-written history of colonial expansion, but the Dahomey Amazons are also familiar for other reasons.
Watch the trailer below;
By: The Arubayi Keme
