The Viola Davis starrer ‘The Woman King‘ is running successfully in the cinemas. The film received heavy backlash due to the alleged downplaying of history and the whitewashing of slave traders. ‘The Woman King‘ chronicles the lives of the Agojie warriors, a unit of 6,000 female soldiers. The warriors protected the West African Dahomey Kingdom between the 17th and 19th centuries.
The story sketches the struggles of the warriors to free the empire from the tributary status of another empire called Oyo. Viola Davis is playing the leader of the unit, Nanisca. There is a Marvel connection to the film. The story inspired Marvel Comics to create a prototype fictional battalion Dora Milaje. They appeared in Late Chadwick Boseman starrer ‘Black Panther.’ So, how is Dora Milaje different from Agojie in the latest drama?
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Jénel Stevens Chalks Differences Between Agojie In ‘The Woman King’ And Dora Milaje Of ‘Black Panther’
Though the origin story of both the battalions is similar, there are differences eminent in both the groups. ‘Black Panther‘s Dora Milaje played a pivotal role in the film protecting the fictional nation of Wakanda. The film had a good portrayal of women. Marvel took inspiration from these Agojie women, but Sony fleshed out a full-feature film. Another commonality is the action choreographer, Jénel Stevens. During an interview, Stevens chalked out differences between the action training in both films.
Jénel said, “With the Dora, we were trained to be in sync with each other, like a military unit. I guess the only correlation there was the Agojie were military as well, but they didn’t have the same system, if you will, and each one had their own different weapon.” The weaponry that the women used had distinction. Stevens presented that due to differences in weapons, the training that they got was different. Another distinction is their tactics. The Dora Milaje women were systemic, whereas Agojie had haywired methods, but a common objective of taking down their target.
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Agojie And Dora Milaje Women Fought Differently
In the interview, she further said, “In [Black Panther] it was more twirly and flowery and visually appealing. In The Woman King, it was supposed to be more functional, more straight to the point, killing somebody else. So there was no real fantasy to it. And we used the basic striking patterns that, for me personally, I come from a Koli background, so that was a part of the system that we used to teach them these weapons for the Agojie.”
She continued, “It was definitely different because now it was more to the point with the weapons, ‘I’m going to kill you. I don’t want it to look pretty.’ ” This was a totally different approach and it meant something deeper for me to be a part of it. It was rooted in history, like I said, 1800s these women actually existed, and to embody that was unprecedented for me.”
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