Cinema: "The Woman King" resuscitates the legend of the Amazons of Benin
Audio 01:20
The 30-meter-high Amazon statue was inaugurated by President Patrice Talon at the end of July in Cotonou AFP - YANICK FOLLY
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
"The Woman King", a Hollywood super-production with a budget of 100 million dollars, features a unit of the Amazons of Dahomey.
The film, previewed in a cinema in Cotonou a few days ago, will be released this Wednesday, September 28 on screens in France.
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With our special correspondent in Cotonou,
Magali Lagrange
The word “Agodjié” is displayed on a cinema door.
It is the name of the Amazons in the Fon language.
Audiences came to watch the adventures of Viola Davis, aka Nanisca, an Amazon tasked with training a new generation of recruits to fight against a rival kingdom.
In the room, applause is heard regularly.
Makeup on the forehead, Aurélio is satisfied.
“
Someone asked me what I hoped to feel and I said: anger and all the emotions that made the Amazons become what they are.
I can say that I was served, even beyond my expectations.
I had the impression of diving back into everything that made the pride, everything that made the history of the Amazons.
And frankly, I want to say: when Hollywood and the history of Benin meet, that's what happens.
»
“
My view of women
”
This army of women defended this West African kingdom, located in present-day Benin, in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially against French colonial conquest.
Before its release, the film attracted some criticism on social networks because it was shot outside Benin and in the almost total absence of Beninese actors.
But after the screening, it is a feeling of pride that is expressed: “
It was great,
enthuses a spectator.
We were shown a leader, charismatic woman who knows how to motivate others.
When you live in Benin, you know the history, you know their courage.
And above all, what she really depicts is this courage, this aggressiveness to defend his king and his country.
A strong woman.
In general, we are strong.
It is really for me my vision of the woman.
»
While Benin wants to develop tourism, the authorities are currently highlighting this historical figure of the Amazon.
A museum project of the Amazons
A museum of the epic of the Amazons and the kings of Dahomey is currently planned in Abomey.
A huge statue of the Amazon, 30 meters high, was inaugurated by President Patrice Talon at the end of July in Cotonou.
The Beninese authorities want to make it the visual identity of the country.
For what reasons ?
Response from Florent Couao Zotti, writer and technical adviser to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.
“
It is precisely to confer this status of Amazon on the woman of today that we refer to this past of our country.
Today, we are reconstructing a whole narrative around these characters so that people realize the commitment of these women in the time of the Kingdom
[of Dahomey].
.
We had thought about a visual identity for Benin.
We said to ourselves that all that could bring us to agreement would be an emblematic figure who both summarizes our past, but makes a projection on the future of historical figures that we can bring back from our history and that we can put forward, it is obviously the character of the Amazon.
And we thought if Paris has an identity with the Eiffel Tower, if New York has an identity with Miss Liberty, Dakar has an identity with the
[African] Renaissance monument
, Benin will also have an identity through its statue of the Amazon.
»
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