Source: Sony Pictures / Sony Pictures

Viola Davis’ highly anticipated film The Woman King dominated the box offices on Friday, pulling in over $19 million in sales and astonishing audiences across America. But while some fans praised Davis for her stunning portrayal of the brawny general, Nanisca, on-screen, a few critics slammed the movie’s director Gina Prince-Bythewood for downplaying some of the controversial historical contexts behind the film’s plot.

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Who were the Agojie soldiers?

The epic drama, tells the powerful story of the Agojie soldiers, a fierce 6,000-strong female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey between the 17th and 19th centuries. Viola Davis plays the army’s fictional leader in the buzzing movie. In real life, the Agojies were known for their fearlessness. The warrior troupe was notorious for raiding nearby villages. During times of war they would slash off their resisters’ heads and return them to their king as “trophies,” the Smithsonian noted.

Prince-Bythewood’s riveting film celebrates the Agojie for their power and strength, but a few history buffs weren’t too pleased with the way the movie appeared to whitewash Dahomey’s dark historical involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Dahomey and their female military regime played a large role in the trafficking of West African slaves. The African tribe sold off their captives to European traders who in turn, helped boost Dahomey’s wealth during the horrific period.

Critics accuse Sony and Gina Prince-Bythewood of whitewashing the Agojie’s dark past

After the film’s release on Friday, some critics flocked to social media with the hashtag boycott the woman king. A slew of users slammed the film’s production company Sony and Prince-Bythewood for attempting to “rewrite” the sordid past of the Agojie. Podcaster Antonio Moore called the historical epic “the most offensive film to Black Americans in 40-50 years.”

Another user accused the Hollywood bigwigs of “glorifying and whitewashing” the “truth” behind the Dohomey ‘s involvement in the slave trade. While a third user criticized award-winning actress Viola Davis for participating in the film.

“If you’re a Black American that cares about your ancestors #BoycottTheWomanKing,” a Twitter-goer named @TBMW wrote.” I don’t know @violadavis’s motives for going through with such dishonest and shameful movie but #TheWomanKing let it flop! The Dahomey fought to uphold slavery in Africa, just like the Confederacy.”

On the other hand, a few fans of the film argued that Prince-Bythewood and Sony did address the Dahomey’s controversial role in the slave trade. Some social media goers claimed that the historical fact played a large part in the film’s storyline. Here’s a spoiler alert, per the Smithsonian:

The Woman King opens in 1823 with a successful raid by the Agojie, who free captives bound for enslavement from the clutches of the Oyo Empire, a powerful Yoruba state in what is now southwestern Nigeria. Dahomey has long paid tribute to the Oyo but is beginning to assert itself under the leadership of Ghezo and General Nanisca. A parallel plotline finds Nanisca, who disapproves of the slave trade after experiencing its horrors personally, urging Ghezo to end Dahomey’s close relationship with Portuguese slave traders and shift to the production of palm oil as the kingdom’s main export.

Historians note that at one point, Ghezo, the king of Dahomey, did consider switching to palm oil production in real life, but the alternative revenue source proved to be far less lucrative than the exportation of slaves. The Dahomey participated heavily in the slave trade all the way up until 1852 when the tribe finally agreed to halt exportation after years of pressure from the British.

Film writer @Nijla1 on Twitter said she appreciated how the film “wrestled with questions of humanity, freedom, and autonomy in its characters, especially in their views about their society and ways to reform it.”

She added: “Historical context plays a large role in understanding motivations of that time.”

Source: Explainer: Why Are Critics Urging Viewers To Boycott ‘The Woman King’?