Free Republic

From the early seventeenth to the late nineteenth century, the West African Kingdom of Dahomey, now part of the Republic of Benin, was renowned for its legendary female fighting force known as the Dahomean "Amazons," who served as soldiers and palace guards. The kingdom was also known for its artistic and aesthetically pleasing swords. Since Dahomean rulers frequently imported luxury goods, including weapons, from European nations, scholars have long speculated whether these distinctive swords were locally made or perhaps custom ordered from foreign sources. According to a statement released by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, a research team...

King Ghezo ruled Dahomey from 1818 to 1858, a period marked by military conquests and the transformation of the region's economy, heavily reliant on the slave trade. The kingdom of Dahomey, with its capital at Abomey, was a dominant power in West Africa, known for its aggressive raids on neighboring regions to capture slaves. These captives were either traded for European goods, forced to work on royal plantations, or sacrificed in elaborate voodoo ceremonies.Local legends claim that several structures within the palace complex in Abomey, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were constructed using a mortar that included the blood...

The festival is drawing people of African descent to discover the religion and land of their enslaved ancestors.Every year in Benin, locals celebrate a festival in tribute to the deities of Voodoo, the Indigenous religion that worships natural spirits and reveres ancestors. Increasingly, the festival is drawing people of African descent from the US, Brazil and the Caribbean seeking to discover the religion and land of their ancestors who were enslaved and shipped away from the beaches of west Africa. Voodoo, known locally as Vodoun, originated in the Dahomey kingdom – present-day Benin and Togo – and is still widely...

Although presented in the film as an underdog, the real-world version of the kingdom is notable for its vast contributions to the Atlantic slave trade, and its brutality toward its captives from its subjugated neighbours.Viola Davis’ latest action film, “The Woman King,” glorifies the Agojie, the female fighting force of the west African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century. Although presented in the film as an underdog, the real-world version of the kingdom is notable for its vast contributions to the Atlantic slave trade, and its brutality toward its captives from its subjugated neighbors. The movie, which is currently...

The left’s obsession with centering everything on race and sex has reached a new and despicable low with an upcoming movie called “The Woman King.”The “historical epic film” centers around the real African kingdom of Dahomey, which existed during the Scramble for Africa in the age of empires, around 1800 to 1904.Viola Davis plays General Nanisca, leader of an all-female band of warriors known as the Dahomey Amazons, as she struggles against European attempts to conquer the kingdom....The weirdest thing about this controversy surrounding the trailer is that the story of Dahomey is a genuinely interesting historical narrative....Maybe I’m all...

“It saddens me”, he says,” to see the white man beating his breast over and over, too emasculated to put up any resistance to people who’ve come to threaten him on his own doorstep”. He believes that a toxic mix of guilt, “human rightsism”, political naivety and crass ignorance of History have a debilitating effect on Europeans’ capacity to fight the invasion. He accuses the corrupt African leaders of destroying the lives of hundreds of millions of human beings in all impunity, but is equally critical of the ideologues who are paving the way for them. They should stop blaming...

A sign commemorating the arrival of the first Africans is displayed at Chesapeake Bay, in Hampton, Va., August 24, 2019. (Michael A. McCoy/Reuters) It didn’t begin or end in the United States. The same people most obsessed with slavery seem to have little interest in the full scope of its history. There has been an effort for decades now — although with new momentum lately, as exemplified by the New York Times’ 1619 project — to identify the United States and its founding with slavery. To the extent that this campaign excavates uncomfortable truths about our history and underlines...

Roughly 60 years after the abolition of slavery, anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston made an incredible connection: She located the last surviving captive of the last slave ship to bring Africans to the United States. ... In fact, they are only now being released to the public in a book called Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” that comes out on May 8, 2018... he was only 19 years old when members of the neighboring Dahomian tribe captured him and took him to the coast. There, he and about 120 others were sold into slavery and crammed onto the...