Some people were upset the film brought up the nuances of how some West Africans were kidnapped and sold into slavery or entered into an intra African conflict. The kingdom has a medical convention, every three years, where all the traditional healers exchange ideas….So my sense is that, instead of reporting on what they see, they have more interest in perpetuating the distorted views that they have about the country. ![]() ![]() They come to a place to have a general session, like congress. There are representative regional governments. The kingdom has a national assembly, you know, it's like every year for a week. You need to read between the lines, for instance. There is less attention to the detail of the institution. If you read the stuff written about them, it's hugely selective. Many Europeans who wrote about this were very selective in what they wrote about government, they only focused on the slave trade. It’s too bad we weren’t taught about them in school. And then something that came out in the movie is how gender inclusive all the institutions were, because the government some of the key positions like Prime Minister and Ministry of Religions - all those key positions have female and male officers. Because even if the king has the idea of doing something like that, we need to find the girls who fit hat profile. So those social norms are one of the reason why the institution exists. Women were brought up to do anything and interacted with boys. Part of the story shows that what we see is not just a king coming up with an idea that women should fight in the army, these are the results of the social norms at the time. What else is remarkable, historically speaking, when it comes to the women of Dahomey?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |