Dohome and the Slave Trade

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There's an interesting moment in the movie where one of the king's wives tells him we have what we have because of the slave trade. The government of Gézón were very gender inclusive, women were not just allowed into the army, they were allowed in every level of government. Dohome accounted for 5% of overall slave exports you know about 600,000 people out of 13 million so that's big but it shows that Dohome was not the epicenter of African slave tradeYou know I wanted to put in perspective and be slightly more nuanced by stressing the fact that particularly mid-19th century there was serious internal conflict about ending the slaveTrade.

The historical epic The Woman King, in theaters today, is set in the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century. The kingdom’s elite all-female fighting force was evidence of its enlightened attitude toward women, but its participation in the transatlantic slave trade is a stain on its history. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood and economist Leonard Wantchekon, a descendent of the women fighters, explain.

This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, fact-checked by Tori Dominguez, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and edited by Amina Al-Sadi and Noel King, who also hosted.

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