This should me music to the ears of many – especially those who long for stories of African history that have little or nothing to do with slavery; fertile ground to mine from for both film and TV content, and almost entirely untouched.
The Dahomey Women Warriors (they were called the Dahomey Amazons by Westerners) were a 19th century all-woman military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey – what is the present-day Republic of Benin (Dahomey was renamed Benin in 1975). For the better half of 200 years, they fought (in the thousands) and died while trying to expand the borders of their West African kingdom. Even their enemies at whose hands they would eventually fall, specifically the French (although there were others), acknowledged their incredible acts of bravery.
Their story will be told in an upcoming TV series announced today, from “NCIS” producer Charles F. Johnson, along with French producer/director/writer Joy Fleury, and producer Karen Gordy.
Co-created by French writer Didier Lacoste and writer/director Armand Bernardi, the series will be titled “Amazons.”
The team of creatives also comprises of specialists on the subject matter and African history academics, with the obvious goal here being to produce as authentic and true-to-life a work as the series’ budget allows.
It’s currently being developed as a live-action TV project, and it’s still very early in the process, so no network is attached at this time.
And if you’re wondering, producer Charles F. Johnson is black, as the photo on the left shows.
There’s a lot of history here which I’ll unpack in a future post.
I’m certainly very curious about what network would carry this. It’s likely more of a premium cable TV program (HBO, Showtime, etc) than anything for the likes of the so-called Big 4 (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC). I suppose a network like FX or even AMC might take a peek. Or maybe one of the black TV networks – BET, TV One.
Below is a photo of veteran Dahomey warriors, said to be taken in the early half of the 20th century by a French newspaper.
