Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #19: Harriet (2019)

 

One of the great heroines of 19^th Century history is Harriet Tubman, a Maryland slave who, after escaping to Pennsylvania, headed back south to rescue other African-Americans from bondage. Sadly, some of the awesome stories about her are likely the results of oft-fictionalized 19^th Century biographies, but she’s still a woman worth celebrating. Her story has been told on television, most notably in the 1978 miniseries A Woman Called Moses (I would have watched this one if I didn’t already have many 3-4 hour movies coming up). Surprisingly, it wasn’t until 2019 that we got a theatrical depiction in the simply titled Harriet.

The movie was actually considered back in the 90s, but shockingly a Hollywood executive, believing a black female lead couldn’t carry a movie, suggested that Tubman be played by Julia Roberts! Anyways, Cynthia Ervo would get the role when the movie finally swung into production. She does a good job, playing an initially frightened runaway slave before becoming a determined and tough heroine. Also, unlike in 12 Years a Slave, we get a good dose of the slaves’ Christianity. Tubman’s head was once struck and split open, whereupon she received visions. She claimed they were from God, and some sources claim that they indeed helped her successfully evade capture when guiding slaves to freedom. I was pleased to see that they had a scene of her threatening to shoot a runaway when he wants to go back to his master. This actually happened a few times in real life. Harriet knew that if a slave had second thoughts and went back, he could endanger the whole group.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #16: 12 Years a Slave

 

12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen, is one of the more in-depth looks at what it was like to be a slave. It’s based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free black living in New York who was attracted by a fiddling job in Washington DC, only to be drugged and wake up in a slave pen. He found himself transported along with other kidnapped blacks (and a lot of slaves who were also abducted or were being resold) to New Orleans. For the next 12 years (1841-1853) he served under several masters, experiencing different degrees of slavery. Eventually he found a sympathetic white Canadian, Samuel Bass, who got word of where he was to his family, and Northup was freed. Understandably, he became a prominent abolitionist.

There is actually a debate about the veracity of Northup’s memoir. The debate arises form several passages which seem to express white views of slavery and race and others which had uncanny similarities to other slave narratives. The explanation for these bits is that Northup wrote his memoir via dictation through a white writer. The white writer likely decided to make some alterations to make the book more sellable.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #15: Amistad (1997)

 Steven Spielberg finally makes it to my watchlist with Amistad. Amistad is one of his less known movies and thus also his most underrated. It’s a high-stakes court drama, based on the story of the Spanish slaver Amistad. As in real life, the slaves on board manage to slaughter most of the crew. The two surviving Spaniards, however, don’t take them back to Africa, but land in Connecticut. With the slave trade legal for Spain, but not America, there is a long legal battle. President Martin van Buren, seeking reelection, is worried that if the slaves are freed he’ll lose the southern vote, so he twice has the trial done again in a higher court. He also has to deal with the Spanish government, which insists that the slaves are their property and should be punished for killing most of the slavers.

The movie is chockfull of real historical characters and follows the events closely for the most part. The main character is Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), a man kidnapped and sold into slavery. The real Cinque actually had a different name that was anglicized into his more familiar one, but the movie simplifies things. His defense lawyer is Roger Sherman Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey), who was a well established legal figure in real life, but is turned into an ambitious low-level one to give us more of an underdog story. The big hurdle for the defense team is the language barrier, but gradually this is overcome with the discovery of James Covey (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a sailor who was born in West Africa and knows some of the different tongues.

A Very Short History of Dahomey V: The Fall of Dahomey

 

Gezo had tried to appease the British by moving away from the slave trade. However, he had soon reinstituted Dahomey’s man-selling traditions, among other things. This was done to restore Dahomey’s economy, but international events, as well as happenings among customer nations, set slavery well on the path to extinction. Dahomey’s failure to adapt would lead to its decline and justify its conquest by an even greater imperial power.

Chapter V: The Fall of Dahomey

Glele represented as a lion (Wikimedia)

Attempt at Resurgence

The resurgent slave trade out of Ouidah proved short-lived. With the United States sundered by civil war over the issues pertaining to slavery, Britain found a more amenable anti-slavery party in the Republican-led Union. A new treaty prevented slavers from using the United States flag as protection. As it happens the last slave ship to sell in America, the Clotilda, came out of Ouidah. It arrived in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in 1860. At the same time the Spanish colony of Cuba was pressured to stop purchasing human lives. Despite these closing markets, Dahomey still found many places abroad to sell its human goods.

On the positive side, Dahomey revitalized their trade in agricultural exports. Though not as profitable as slaves or palm oil, agricultural goods did compensate for lower sales of these two economic staples. With the palm oil trade recovering in the mid-1860s, buyers from anti-slavery nations, foremost Britain, were drawn to Dahomey’s ports. European business firms competed with ex-slaving Brazilians and Portuguese for control of the agricultural trade. The firms had the advantage of secure financial backing.

A Very Short History of Dahomey IV: Challenges to the Slave Trade

 

The earlier half of King Gezo’s reign had seen Dahomey throw off Oyo rule and become the primary military and slaving power in its corner of Africa. But just as Dahomey rose, so did Britain’s anti-slavery crusade alongside local resistance to the slave raids. Gezo would struggle to hold on to tradition in the face of new challenges.

"Procession of the Wealth of the King's Wealth." Gezo is the referenced King.

Chapter IV: Challenges to the Slave Trade

Gezo and the British

In 1839 the British once more threatened the existence of the slave trade. Lord Palmerston, one of the most prominent and influential politicians of 19^th Century Britain, was able to pass the Equipment Act. The Equipment Act allowed the British Navy to seize Portuguese slave ships even if they were unloaded (previously they could only take them if human cargo was presently onboard). This greatly reduced illegal slave trading. The British proved to be persistent enforcers, to the point that they began to violate Ouidah’s neutrally declared waters. Dahomeans watched as merchant ships were dragged away from their shore, along with any wealth they could have made.

Britain’s seamen did more than seize ships. They actually assaulted some African ports. While this targeted one of the most morally wretched institutions in human history, it was undeniably a gross violation of other nations’ sovereignty. The local Africans were not the only ones to suffer from Britain’s anti-slavery war. Ouidah’s Francisco de Souza, as a Trans-Atlantic slave baron, lost his monopoly. There are some claims that Gezo actually had a hand in reducing his influence in Dahomey, either out of a need to reorganize the slave trade in light of recent events or out of jealousy over the Portuguese’s wealth. Though his business took a hit, De Souza remained in Dahomey until his death in 1849.

A Very Short History of Dahomey III: Dahomey Under King Gezo

The last post covered the bulk of the Tegbesu Dynasty. This dynasty ended after several failures to become the top slaving power in “armpit” of Africa, as well as various unpopular measures by the kings. This section will look at the earlier part of King Gezo’s reign, the start of a new line of rulers, and also cover some general aspects of Dahomey’s culture and practices which in many cases extended back into the 16^th and 17^th Century.

A Frederick E Forbes illustration of Gezo from Dahomey and
the Dahomans. A servant holds a royal umbrella over him.

Chapter Three: Dahomey Under King Gezo

Lifting the Oyo Yoke

Gezo was determined to start his reign and new dynasty by ridding Dahomey of Oyo superiority. The time was right, as Oyo was suffering from internal divisions, primarily between the king and the council of elders. Also the Islamic states to the north of Oyo had gone on the warpath, with the Fulani Jihads the most threatening to the empire. When the Oyo came for their first tribute from him, he offered “a tiny piece of cloth – enough for one man’s underpants and just two bags of cowries. He sent the collectors back saying that any more gifts “would be disproportionate to Dahomey’s wealth.” Oyo sent another team to collect proper tribute. Gezo had them beheaded, starting a war.

In 1820 Gezo declared the independence of Dahomey. Oyo sent an army to deal with its vassal. However this was hardly an actual invasion from the Oyo army, as the Fulani jihad commanded Oyo’s primary attention. It was made up of other vassal Yoruba groups and Mahi allies who knew that an independent and strengthened Dahomey would be a threat. The Dahomeans defeated them and captured their commander, Ajanaku. Gezo had him executed.

A Very Short History of Dahomey II: The Tegbesu Dynasty

In the last part we looked at the origins of the Kingdom of Dahomey, and how it settled into its role as a regional slave-trading power. Here we cover the 18th Century, when the slave trade went largely unquestioned by Europe and provided Dahomey with a wide range of customers. However, it was not as profitable as the African rulers may have hoped.

An 18th Century army procession, led by (possibly) a king with a feathered hat. Note all of the umbrellas. Umbrellas were a status symbol in Dahomey and could be quite colorful in their design.

Chapter II: The Tegbesu Dynasty

Tegbesu

Unlike his father, Tegbesu was very accommodating to European traders. He helped them maintain their forts and trading posts. In one incident 1743 he had a Portuguese fort blown up to display his power over the port of Igelefe. The Portuguese was harboring a Hueda leader. The Hueda were still trying to regain control of Ouidah and throw off their dependent status to Dahomey. Often suspecting the Europeans of siding with their enemy, the Dahomeans would sometimes launch attacks on European forts. On July 21, 1743, they targeted the Portuguese fort. At some point the fort’s powder magazine detonated and the Dahomeans were able to enter and kill many of its inhabitants in their search for the Hueda leader. After this the Europeans never backed the Hueda in their power plays, though the former rulers of Ouidah would make further attempts into the 1770s with backing from Little Popo (in present day Togo).

A Very Short History of Dahomey I: Origins

Map of West Africa by Hermann Moll (George A. Smathers Library, University of Florida)

In September of 2022, the Woman King came to theatres. The movie was surrounded by controversy. The marketing glorified Dahomey’s all-female warrior unit, the Agojie, as black freedom fighters battling white domination. Naturally those who saw the trailer looked into the background of the Agojie and were shocked to learn that they served a kingdom that much of its wealth from selling other Africans to Europeans, not to mention using slave labor to run its internal economy. The movie is not quite as bad as suspected, but still rewrites parts of history to enable a good guys (or in this case good girls) versus bad guys narrative.

My own curiosity piqued, I’ve read several books and many articles on the Kingdom of Dahomey. I do not specialize in African history, but I hope this will be a good short history of a West African kingdom. I do not have access to all the primary source accounts of Dahomey, but secondary sources reference and quote them at length. I.A. Akinjogbin’ Dahomey and it’s Neighbours is a detailed summary of the Tegbesu Dynasty, which ruled from 1708 to 1818. I will thus be using it frequently in my first two parts. Robin Law’s Ouidah: The Social History of a West African Slaving ‘Port’ covers the primary port and point of contact with Europeans. Ouidah saw a million slaves pass from Africa over the Atlantic to American colonies and Law does a great job covering every aspect of the slave trade and relations with Europeans. Melville Herskovits' Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom is not a narrative history but a summary of Dahomean social, cultural, and religious practices. Basil Davidson’s The African Past and Dov Ronen’s Dahomey: Between Tradition and Modernity offer more simplified summaries of Dahomey history. Finally there is Stanley Alpern’s Amazons of Black Sparta, the only full-length study of the all-female Agojie warriors. It goes into further detail on women in Precolonial Dahomey and various military operations.

 

Chapter I: Origins

The Founding

Dahomey occupied what is now the southern third of Benin (on the West Coast of Africa south of Nigeria). It was made up of the Fon People and centered on the Abomey Plateau. They originated the Aja, a subset of a greater Yoruba culture that dominated the armpit of Africa. They became Fon when they mingled with the other residents of late Medieval Benin. In the 17^th Century, the peoples that lived in what is now southern Benin mostly resided within city-state kingdoms. At its inception Dahomey existed alongside Allada, Jakin, Ouidah, and Popo (all of which would one day be absorbed into Dahomey via conquest). Each of these kingdoms had a main town where the king resided, and a few or more other major towns alongside various villages. Each king had under him a group of chiefs, who like him practiced hereditary succession. Familial and biological bonds were considered the most important building blocks of Aja culture and the basis for citizenship. The emphasis on kinship groups meant that the kings had no actual centralized government or army. It was the kinship groups that guided the course of these little kingdoms.

Movie Review: The Woman King (2022)

The Woman King is a curious movie. I was entertained and absorbed for much of it, but as someone who’s fairly knowledgeable on the subject it covers, the West African kingdom of Dahomey, I found some aspects odd, perhaps a little troubling. First of all I will say that the marketing for this movie was bad. The trailer shows black women talking about fighting for freedom while girl power songs play in the background. When the main character Nanisca (Viola Davis) talks about fighting the enemy and for freedom there are shots of white colonists. This gives the impression that the Dahomey fought European slavers. When potential viewers conducted a little research and learned that the Dahomey were in fact massive slavers, seizing entire towns to sell on the coast, they felt lied to. They thought the movie was going to completely change history depict the Dahomey as heroic anti-slavery fighters. It did not help that Viola Davis tried to shame audiences by implying that anybody who did not see her movie was against black women. As it turns out these concerns can be both dismissed and verified. Let’s get into it.

The movie focuses on the Agojie, an all-female warrior unit. Black female fighters certainly checks boxes that are currently in vogue in Hollywood, but there is a firm historical basis. In the actual history they originated as a royal bodyguard, but thanks to a shortage of fighting men King Ghezo (portrayed by John Boyega in this movie) expanded it into a frontline unit. The Woman King thankfully remembers that the Europeans, the Portuguese in particular, were the Dahomey’s customer’s rather than enemies. In fact the film portrays the Oyo, a powerful Yoruba Empire, as the main antagonists. The Oyo had forced Dahomey into a tributary status, receiving annual gifts in exchange for no further invasions. This movie takes place in 1823, when Dahomey threw off Oyo domination.

East African Campaign (1914-1918) Part IV: War Along the Railway

The Lesson of Jassini

Lettow-Vorbeck prepared for his offensive against Jassini. Early in January, Lettow-Vorbeck scouted ahead with one of his captains. He created as accurate sketch as possible of the terrain and enemy dispositions. The most notable feature of Jassini was its large coconut plantation. The fort at Jassini itself was only manned by a small advance force, with the bulk of the British force miles to the north (now under the command of General Richard Wapshare). In Jassini’s rear was a small river, the Sigi. The commander of Jassini’s garrison was an Indian Colonel, Raghbir Singh. Under him were Indians and elements of the KAR. If Lettow-Vorbeck hit it swiftly enough, he could overwhelm the small garrison and remove the northern threat to Tanga. He hastened back to his army and brought it up. He was careful and secretive in organizing his men, hoping for the element of surprise. Contingents went ahead, going north around the town to straddle the roads north. They hoped to block and delay any relief efforts for the garrison.

The battle began on January 18. The surprise attack was looking to be a success, but internal dissensions prevented it. Among the Askaris were Arabs, and they were very angry with their commander. Lettow-Vorbeck wanted few impediments to his force’s mobility, and had ordered the Arabs to leave their boys behind. These young males helped the Askaris carry their gear, and performed certain other services for the Arabs. Stripped of their youthful companions, the Arabs waited until they were close to enemy lines and then fired their guns into the air, alerting Singh’s Indians. They ran to the rear, satisfied that they had gained their revenge. However, the African Askaris were furious and turned their guns on the Arabs, mowing them down. Having dealt with this treachery, the Schutztruppe now found itself embroiled in a furious battle.

East African Campaign (1914-1918) Part III: The Sting of Defeat

The Invasion Force

As the first skirmishes broke out on land and at sea, the British Empire prepared a death blow to German East Africa. Given the rapid successes mounting against Germany’s other colonies, it expected much to be accomplished with one hastily assembled force. This force was Indian Expeditionary Force B. Assembled in India, it soon was stripped of many of its best men and top-notch gear. These resources were diverted to deal with the oncoming entrance of the Ottoman Empire on Germany’s side. Indian Expeditionary Force B was led by General Arthur Edward Aitken of the Indian Army. He had not done much of note in his career, but had good familial and political connections. This gave him a command position, albeit one in a sideshow. Originally IEF B was built around Aitken’s own 16^th Poona Brigade, and his mission was to seize Dar-es-Salaam and its radio station. However, the 16^th Poona Brigade was taken away, while his superiors gave him a far more ambitious plan. He was to land his force at the port town of Tanga. After seizing it, he was to move north towards Stewart’s IEF C, which was currently squaring off against Lettow-Vorbeck, and secure the colonial border. After this he was to conquer all of German East Africa. Like many of the famed British military disasters of history, the upcoming campaign was to be undone by an incredible stream of horrible decisions and terrible luck.

Replacing the Poona Brigade was the 27^th Bangalore Brigade under General Richard Wapshare (but sans its cavalry, artillery, and pioneers which were redirected elsewhere). This was the only brigade in the force to hold an all-British battalion, the Loyal North Lancashires. One Regular Army brigade was added, with the 63^rd Palamcottah Light Infantry and the 98^th Infantry. The infantry was further filled out with Imperial Service troopers. These were not part of the British army, but soldiers assigned to various Indian princes. They had practically been private security forces and inexperienced in true warfare. Those that were borrowed were placed in a brigade under Brigadier General Tighe. The Indian Service units had originally been equipped with outdated Lee-Enfield long rifles and had barely any time to adjust to the newer shorter models handed out before the East Africa invasion. They did not have machine guns at all. A few finally got the weapons, but at the last minute and with no time to properly train. Finally Aitken was given the 61^st King George’s Own Pioneers, the 28^th Indian Mountain Battery, and various small detachments of support personnel such as railway specialists and signalmen. All of these units would not consolidate until they arrived at Tanga, making it impossible for Aitken to study his force as whole and reorganize it accordingly.

East African Campaign (1914-918) Part II: War Comes to East Africa

Neutral Hopes

War among the whites was not supposed to happen in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Scramble for Africa and other colonial ventures had been morally justified on the idea of transmitting European civilization to the unenlightened (“White Man’s Burden”). The whites had to set an example by showing they had moved beyond fighting each other. There were another dimension to this ideological reasoning. One was that Europe itself was hoping never to repeat the widespread conflagration of earlier coalition wars, the Napoleonic Wars serving as the most recent example. Europeans had managed to avoid any such conflicts for about a century. What wars there were between the nations included ones that were quick (Franco-Prussian War) or limited in its scope (Crimean War). Thus Europe hoped to prevent any escalation of competing imperial interests into a repeat of earlier disasters.

By not allowing blacks to see white kill white, the Europeans in the colonies were primarily serving their own self-interests. After all, they were perfectly willing to send blacks to kill other blacks. What they realized was that if the supposedly superior whites began to kill each other, it would undermine the image they had cultivated for themselves. Even worse, such a war in the colonies might require the use of black troops against whites, further undermining the hierarchy of race. Thus far the only inter-white conflicts in Africa had occurred between the British Empire and the Boers in Southern Africa, and these were not between the imperial powers, but between just one of them and a defiant group of colonists. It was furthermore restricted to only one part of Africa. World War I would be the true violation of colonial neutrality.

East African Campaign (1914-918) Part I: The German Empire

Map of Colonized Africa right before the outbreak of WWI. Courtesy of davidjl123 / Somebody500 via wikimedia at https://brilliantmaps.com/africa-1914/

World War I, also known as the Great War, was labeled thus because it involved nearly every nation on the world in some capacity. Every great power was militarily involved. Despite its status as a “world war”, the bulk of the fighting took place in Europe and the Middle East. There were battles in far-flung theatres amongst the belligerents' colonies, but these were considered side-shows. These theatres also did not last long into the war. Against the Entente’s Britain, France, Belgium, Japan, and later Portugal, the only member of the Central Powers to have colonies was Germany. It could not hold on to is oversea possessions against the British Royal Navy and the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Entente’s colonial forces. It would need to win on the European continent and get some or all of its territory back in a post-war settlement. By the end of 1915 all of its colonies had been conquered. All save one.

German East Africa, the crown jewel of the young German Empire, would see fighting all the way past the armistice of November 11, 1918. Led by the determined General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the Germans and their native African soldiers would at first repel Entente intrusions and then lead them on long chases. They would furthermore strike into enemy colonies. Though defeated, Lettow-Vorbeck and his men would gain universal admiration and a considerable body of literature within military history. Many writers have claimed that his efforts diverted valuable resources from Europe, thus helping out the overall war effort. This series will look at several questions. What was the true impact of the East African campaign on the war overall?  How did German East Africa hold on so long? How much was owed to German genius and how much to British mistakes? Were there other factors? And how did the Africans themselves perceive the conflict and how were they affected? Before diving into the war, it would be good to start with a brief history of German East Africa.