The Woman King - Blog Post Analysis

Overall, the theming of this segment appears to be obvious: it’s a power struggle over the perception of strength of women versus men. While this theme plays a concrete role in this segment and throughout the movie a more prevalent meaning is present. In this segment it is clear that Nawi is fighting other warriors from Africa, but this fight scene is contrasted by the presence of the white European spectators. The presence of these spectators comes across as colonialism, but more importantly it insinuates that Europe was pitting Africa against itself and thus is responsible for much of the destabilization Africa has endured. Nawi’s fight represents Europe’s willingness to allow communities, nations, and individuals within Africa to destroy themselves from the inside out, while Europe watched and took whatever it wanted to satisfy its insatiable desire for wealth and power only to leave a broken world upon its departure.