We follow her journey to uncover the hidden story off the highly skilled female fighters who inspired the creation of the dorm.

A large A in Black Panther.

Biagi A.

In Dahomey Kingdom, West Africa So and before we sort of cut from the documentary would like to get to know you a little bit more.

That's all right.

Could you tell us a little bit about your childhood?

I know that you were born in Mexico, but grew up in Kenya.

Did you have any favorite memories of Kenya growing up?

I remember, uh, spending time.

Ah, in Rattle, which is our family's ancestral home with all my cousins and running amok and climbing mango trees and eating lots of guavas and, um, taking donkey rides to my grand with a shop and things like that.

And there's a very fond memories.

It sounds very Gillick over the holidays, so in terms of your acting career lets off, take it back a little bit, wash your first job, and did you always want to act my first job, meaning?

My first paid the job.

I was 14 and I played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in Nairobi at our repertory theatre at the time, which was called Phoenix Players.

And I knew I want to be an actor from when I was very young, But I didn't really, truly admitted out loud until I was about 26.

Wow.

Yeah.

And this was that kind of stereotype of African parents or being like we are doctor.

Engineer.

Did you experience any of that?

Not at all.

Actually.

I don't have very conventional African parents.

My parents raised us all to be like, What do you want to do?

What you interested in?

Go out and do it, you know?

And so, uh, yeah, my I didn't get any resistance from my family.

My dad used to be an actor himself when he was in high school and college, and so he was very encouraging.

He would always come and see me perform in school.

My mom, too, she would drive me to her soles and wait for me to finish drive me home.

So they were extremely supportive, but I think it's the thing I was blocked or limited by what the largest society said, you know, and the fact that I didn't see what it was I wanted to be, So I didn't know it was possible for someone like me, all of that rhymed A second talent s just a sort of following about that.

You are little one of the most prominent black women in the acting industry right now, Going from, you know, where you couldn't actually see yourself, metaphorically speaking to solve, essentially seen yourself almost everywhere.

That must be quite a big change.

Oh, yeah, it's really bizarre.

It's bizarre.

It's kind of an out of body experience.

When it happens, it doesn't make much sense, you know, like when I was in Benin for this documentary, you know, we're driving along and there was a Black Panther, the billboard, and, you know, they chose to use the African women and it and it was me and dumb.

I own the billboard in a It was like, Wow, I've never been here And yet there I am.

It's a very odd experience, but also very encouraging toe.

See that and to know that their kids who are really little and that will be there, Norm, to see people like me in in the in the media.

Absolutely thank you on justice will win it back to Kenya for a minute.

What's your favorite canyon dish and can you cook?

I can cook.

I can cook my favorite canyon dish.

I like golly, which is a staple.

And kale we have which I really love.

And fish, you know, dried, some dried and then cooked in spices and and lots of tomatoes and onions.

And yeah, So people are definitely gonna want to know when it comes to the Gulf wars.

Which side?

Only one I am on the actual fence.

I love them both.

I will different.

But you know, it's not even both.

I like all gel off.

Whether it's from Liberia or or anywhere that Joel off appears, I will eat it.

I'm sorry.

I'm really sorry.

I really loved your law.

Okay, So they were all winners.

Yeah, I'm the diplomatic one.

So, as one of the most prominent black actresses in Hollywood, what do you personally make around the conversation that we're having about colorism?

But I guess we're sold reaching a point where you know, we may be seeing little diversity within that diversity of black women.

More dark skin representation because, well, I feel very fortunate to be in the position I'm in.

And I feel like this is not the time for coming to conclusions.

This is the time to do the work.

And so it's a time to actually see to it that we have that diversity, that we have that inclusion and it it's it's in who has the power to cast its and who is telling the story to begin with.

Um, what is the origin of it?

Because when the people who know the experience, um uh, are holding the pen, holding the power and holding the money, then we see more of that.

We will see more of that trickled down to who's in front of the camera.

You know that we're we're the last ingredient in that long conveyor belt of of of overproduction.

You know the actor.

But, you know, I was a Children's book to address this very issue, and I just learned that Beyonce just released a song about colorism.

So I feel like there's there is a movement and there's there's people speaking up and changing the narrative.

And that's where my focus is on what I can do to change that narrative, to make it that much easier for someone else like me to even dare to dream a bigger dream on Dhe.

Then to see it realized, Thank you so much.

So for those who are yet to what your incredible documentary can you tell us a little bit about your journey to Benin but also what the documentary's generally about S.

O.

The documentary is about the women called the ago Gee, who most people know as the Amazons off Africa.

And they were a group of women whose job it was to protect the king and kingdom.

So there were about 14.

44 4000 of them, and they were in existed in 17th 18th and 19th century.

We know very little about them.

They inspired, for example, the dorm elegy in Black Panther, but in terms of who they were and what they were about, how they came to be all that we really don't know because their story has been told through the filter off the European reporter, you know?

Ah, and in there, telling of the story.

They have been fetishized and oversexualized and exotic sized, and so there It has been a rather in accurate depiction off who these women were.

So I was tasked with the job of going down there with Channel Four and finding out the true story from their descendants.

You know, learning from the oral history to kind of rewrite our history.

So how did you decide that you wanted to learn more about the ecology?

A women?

Well, I was curious about them because, of course, I'd heard, you know, a little bit.

I had heard whispers of like, oh, Amazons of Africa.

But what does that really mean?

And who are they?

And I was very aware of how often we have to contend with, um outside his understanding of who we were.

So I was really tempted to go there myself and visit and learned that story firsthand.

I love the continent I'm from I'm curious to learn more.

I feel like most of my education has been so Eurocentric, You know, I went to a British system.

Schools are learned about the Thames River, even if I had never visited it, you know?

And I feel like it's It was have been over.

You know, the I want to say the last decade and 1/2 of my life, I've been very aware of my need to understand the African context, which is what I'm from knowing where you're from new ing about one's history.

You know, it really informs who you are in the president, who you could possibly be in the future.

And so I wanted to experience that this story.

Because of that, I think it helps to give context and dimension to a time in history that you rarely hear about women.

At times, it definitely looked like the journey took an emotional toll and perhaps maybe a physical one.

Was it difficult when you out there filming?

You know, it wasn't difficult.

It was hot for sure.

No, I understand way.

Westerners think all of Africa is hot because Benin is giving us a bad name, you know, because Benin is actually really hard.

But it wasn't hard other than because, you know, I've I've lived, you know, I've lived on the continent.

I've traveled a lot in Kenya.

I've gone a long, long, arduous journeys on terrible roads.

I used to do that, like three times a year growing up.

So none of that fazed me.

Actually, the tough thing was the emotional for me learning the truth about these women, you know, meeting people who saw them as heroes and other people who saw them as the villain in their story.

That was hard.

And to see the reality of, um, you know, of what their contributions, what their contributions had given and done to the Benin cultural context today it was overwhelming.

And I just felt like I was full of gratitude and also deeply, deeply moved and sad even because I was just learning so much so quickly.

Yeah, thank you so much.

So, towards the end of a documentary, it definitely gets quite emotional.

I guess you saw it felt like you set out with an idea of what the good Year women were like.

And I just was interested.

No, what was like when the idea was later unchallenged?

Well, you know, I didn't really go in with any sort of preconceived notions as to who they were, because I knew that we were I was ill informed, So I went in with an impression in my impression, wind as faras like Oh, they weren't.

They inspired the doorbell, Ajay.

They must be very valued.

But then going in there, there was a valor on vulnerability to these women, you know, it was not all clear cut.

And I was really glad that this film was not about passing a judgment, you know, it wasn't a test to see whether they were worthy off our admiration.

You know, it was actually just to tell the story as it is and leave that up to whoever is watching it.

So did any of the process will make you think about your own Kenyan heritage and ancestry, and I'm not sure about how much you already know about it, But did any of it make you want to find out a bit more?

Yeah, it really did.

And I remember at one point we were sitting with a queen in her courtyard and they were singing Anay Ancient song of their good year.

At one point they asked me to sing a song from my culture and I was stumped because every song I know in my mother tongue Lul is a Christian.

Him and I know my culture goes further than that because the Christianity in my culture is from colonialism, and I could not identify one song in my head That was from beyond that, and that made me very, very sad.

And I wrote to my parents, I think you guys have to teach me some.

Some of your songs don't involve involved Jesus.

So between forms like Black Panther films like The Lion King, it feels like African storytelling is having a bit of a cinematic moment.

Why do you think that is?

I don't know.

I'm not a scholar and show there's someone somewhere who studied this great length, and I will defer to them.

But I think you know, it's about who has the keys to the cultural door and that is shifting.

You know it's transforming, but also in the world of cinema, where you know we're inundated with story.

From one perspective, there's a hunger for a different perspective, and in some ways Africa is that frontier.

But I think for me, I'm not interested in a trend.

I think it's a lifestyle that I'm looking for lifestyle where Africa is part and parcel parcel of a global conversation.