First Blood at Cotonou

Panel 1:Wide establishing shot of the Agojie compound at Abomey. The red earthen walls glow in early morning light. Hundreds of female warriors in cotton tunics and wrappers move across the courtyard in purposeful streams. Armorers work under open-sided shelters, passing muskets and ammunition boxes hand to hand. Porters load grain sacks and water gourds onto carrying frames. Dòkpè stands at the courtyard's center, arms folded, watching the preparations.

Narrator:“Abomey. The royal compound. The drums had spoken.”

Panel 2:Medium shot on Nawi standing before a group of assembled group leaders in the courtyard. She wears her indigo tunic with cowrie shells across the chest. Her scarred face is stern and composed. Dòkpè stands just behind her left shoulder. Behind them, the armoury doors stand open wide.

“Nawi: Every woman carries food and water for three days. We move south before dark.”

Panel 3:Medium close-up on Sika, Kemi, and Afi standing shoulder to shoulder among the recruits. Sika's face is still and watchful, eyes scanning the activity around her. Kemi stands straight-backed, tracking Dòkpè and Nawi. Afi grips her musket with both hands, jaw set, barely suppressing the energy in her body.

“Afi: This is not a drill. Kemi: No. It is not.”

Panel 4:Insert shot: an open wooden ammunition box on the ground beneath an awning. Dark paper cartridges are packed tightly inside in neat rows. A woman's hands lift one cartridge out, examining it. The cartridges are clearly live rounds, not blanks.

Panel 5:Wide panel. The Dahomean army fills the road south of Abomey under a late-afternoon sky. Male regiments march in columns carrying muskets, spears, and broad blades wrapped in oiled cloth. Among them, Agojie companies march in ordered rows, tunics and wrappers pressed against their bodies by the pace. Artillery crews drag cannon over the clay road. Sika, Kemi, and Afi are visible mid-column, packs on their backs, muskets at their shoulders.

Narrator:“They marched south. Thousands of feet struck the clay in an unbroken rhythm.”

Panel 1:Wide shot of the Dahomean army halted at the jungle edge north of Cotonou. Dense tropical vegetation fills the foreground. Beyond the last palm trunks, a wide swath of cleared ground is visible — tree stumps, blackened earth, felled trunks dragged away. The contrast between the lush jungle and the stripped earth is stark. Sika, Kemi, and Afi crouch at the tree line with Dòkpè beside them, all staring out at the cleared zone.

Narrator:“They smelled the sea before they saw it. Then they saw what the French had done to the coast.”

Panel 2:Medium shot on Kemi lying flat behind a fallen palm trunk, musket resting across it. She stares at the cleared ground with focused, calculating eyes. Beside her, Afi watches the same view, jaw tight. Behind them, Sika peers through a gap in the vegetation.

“Afi: They cut it all down. Kemi: Every thicket that could hide us. Yes.”

Panel 3:POV shot from the warriors' perspective looking across the cleared ground. Tree stumps rise from blackened earth in rows. Felled trunks lie where they were cut. The open space extends two hundred metres to a ditch and an earthen bank topped with stakes. The French fortification is visible beyond — low, wide, built into the coastal flat.

Panel 4:Medium close-up on Dòkpè crouching beside the three friends, her scarred face grim. She points one finger toward the cleared ground without raising her hand above the vegetation line.

“Dòkpè: They are not protecting a trading station. They built it to make us cross that ground.”

Panel 5:Wide shot from a low angle behind the Dahomean warriors looking toward the coast. The stripped earth stretches to the French earthworks. Beyond the fortification, two French warships sit at anchor offshore, their gun ports visible even at distance. The sea is pale blue and flat. The ships look enormous against the horizon.

“Afi: How many ships? Kemi: Enough.”

Panel 1:Establishing shot of the French fortification at Cotonou from a distance, seen from the jungle side. Earthen banks rise in a broad arc. Sharpened stakes form a barrier along the outer edge. A ditch runs in front of the stakes. Three cannon muzzles are visible on raised platforms, positioned to cover the approaches. French soldiers in blue coats and kepis move along the parapet. Senegalese Tirailleurs in red caps stand at the firing positions.

Narrator:“The French had not come to trade. Every shovelful of earth said so.”

Panel 2:Medium shot from the tree line. Two French soldiers in Foreign Legion uniform — blue sashes, white kepis — stand at the cleared perimeter. One holds a rifle at ease. Behind them, a line of Tirailleurs in red caps loads and shoulders Lebel repeating rifles. An officer with a sword at his hip watches the jungle edge with a telescope raised.

Panel 3:Insert shot close on a French cannon barrel, its muzzle facing directly toward the viewer — the jungle. The barrel is black and thick, angled slightly downward to cover the cleared ground. The earthwork around it is fresh, the soil still dark.

Panel 4:Wide shot of the offshore French warships from the beach perspective. Two large vessels sit at anchor. Launches travel between the ships and the shore, each loaded with crates, ammunition boxes, and uniformed soldiers. Tirailleurs wade through the shallows hauling launches further up the beach. French marines stand in lines on the sand, rifles shouldered.

Narrator:“More men arrived with every tide. More rifles. More cannon. More of everything.”

Panel 5:Medium close-up on Sika's face half-hidden behind broad jungle leaves, watching the French landing operation. Her eyes are wide open, tracking what she sees with visible intensity. Her musket is held against her chest.

“Sika: More than three hundred. Most are African soldiers. French officers command them.”

Panel 6:Medium shot on Dòkpè crouching behind the girls, her expression unreadable as she absorbs the intelligence. She stares at the fortification beyond the cleared ground, her scarred jaw set.

“Kemi: They are preparing for us to attack them, not the other way. Dòkpè: Then we do not give them time to finish.”

Panel 1:Wide shot of the last belt of jungle before the cleared ground, in deep pre-dawn darkness. Hundreds of Agojie warriors and male regiment soldiers lie or crouch among roots and low vegetation in complete silence. No fires. No lamps. Faces and arms are darkened with charcoal on the assault groups. Musketeers hold their weapons horizontal. The darkness is thick; only the faintest grey separates the earthworks from the sky ahead.

Narrator:“Before dawn. The army lay still in the dark and waited.”

Panel 2:Medium shot on Sika, Kemi, and Afi lying behind a fallen trunk at the jungle's edge. Kemi has her musket rested across the trunk. Afi is on her left, Sika on her right. Their faces are close together. The darkness around them is near-total. Afi's eyes are bright in the dark.

“Afi: We should be with the assault company. Kemi: We are musketeers. We stay here and fire.”

Panel 3:Close-up on Sika's hands gripping the stock of her musket. Her knuckles are pale from the pressure of her grip. The wood of the musket is visible in close detail.

Panel 4:Medium close-up on Kemi turning her head toward Sika. She reaches across in the dark and touches Sika's wrist — the same gesture from the source. Her expression is steady and direct.

“Kemi: Stay with me.”

Panel 5:Wide low-angle shot looking from behind the three girls toward the French earthworks. The cleared ground stretches ahead, pale in the pre-dawn grey. The French fortification is a dark line at the far edge, lamps glowing along the parapet at intervals. Two French sentries are tiny silhouettes against the lamp-glow. Mosquitoes are visible as tiny specks above Sika's hands.

“Afi: It looks far. Sika: It is far.”

Panel 1:Wide panel. The first Dahomean drums erupt from the western side of the fortification — shown as concentric sound-wave lines radiating from that direction in the panel's background. In the foreground, thousands of Dahomean warriors rise from the jungle and surge forward across the cleared ground in a massive wave. Agojie assault companies with charcoal-darkened faces lead the charge, blades drawn. Male regiment soldiers pour out behind them. The sky is the first pale grey of dawn.

Narrator:“The drums began. Then thousands of voices answered.”

Panel 2:Medium shot on Kemi behind the fallen trunk at the jungle edge. She tracks a target with her musket, eye along the barrel. Her face is concentrated. Afi beside her already has her musket raised. Sika is reloading, ramrod moving in practiced sequence.

“Dòkpè: Find your targets! Do not fire through our warriors!”

Panel 3:Medium close-up on Kemi's face as she fires. The musket bucks against her shoulder. Smoke billows from the muzzle, obscuring half the panel. Her eyes are open, jaw set, cheek pressed to the stock.

Panel 4:Wide panel. The French fortification erupts in a coordinated rifle volley. Dozens of Tirailleurs fire from behind the earthworks in a single organised line, rifle barrels all pointing the same direction. The volley tears across the cleared ground. In the foreground, Dahomean warriors fall mid-charge — some spun sideways, some dropping straight down — while the warriors behind them keep advancing over them without stopping.

Narrator:“The rifles answered together. The regiments behind did not stop.”

Panel 5:Medium shot on Sika behind the fallen trunk. She has just fired. Smoke surrounds her. She drops below the trunk line and begins reloading — powder horn tipped, ball pushed into the barrel, ramrod drawn. Her face shows fear but her hands move in the practiced sequence.

“Sika: Powder. Ball. Ram.”

Panel 6:Action panel. Afi starts to rise above the trunk after firing, eyes fixed on a target. Kemi's hand shoots out and grabs the back of Afi's wrapper, yanking her down hard. A rifle ball punches into the trunk exactly where Afi's head was — wood splinters explode outward across the panel.

“Kemi: Move first. Then reload. He saw you. Afi: I saw him—”

Panel 1:Wide panel showing the full battlefield. The cleared ground is thick with smoke from muskets and rifles. Dahomean warriors press toward the ditch and earthworks from multiple directions. French Tirailleurs fire in controlled bursts from behind the parapet. French marines in blue coats rush to reinforce threatened sections of the wall. The scale of the assault and the scale of the defense are both visible.

Narrator:“The French line did not break. Tirailleurs fired. Marines filled every gap.”

Panel 2:Medium shot. The French cannon fires from its raised platform inside the fortification. The blast is enormous — a cone of smoke and fire erupts from the muzzle. In the foreground, the grapeshot charge tears through a group of advancing Dahomean warriors, scattering them sideways. Bodies fall. Survivors keep moving.

Panel 3:Medium close-up on Sika's face. She has stopped moving. Her eyes are fixed on the carnage on the cleared ground — fallen warriors, scattered formation, the chaos of the grapeshot strike. Her musket is in her hands but she has not raised it. Her expression is frozen.

“Kemi: Load! Sika: —”

Panel 4:Medium shot on Sika raising her musket and firing toward the French parapet. She fires without hesitation this time. Immediately after the shot, she drops and crawls sideways without being told. Kemi watches her from three metres away with a small nod.

Panel 5:Wide panel showing the Agojie assault companies reaching the ditch. Women throw themselves in, using the bodies of fallen warriors as footholds to climb the other side. Blades are drawn. A French Tirailleur on the parapet fires point-blank into the ditch. An Agojie warrior tears the stake barrier aside with both hands. The assault has reached the outer defences.

Narrator:“They reached the ditch. They climbed over their own dead to do it.”

Panel 1:Wide establishing shot from above and behind the Dahomean position. The French ships offshore fire simultaneously — multiple gun ports erupt in flame and smoke along their sides. The gun line of both ships is clearly visible. The sea between the ships and the shore is open and flat.

Narrator:“Then the ships opened fire.”

Panel 2:Action panel. A shell explodes near the jungle edge behind the Dahomean position. A massive blast of soil, leaves, and timber fragments erupts upward. Sika is thrown off her feet by the concussion blast — she goes down on her stomach, musket flying from her hands. Kemi and Afi are knocked sideways but stay upright, grabbing vegetation for support.

Panel 3:Medium close-up on Afi wiping soil from her face with the back of her hand. Her expression is fierce and alive. She looks out toward the French position with burning eyes. Kemi stares at her in disbelief.

“Afi: This is better than waiting. Kemi: Better than what?”

Panel 4:Wide shot showing the Dahomean columns in the cleared ground being torn apart by naval shells. Explosions erupt in sequence across the open area behind the assault, cutting off the reinforcement columns. Warriors scatter in multiple directions. Groups that were waiting beneath the trees are struck as shells penetrate the jungle canopy.

Narrator:“The ships cut the roads behind the assault. Groups waiting under the trees had nowhere to go.”

Panel 5:Medium shot on Dòkpè moving along the jungle edge in a crouch, shouting orders at the musketeers. She points toward the French parapet with one hand and gestures for the women to advance with the other. Her scarred face is hard and controlled. Smoke drifts around her.

“Dòkpè: Forward. Use the stumps for cover. Keep moving or they will find your range.”

Panel 6:Wide panel. Sika, Kemi, and Afi move forward across the cleared ground in a low run, using tree stumps and depressions for cover. Around them, other Agojie musketeers do the same — moving in short bursts, dropping behind cover, rising, moving again. French rifle fire kicks up dirt around them. The French fortification is closer now, smoke rising from the ditch where the assault is happening.

Panel 1:Medium shot. Sika, Kemi, and Afi are behind a large tree stump in the cleared ground, about halfway to the French earthworks. Smoke rolls around them. They can see the ditch ahead where the Agojie assault has penetrated. The chaos of close combat is visible at the earthworks — figures struggling, blades flashing, muskets fired at arm's length.

“Afi: They are inside. We should be with them. Kemi: We fire from here. That is our order.”

Panel 2:Wide shot. A wounded Dahomean warrior — a male soldier — lies beside a shattered tree stump twenty metres from the friends. He drags himself forward with one arm, leaving a dark trail on the earth. His other arm is limp. French rifle fire kicks up dirt around him.

Panel 3:Close-up on Afi's face as she sees the wounded man. Her eyes fix on him. Her jaw sets. Her grip shifts on her musket.

Panel 4:Action panel. Afi is already running — she has broken from cover and is sprinting low across the open ground toward the wounded man. Kemi shouts after her, one hand reaching out. Sika raises her musket and fires toward the French parapet to cover Afi's run.

“Kemi: Afi!”

Panel 5:Medium shot. Afi has reached the wounded man behind the shattered stump. She drops her musket and seizes him under both shoulders, dragging him backward. Bullets strike the earth around them. Her face is set with effort, teeth clenched, muscles straining. The man's weight is visible in how she leans.

Panel 6:Medium shot. Afi shouts for porters, pointing at the man. Two Dahomean porters run forward from behind a stump farther back and take the warrior from her. Afi snatches up her musket, turns toward the French earthworks, and grins at Kemi and Sika who have caught up to her.

“Afi: He would have died. Then shoot better. Kemi: And now all four of us might.”

Panel 1:Wide action panel. The three friends cross the ditch at a run, stepping on bodies that have nearly filled it. Sika steps on something soft and keeps moving without looking down. Smoke wraps around the earthwork. On the other side, Agojie warriors and French Tirailleurs fight at close range — blades against rifle stocks, bodies pressed together in the narrow space behind the parapet.

Narrator:“They crossed the ditch where the dead had almost filled it.”

Panel 2:Action panel close on Afi. Her musket is empty so she swings it as a club, two-handed. The wooden stock connects under a Tirailleur's chin with full force, snapping his head back. He goes down. She draws her blade before he hits the ground.

Panel 3:Medium shot. Kemi fires her musket past Afi at a second French soldier appearing through the smoke, then immediately seizes Afi's arm and pulls her sideways behind the earthwork bank.

“Kemi: Stay down. They are still shooting. And the line behind us is still theirs. Afi: We are inside!”

Panel 4:Wide shot inside the French fortification. The breach is partial — the Dahomean warriors have penetrated one section but the French are reforming everywhere else. Tirailleurs fire in controlled bursts from behind stacked ammunition boxes. Marines appear through the smoke in a group, advancing with fixed bayonets toward the breach. Agojie and male warriors fight in the narrow space, some winning ground, some being pushed back.

Narrator:“They were inside. But the French formed another line for every gap that opened.”

Panel 5:Medium shot. Sika, Kemi, and Afi have taken cover behind a pile of French ammunition boxes. They fire, reload, and fire again in sequence — one firing while the others reload, the rhythm practiced and automatic. Blood is on Afi's blade. Sika's face is covered in sweat and powder residue. Kemi's eyes never stop moving, tracking threats.

“Kemi: Left. French marines. Three. Sika: I see them.”

Panel 6:Action panel. A French cannon crew inside the fortification turns their gun toward the breach where the Dahomean warriors are concentrated. The crew loads with practiced speed. Kemi sees it first — she points directly at the cannon and shouts.

“Kemi: Back! The cannon — back!”

Panel 1:Action panel. Kemi strikes the musket from Afi's hands and grabs her arm, physically hauling her toward the ditch. Afi is mid-reload, furious at being pulled away. Sika runs beside them. Behind them, the cannon fires — a massive blast tears through the space they occupied a second ago. Grapeshot rips through the smoke. An Agojie warrior behind them disappears into the haze.

Panel 2:Medium close-up on Sika's face. She wipes something from her cheek with the back of her hand. She looks at her hand. Blood is on her fingers. She looks at her other hand, her arms — no wound. The blood is not hers.

Panel 3:Wide shot of the battlefield. Dòkpè stands at the ditch line, one hand raised high, sounding the withdrawal — a horn is at her lips, her other arm pointing back toward the jungle. Around her the battle continues, warriors fighting and ignoring the signal. Officers shout the order again and again. The drums shift rhythm, the retreat signal competing with cannon and rifle fire.

“Dòkpè: Withdraw! All groups — withdraw now!”

Panel 4:Medium shot on Kemi grabbing Afi's arm again, pulling her toward the ditch. Afi pulls back, staring toward the French line where warriors are still fighting. Her face is furious and desperate.

“Kemi: We are leaving. They are bringing another cannon. Afi: We reached them. We can still—”

Panel 5:Medium shot. Afi looks through the smoke toward the French cannon crew repositioning a second gun. She stares at it for a long beat. Then her jaw closes and she stops pulling against Kemi's grip. She turns toward the ditch without another word.

Panel 6:Wide shot. Sika, Kemi, and Afi cross the ditch again going the other way, running back toward the jungle. Around them, the Dahomean withdrawal is fragmenting — warriors running, some stopping to help wounded companions, others abandoning captured equipment. French Tirailleurs fire into the retreating mass from the parapet. The cleared ground ahead is littered with the fallen from both the advance and now the retreat.

Narrator:“They ran back across the same ground they had crossed in darkness. It was longer going back.”

Panel 1:Wide shot of the cleared ground outside Cotonou. The Dahomean army is in full retreat — hundreds of warriors streaming back toward the jungle across the blackened, stump-riddled earth. Some carry wounded companions over their shoulders. Others run alone, heads down. French Tirailleurs fire in volleys from the parapet behind them. Bodies of fallen warriors lie in the same paths the army crossed at dawn. Smoke from the battle hangs low over everything. Sika, Kemi, and Afi are visible mid-frame, running together in a low crouch.

Panel 2:Medium shot on Sika running in a low crouch, one hand pressed to the earth for balance as she changes direction around a tree stump. Her face is turned back over her shoulder, watching behind her. Her musket is gripped in her other hand. Sweat and powder residue cover her face. Kemi runs two strides ahead of her, arm reaching back toward Sika.

“Kemi: Don't stop. Don't look back. Sika: The others — they are still in the ditch—”

Panel 3:Action panel. A French cannon fires from the parapet — the blast is enormous, a cone of smoke and fire erupting from the muzzle. In the foreground, a grapeshot charge tears through a cluster of retreating Dahomean warriors twenty metres to the left of the three friends. Bodies are hurled sideways. Dirt and debris spray outward. Sika flinches hard to the right, stumbling but staying on her feet. Afi throws herself flat behind a tree stump.

Panel 4:Medium close-up on Afi pressed flat behind the tree stump, back against the wood, chest heaving. Her blade is still in her hand. Dirt covers her face and wrapper. Her eyes are open wide — not fear, but the look of someone calculating. She grips her musket barrel with her free hand and pushes herself to her knees.

“Afi: How many still in the ditch? Kemi: Too many. And we cannot reach them.”

Panel 5:Wide shot. Dòkpè stands at the jungle edge thirty metres ahead, both arms raised, one hand pointing urgently toward the tree line, the other gesturing the retreat signal in broad, hard sweeps. Her scarred face is turned toward the retreating warriors, her mouth open, shouting. Around her, Agojie musketeers fall back into the vegetation. Warriors stream past her into the jungle.

“Dòkpè: Into the trees! Now! Move!”

Panel 6:Wide shot from behind Sika, Kemi, and Afi as they run the last thirty metres toward the jungle edge. The tree line is close now — dark, dense, promising cover. Around them, the retreat is disintegrating: warriors fall, others stop to lift them, porters drop captured equipment and sprint. The French fortification is visible far behind them, smoke rising from its cannon. Dòkpè's silhouette is at the jungle edge ahead, arms still directing.

Panel 1:Two-page spread. The entire cleared ground outside Cotonou fills the image from left edge to right edge. In the foreground across the bottom, Sika, Kemi, and Afi are caught mid-stride in the open ground — Sika to the left, Kemi center, Afi to the right — all three separated by ten or fifteen metres, smoke and debris between them. A massive naval shell has just exploded directly behind them: the blast crater is enormous, earth and timber and bodies hurled upward in a column of black smoke and orange fire. A second explosion erupts to the right of the frame, cutting Afi off from the others. A third shell detonates near the jungle edge ahead, blocking the route. The retreating Dahomean columns are torn apart across the whole width of the image — warriors thrown down, scattered, running in every direction. Cotonou burns in the far background, orange flames and black smoke rising from buildings along the coast. The French warships offshore are visible on the horizon, gun ports blazing with another salvo already in flight. Dòkpè is visible at the jungle edge far left, her arm raised — but the smoke and distance make her unreachable. Sika has been knocked to one knee by the concussion blast, musket gone from her hands, palm pressed to the earth. She looks to her right for Kemi. Kemi has been thrown sideways and is rising from the ground, one arm covering her face against the debris. She looks left for Sika, then right for Afi. Afi is on her feet but cut off — a wall of smoke and churned earth from the second explosion stands between her and the others. She turns toward them, mouth open, shouting something that cannot reach them across the noise. The image is enormous, violent, and unresolved.