The fictional, fearsome, and all-female Dora Milaje in the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever were inspired by a real group of African warriors: the Agojie. Nat Geo contributing writer Rachel Jones shares the history of the Agojie and discusses the way that movies and pop culture can shape our understanding of the world.

For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard.

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Learn more and check out photos of the Agojie in Rachel Jones’s article.

Also, in 2019 Rachel traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to find out how they were combating the Ebola epidemic.

Read her pieces on a new tool that some hope could uncover the lost ancestry of enslaved African Americans and on Albert José Jones, who founded the first African American scuba club and led the way for Black divers to explore the ocean—and their own history.

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Watch the Dora Milaje kick butt in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, in theaters this Friday, November 11th.

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Who Inspired Wakanda's Warrior Women?