On 2 January 1899, starting from the French Sudan, a French column under the command of the captains Voulet and Chanoine is sent against the black Sultan Rabah in what is now the Cameroon. The captains and their African mercenary troops destroy and kill everything in their path. The French authorities try to stop them, sending orders and a second troop but the captains kill the emissaries who reach them. Sarraounia, queen of the Aznas, has heard about the executions. Clever in war tactics and in witchcraft, she decides to resist and stop them.