FAQ

ECOMOD: A modification of the real-life ECOMOG, Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group

small-small: Many Bantu languages repeat words as an intensifier, so this just means "very small".

brown-brown: a drug given to child soldiers in West Africa. Early reports suggested that it was cocaine mixed with gunpowder, but cocaine is not easy to get in the region; it is more likely to have been amphetamines or heroin that was mixed with gunpowder.

djamba, ganja: marijuana

gogomi: term for "worm" from the Ga language, now adopted into Ghanaian English

Cowries, the shells of certain sea snails, long prized as jewellery in the west Africa region and used as currency.

Beasts of No Nation is set on a fictional unnamed West African country during a fictional civil war. it is not based on one particular conflict of recent history. However, it is inspired by a number of brutal conflicts in Western Africa during the 1990s and early 2000s, such as the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil wars.

Beasts of No Nation was released in limited theaters, mainly just so it could be a contender for awards season. It was simultaneously released on Netflix at the same time as theaters; a new practice for the streaming service. Read more about the film's production and distribution here.