Until Lions Document Their Heritage

This book is about the brave warrior kings and queens who fought against, and resisted colonial intrusion in southern Africa. In alphabetical order those leaders are: Bhambatha, Cetshwayo Dingane, Hintsa, Lobengula, Makgoba, Makhado, Malebogo, Mankopane, Manthatisi, Modjadji, Mokopane, Moshoeshoe, Mzilikazi, Ngungunyane, Sekhukhune, Sekonyela, and Shaka. “Until lions document their past stories, preservation of their heritage will always be dictated by the hunters”. This is one of the numerous versions of a great Africa proverb that had been in use from time immemorial. This axiom expresses a metaphoric existential relationship between lions and hunters. In such a relationship, hunters are dominant actors over the subservient hunted lions. As a result, in that unbalanced, biased power relation, in which the lions are underdogs (or undercats if you like), the dominant hunters are even able to usurp the role of telling the stories of the hunted lions! The lions therefore have no voice of their own. Their stories are told by their masters, the hunters. Contextualising this adage, this book indicates that until the previously enslaved and colonised communities such as the indigenous black people of Africa write their own stories, histories and heritage, these will always be told by others, especially those who used to write about them in Eurocentric terms, based on missionary, colonial and apartheid norms and standards.