until the lion learns to write every story will glorify the hunter
un-TIL the LY-un LERNZ too RYT EV-ree STOR-ee wil GLOR-ih-fy the HUN-ter
ʌnˈtɪl ðə ˈlaɪən lɜːrnz tuː raɪt ˈɛvriː ˈstɔːriː wɪl ˈɡlɔːrɪfaɪ ðə ˈhʌntərListen
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Dictionary meaning
a proverb of West African origin, associated with Igbo and Akan oral traditions, about the politics of narrative control and the relationship between literacy, power, and whose version of history gets recorded; in every hunt, the hunter returns to tell a story of skill and courage in which the animal is cast as prey to be overcome; but the animal — the lion, the elephant — experienced the same event from a perspective of survival, territory, and loss that never makes it into the written account; the proverb became a touchstone of African postcolonial literary criticism, arguing that African peoples must produce their own written histories, literatures, and archives rather than accepting the narratives composed by those who once held power over them
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