Motivational quote of the day: 'Until the lions have their own historians, history will always glorify the hunter' - A timeless teaching on how history of world is shaped by the Nigerian novelist-poet Chinua Achebe

History is often seen through the eyes of the people who have the power to record it but what happens when those who experienced the other side of the story finally get to tell their version. This is the exact idea that lies at the heart of a quote that is related to Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe: “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

Achebe, who is know as one of the most influential people in modern African literature, used storytelling to challenge portrayals of Africa that had mostly been shaped by European writers.

What does Chinua Achebe’s quote mean?

The quote of the day uses the relationship between a hunter and a lion to make a point about who gets the chance to write the history according to them. If only the hunter records what happened, the hunt is likely to become a story about the hunter’s bravery, skill and victory and the lion’s experience remains unheard.


The same idea can apply far beyond history books as stories about communities, conflicts and even individual lives can look very different depending on who is telling them. When only one perspective is heard, it can easily become accepted as the complete version of events.

Achebe quoted the proverb in a 1994 interview with The Paris Review. It reflected an idea that was central to his work, African people needed the opportunity to tell their own stories rather than allowing outsiders to define the continent and its history.

The message was relevant coaming from Achebe because he had grown up reading European literature that often presented Africa through an outsider’s perspective. His own writing would eventually help offer readers a very different view.

Who was Chinua Achebe?

Born in Ogidi, Nigeria, in 1930, Achebe grew up in an Igbo community and his father worked for the Church Missionary Society. Achebe got his early education at a mission school and he later also attended University College, Ibadan, with the intention to study medicine before switching to English and literary studies.

After graduating in 1953, Achebe briefly worked as a teacher before joining the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. But literature became the field in which he would make his greatest impact.

His first novel, Things Fall Apart, was published in 1958 and was set around the arrival of missionaries and colonial rule, the novel presented the upheaval of colonialism from within an Igbo community. Achebe went on to write No Longer at Ease in 1960 and Arrow of God in 1964.

Achebe also wrote short stories, poetry and essays, including Hopes and Impediments, Home and Exile and There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra.

After a 1990 car accident in Nigeria left him partially paralysed, Achebe moved to the United States and taught at Bard College in New York. He later joined Brown University. Among the many honours he received during his career was the Man Booker International Prize in 2007. Achebe died in Boston in 2013 at the age of 82.