Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, 'Things Fall Apart', showed the devastating effects of colonialism on a Nigerian village in the late 1800s. It occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated and read African novel.
Achebe felt alienated by the depictions of Africa found in English and European novels, and identified Joseph Conrad as a particular foe. In an essay he wrote "I was not on Marlow's boat steaming up the Congo in 'Heart of Darkness'. Rather, I was one of those unattractive beings jumping up and down on the river bank making hard faces." He later said "I realised how terribly, terribly wrong it was to portray my people, any people, from that attitude, from that point of view."
This tea towel features a quote from Achebe riffing on an old African proverb. It metaphorically describes how dominant groups inscribe power through historical narrative: "Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter".
"Once I realised that, I had to be a writer. I had to be that historian. It’s not one man’s job. It’s not one person’s job. But it is something we have to do, so that the story of the hunt will also reflect the agony, the travail—the bravery, even, of the lions.” Chinua Achebe in The Paris Review, Winter 1994.
The image is based on Study of a Lion by Géza Vastagh.
