History, Re-examined

Until the lion has his own historian, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
—African proverb

If history is written by the victors, this African proverb describes that history as one that involves animals as much it does humans. As a species, humans are not alone, but our history has been written as though we have been.

In a new book published by the Ohio University Press, historian Sandra Swart argues that human history is incomplete unless it acknowledges our relationship with animals. Written for both general and scholarly audiences, “The Lion’s Historian: Africa’s Animal Past” introduces readers to a Noah’s Ark of species to show how closely intertwined our histories are.

Swart, a professor at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, insists on a multispecies retelling of our more-than-human past as she reconstructs a series of significant human-animal relationships, from quirky, idiosyncratic connections to others that triggered major environmental changes.

An interdisciplinary background in history and environmental studies influences Swart’s work. She combines the natural sciences with social sciences, oral history, indigenous knowledge and archival research to tell these histories in engaging and accessible language. She blends current thinking about animal sentience, agency, cognition and emotion to offer a new way to understand animals’ role in our shared history.

The animals in this book—baboons, elephants, hippos, horses, jackals, lions, okapi, quagga, white ants and more—exemplify different facets of our shared past. While Swart’s book focuses on South Africa, its lessons are globally relevant. With this animal-centric lens, decades of research come together in a book that takes animals seriously. It is a book with claws and fangs that asks, “Are we prepared to move beyond the convention that ‘history’ is the story of only our own species?”

The entanglements between humans and other animals have shaped our past, but they suggest something more: The possibility of our shared future pivots on a reckoning with our shared past. Swart shows what human-animal history can do, not only to understand our place in the world better but also to make our world—however slightly—a better place.

Laura André is the publicity and metadata manager at Ohio University Press.

Feature photo courtesy Ohio University Press