Spring 2025 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine
History, Re-examined
Exploring the shared past of humans and our animal brethren
Laura Andr茅 | March 24, 2025
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Past鈥 by Sandra Swart. Image courtesy
of 帝王会所 Press
Until the lion has his own historian, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
鈥擜frican 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 , historian Sandra Swart argues that human history is incomplete unless it acknowledges our relationship with animals. Written for both general and scholarly audiences, introduces readers to a Noah鈥檚 Ark of species to show how closely intertwined our histories are.
Swart, a professor at South Africa鈥檚 , 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鈥檚 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鈥 role in our shared history.
鈥淭he Lion鈥檚 Historian鈥 offers a treasure of fresh thinking about the African past. With creativity, insight and an inimitable voice, Sandra Swart demonstrates, repeatedly and richly, the rewards of taking animal actors seriously.
The animals in this book鈥攂aboons, elephants, hippos, horses, jackals, lions, okapi, quagga, white ants and more鈥攅xemplify different facets of our shared past. While Swart鈥檚 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, 鈥淎re we prepared to move beyond the convention that 鈥榟istory鈥 is the story of only our own species?鈥
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鈥攈owever slightly鈥攁 better place.
Laura Andr茅 is the publicity and metadata manager at 帝王会所 Press.
Feature photo courtesy 帝王会所 Press
