The Lioness

Modern-day Western tourism in Africa occurs against a backdrop of colonialism and exploitation. In the early modern period, European nations began establishing colonies on the African coastline as part of a broader project of economic imperialism. This began in 1652 with the establishment of Cape Town in what is now South Africa. The Dutch East India Company planned the town as a waystation for ships traveling between Asia and Europe. However, the establishment of these colonies required expelling or subjugating Indigenous populations and thus marked the beginning of a long and violent period of European conquest.

The trade in enslaved persons ensured an ongoing European presence in Africa throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, but it was in the late 19th century that colonialism expanded significantly into the continent’s interior. During the “Scramble for Africa,” established European powers rushed to claim control of large swaths of African land, in large part to exploit the region’s natural resources. By 1914, Belgium controlled the area known as the Congo, France governed much of northwest Africa, and Britain held control of South Africa and what are now Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, along with territories in East Africa encompassing modern-day Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and part of Sudan. An estimated 90% of Africa was under the influence of these three empires, with other possessions claimed by Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

African movements for independence met with increasing success after WWII, which depleted the economic and military resources of colonial powers like France and Britain. Tanganyika (mainland Tanzania) gained independence from British rule in December of 1961 and, in 1964, joined with Zanzibar to form Tanzania; in The Lioness, the country is most often referred to by its contemporaneous name of Tanganyika. The Republic of the Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960, but conflicts persisted. Supported by the US and Belgium, Army Chief Joseph Mobutu led a coup to seize control from elected President Patrice Lumumba, who was captured and killed. Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld was on his way to negotiate a ceasefire in the Congo when his plane crashed in what is now Zambia in September 1961. The Simba Rebellion, which began in 1963, included supporters of Lumumba and drew support from the Soviet Union, which promised to supply weapons to the Simba faction.

The initial success of the Simba revolt deepened US and Western support for Mobutu. Meanwhile, the Simbas’ violence toward both white settlers and “Westernized” Congolese attracted international notice. One particular incident was the capture of a group of nuns, who were tortured and forced into hard labor. A month later, a roundup of white residents in Stanleyville included a reported 1,000 hostages being held in Victoria Hotel. At this point, Belgian and American military forces seized control of Stanleyville and the surrounding area, freeing the hostages but also deepening broader African skepticism about Western neocolonialism.

This crisis forms the backdrop to the novel’s more immediate confrontation with questions of survival, freedom, violence, and agency. In practical terms, it fuels the novel’s plot. Some of the Simbas advanced a communist ideology, which earned them Soviet support; in the novel, the kidnappers plan to channel the ransom money to the rebellion. However, the Simbas also provide a thematic parallel to the Russian attackers, in the sense that they are a group willing to use violence to achieve their ends, while also commenting on the movement for self-sovereignty, a reaction against colonial rule in Africa.