Echoes Across Time

Violence the Maps Don't Show

Postcolonial writers on war and peace — where the wars that shaped the modern world were often not called wars. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ho Chi Minh, Patrice Lumumba, Rigoberta Menchú, Maaza Mengiste.

36 total quotes

“
Africa is a continent that consumes its children.

—Nuruddin FarahNovelist

Late Modern ERA • East Africa

“
Another dawn, another darkness.

—Faiz Ahmad FaizScholar & Thinker

Early Modern ERA • South Asia

“
Today, I ask Waris Shah / to speak from his grave.

—Amrita PritamPoet & Novelist

Early Modern ERA • South Asia

“
We were branded terrorists, but we saw ourselves as freedom fighters.

—Chin PengAuthor & Thinker

Contemporary ERA • Southeast Asia

“
We didn't have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival.

—Rosa ParksActivist

Late Modern ERA • North America

“
The white man comes with honey in one hand and a sword in the other.

—Samori TouréEmperor

Industrial Age ERA • West Africa

“
Mexico has a pyramid at its center, and it is made of skulls.

—Carlos FuentesNovelist & Diplomat

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
We prefer death to servitude.

—Queen NzingaQueen

Renaissance ERA • Southern Africa

“
Exile is a wound that never heals, only changes its shape.

—Marjorie AgosínPoet & Activist

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

“
War does not end with the ceasefire.

—Aminatta FornaAuthor

Digital Age ERA • West Africa

“
Children are not the causes of wars, but they are among its most tragic victims.

—Graça MachelPolitician

Late Modern ERA • Southern Africa

“
The hands that ache from toil and hunger / The hands that know no rest.

—Faiz Ahmad FaizScholar & Thinker

Post-War ERA • South Asia

“
My husband's tongue is bitter with the white man's salt.

—Okot p'BitekPoet & Anthropologist

Post-War ERA • East Africa

“
Violence is not a thing. It is a world without human beings.

—Han KangNovelist

Digital Age ERA • East Asia

“
I will die, but my cause will triumph.

—Túpac Amaru IIAuthor & Thinker

Enlightenment ERA • Latin America

“
The most terrible thing that can happen to a person is to lose their memory.

—Chingiz AitmatovNovelist

Post-War ERA • Central Asia

“
I write to give voice to those who can no longer speak.

—Assia DjebarNovelist & Historian

Late Modern ERA • North Africa

“
The Negroes of this region are very civil and gentle, and live in perpetual peace.

—Leo AfricanusDiplomat & Author

Renaissance ERA • North Africa

“
Our culture is our resistance.

—Rigoberta MenchúActivist

Late Modern ERA • Central America

“
My memory is a land of ash, where nothing grows.

—Agha Shahid AliPoet

Late Modern ERA • South Asia

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