Quote by Maaza Mengiste: “History is made by those who write it, and rewritten by those who can.”

The record of what happened is never neutral — it reflects who had the power, tools, and opportunity to tell the story. History gets revised when new voices gain access. This is why who writes matters as much as what happened, and why recovering silenced histories is a political act.

Mengiste's The Shadow King excavated the overlooked role of women in Ethiopia's 1935 resistance to Italian invasion. The book arrived as global debates about colonial monuments, heritage, and who controls historical memory were intensifying following the toppling of statues and museum restitution disputes.

Ethiopian-American novelist and essayist whose 2020 novel The Shadow King, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, explored the Ethiopian resistance to Mussolini's invasion. She is known for her work on visual history, memory, and African women's experiences of war. She teaches at Queens College, CUNY.