Lions and Hyenas: A Metaphor for Advocacy for Social Change

By Jonathan Berry

Last night I was watching a program on Animal Planet that was documenting a pack of hyenas in Africa.  Hyenas are very resourceful scavengers, and if given the opportunity they will usually choose to scavenge food that has either died of natural causes or has been recently killed by another predator.  If they have to hunt they will usually go after the very young or very old animals in herds that they can catch without very much effort or risk.  But, from time to time food will become so scarce because of drought or other environmental conditions that they will have to be more daring if they want to eat.  They will have to seek out a food source that will fight back—like a lion.

I almost couldn’t believe it when I saw it, but I learned that hyenas have been known to feed on mature male lions.  Now hyenas are much smaller than lions, but they are more strategically advanced and better able to work together.  As I watched, about ten hyenas were able to surround a mature male lion.  All of the hyenas stayed just out of reach of lion, and the hyenas in the lion’s line of sight taunted the lion until it would lunge for the closest hyena.  That hyena would jump backwards safely out of reach, and before the lion could recover from its lung, other hyenas darted in from behind and take bites out of the lion’s back legs, stomach, or tail.  This went on for about an hour, and while no single wound inflicted by the hyenas would have caused very much damage to an animal the size of a lion, by the end of the ordeal the lion had lost so much blood from all of the small wounds and was so exhausted that they hyenas were able to kill and eat it.  After the kill the hyenas all hung around and ate until they were full, but as soon as they were all finished they left the majority of the carcass and moved on, not wanting to wait around for the other lions in the pride to show up.

As I watched this gruesome display of nature, it occurred to me that what I had just seen was a great metaphor for the work done by advocates for justice and equality.  In this metaphor the lion is a large powerful obstacle to the cause—such as institutional policies or procedures that create or nourish cultures of violence and oppression.  Advocates for change are the hyenas and need to be smart, organized, and strategic—and yes, sometimes even a little bit devious—if they are going to bring down the much more powerful lion.  Like the hyenas, rather than sending out one member of their pack to confront the lion by itself, hoping that that it will get lucky and penetrate the lion’s defenses, advocates know that it is very difficult to confront institutionalized oppression all at once, and success is more likely to come a little bit at a time.  The hyenas attack the lion over a long period of time, inflicting small wounds that end up weakening the whole.  Institutions are made up of individuals, so advocates should work to win the hearts and mind of individual members of the community, knowing that critical mass can be reached one person at a time.  The hyena knows that each insignificant bite it takes is a victory because it gets the pack closer the end goal.  While it may be difficult, advocates should understand that each individual that they impact positively will bring them that much closer to the change that they are seeking, and every small win should be celebrated.  But, the hyena also knows that as soon as it takes a bite it needs to back off quickly so that it can stay out of reach of the lion.  In the same way, once the advocate’s point has been made and the small win has been achieved—even if the achievement is only a “maybe”—the advocate should back off so that the individual doesn’t feel overly pestered and become hostile to the advocate or to the cause.  The advocate should make their point and get out.  Beating a dead horse never got anyone anywhere (sorry for mixing metaphors).

When, after hours of hard work, the hyena finally reaches its objective and the lion falls, they eat and leave, so that they don’t attract the attentions of the pride.  In the same way, when advocates for change finally achieves their goals within an institution they should  celebrate their achievements, but should never become complacent.  Just as the hyenas knew that killing one lion didn’t eliminate the risk from the rest of the pride, advocates should also be willing to look at their achievement in context, and understand that even a large win against violence or oppression within an institution does not eliminate violence or oppression in the community at large.  Advocates must take steps to consolidate their gains, while taking steps to protect themselves against the violence and prejudice that still exists—both within and outside of the institution.  This consolidation should not detract from the elation of the achievement—the elation of the achievement should motivate advocates to protect themselves from a possible backlash from those who supported the status quo, and will reduce the risk of those gains being lost in the face of that backlash.

I know that this is a violent metaphor, but it’s important to remember that if your goal is to create a safer, more accepting communities, this can't be done by introducing more violence (emotional or physical) into the community.  Social change through non-violent interpersonal interaction is possible and sustainable.

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