"The Lions Have Their Own Historians" for Contrabass Solo

The title is inspired by an African proverb according to Chinua Achebe, from a 1994 interview with Jerome

Brooks in The Paris Review (Issue 133, Winter 1994):

There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the

history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. 

Some sections should be in fairly strict time, with a distinct groove. Otherwise, let the rules of rubato guide you. Be proud, majestic, the hero of your own story (whatever story that may happen to be).