Confession of the Lioness () is a novel written by Mozambican author Mia Couto. Originally published in 2012, it was translated from Portuguese to English in 2015 by David Brookshaw, and it was also a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize in 2015. The story is set in the 21st century and inspired by real events that Couto experienced and real people with whom he interacted during his work as an environmental field officer in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, in 2008. His novel portrays the enigmatic crisis of Kulumani, a small village in Mozambique, where the women have become the prey of lions. Couto establishes the story through the perspective of Mariamar, the sister of the most recent victim, and Archangel Bullseye, a hunter hired by the government.

Plot Confession of the Lioness begins with the funeral of Mariamar's older sister, Silência. As she and her mother, Hanifa Assula, watch the burial, Mariamar reveals that lions have been attacking the women of their village, Kulumani, and that Silência, was their most recent victim. The next morning, Mariamar's father, Genito Mpepe, informs Hanifa that a hunter is being sent in from Mozambique's capital, Maputo, to aid their village. In Maputo, Archangel or "Archie" Bullseye discovers that he is the hunter who has been chosen to aid Kulumani. Before he departs, he visits his brother, Roland, who was placed in a mental hospital as a child. There, Archie confesses that the true motivation for his visits is to see Luzilla, Roland's wife, with whom Archie is madly in love.

Archie leaves Maputo with Gustavo Regalo, the writer chosen to record their journey. Upon arriving in the city of Pemba, the men meet the administrator of Kulumani, Florindo Makwala, and his wife, Dona Naftalinda. The four travel to Kulumani and the next day a welcome banquet is held in the Shitala, the village's traditional center. The native men are questioning the foreigners’ presence in their village, when Naftalinda interrupts. She defames the village men for violently raping her maid, Tandi, during a hunting ritual and proclaims that they are the true beasts. Meanwhile, Mariamar reveals that she had fallen in love with Archie on his previous visit to Kulumani sixteen years ago. Conflicted about his return, she flees her home. While travelling down the Lundei River, she sees a lioness and believes that it is the spirit of her sister, Silência. Shortly after, she is caught by the village's sole policeman, Maliqueto Próprio, and then her father, afraid that Mariamar will escape Kulumani with Archie, orders her to remain home during his stay. While trapped inside her home, Mariamar recalls her youth spent in the village's Christian ministry. She also ponders her loving relationship with her grandfather, the sexual abuse she suffered from her father, her love affair with Archie, and the connection she feels to the waters of the Lundei and the ocean.

Archie, Gustavo, Florindo, and Genito, one of the village's most skilled trackers, embark on a hunt. Archie sees a lioness but is unable to shoot her. He does shoot a hyena that was carrying the femur of Tandi, the lions’ latest victim. After Tandi's funeral, Luzilla visits Archie, and together the two depart for Kulumani's district capital, Palma. Naftalinda plans to sacrifice herself to the lions, and Florindo begs Mariamar, who was a childhood companion of Naftalinda's, to reason with her. Mariamar convinces Naftalinda to abandon her plan, but when the two women exit Florindo's residence, Naftalinda is attacked by a lioness. Mariamar wrestles with the animal until it retreats. This leads the surrounding crowd to believe that Mariamar herself is a lioness, and the entire village jeers for her execution. However, Naftalinda and Florindo defend Mariamar. After the incident, Mariamar returns home despondently, feeling inhuman and as though she is merely an animal trapped inside the body of a woman. She then goes to lay by the dead body of the lioness. Concurrently, Archie has returned to Kulumani with Florindo who informed him that the lions attacking the town had been killed and that Genito died while slaying the lioness. Archie has been instructed by Naftalinda to bring Mariamar to Maputo with him so that she can be treated at a mental hospital. He visits Hanifa to offer her his condolences, and he then leaves with Mariamar, for Maputo, where his love Luzilla awaits his return. Before they depart, Hanifa tells Archie that there were three lions, and she is the one lioness that remains.

Major characters

Mariamar Mpepe Mariamar is the thirty-two-year-old daughter of Hanifa Assula and Genito Mpepe. She is the only survivor of four sisters. Mariamar and her sister Silencia suffered from the sexual abuse of their father in childhood, and Mariamar was paralyzed from the waist down. She was sent to a correctional missionary, where she meets Dona Naftalinda, then known as Oceanita. She regained the ability to walk but is still believed to be infertile, and infertile women in her village are debased even lower than normal women. She claims to have been the one who called the hunters to Kulumani, much to her father's chagrin. He and her mother shut Mariamar away during the outsiders' visit to prevent her from leaving the village, but she longs to see the man who once saved her, idealizing him as her chance to run away from the absolute power of the abusive men, culture, and society of Kulumani.

Archangel Bullseye Archangel Bullseye is the mulatto hunter who is hired by the government to kill the lions attacking Kulumani. He had visited the village sixteen year prior, and during his stay, he had saved a young Mariamar from being raped by the village police officer. After Mariamar fell in love with him, he deserted her. When Archie returns to Kulumani, he is received with suspicion by the village's inhabitants. He no longer remembers Mariamar but instead loses sleep over different memories. He is haunted by the death of his parents, one of whom was shot by his brother, Roland, when the two were merely children. Archie is ultimately ineffective in hunting the lions. His failure can be attributed to the distraction of his love for his brother's wife, Luzilia, or it can be seen as an effect of the mysterious events he witnesses, which prompt him to question whether the lions are the danger from which Kulumani needs rescued.

Hanifa Assula Hanifa Assula is the mother of Mariamar, Silência, and two other unnamed daughters who drowned at a young age. Mariamar often describes her mother as tender but harsh. Despite the abuse of her husband, Genito, she obeys his will, takes care of his home, and calls him n’twangu, a title of respect that all women in Kulumani use to refer to their husbands. While Hanifa appears to be a living person, she describes herself and other women as dead, inhuman, or nonexistent. There are many dark elements to her character which imply that she belongs not only to this world but to the world of spirits.

Genito Mpepe Genito Mpepe is the husband of Hanifa Assula and the Father of their four daughters. He comes from a family that was favored by the Portuguese colonists. Following in the footsteps of his father, he became a tracker. He is referred to as “comrade,” by Florindo and the village policeman, and Florindo even invites him to serve as the tracker for Archangel Bullseye's hunt. However, within his home, Genito is an abusive drunkard who raped both Silencia and Mariamar when the two were children.

Dona Naftalinda Dona Naftalinda is the first lady of Kulumani, who is married to Florindo. Archie describes her as majestic but vastly overweight. She possesses a strong female personality, which inspires strength within Mariamar. As a child, she lived at the same missionary as Mariamar, where she was known as Oceanita.

Florindo Makwala Florindo serves as the administrator to Kulumani, who accompanies Archie on his journey to Kulumani and on a lion hunt. He is depicted as pompous by Archie who notes how he insists that his home be termed a residence instead of a house. Throughout the majority of the novel, Florindo is disliked by many villagers and even his wife, and his main concern is the effects that the lion attacks have on his political career. However, at the end of the novel, his relationship with his wife is restored. He joins her in defending Mariamar from the imminent danger of a raucous crowd of villagers, and Naftalinda remarks that he has once again become the man that she married.

Gustavo Regalo Gustavo Regalo is a famous writer who has been chosen to accompany Archie on his journey and record the details of the expedition. Archie describes Regalo as self-satisfied, and his accusatory nature reminds him of his brother, Roland. Yet, by the end of the story, the two develop an understanding of one another and become friends. Regalo's character can be seen as Couto's way of light-heartedly mocking himself. Both are white, glasses-wearing writers, who chronicle lion-hunts in Mozambique.

Historical context Confession of the Lioness takes place shortly after the end of the Mozambican Civil War. Although Kulumani is not an actual Mozambican location, Couto uses this imaginary village to demonstrate the devastating effects that almost three decades of war had on the country's villages.

Independence from Portugal

Mozambique fought against Portugal for approximately ten years, starting in 1964. Led by the Mozambique Liberation Front, otherwise known as FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique), the Mozambican forces abandoned peaceful negotiations and adopted guerrilla warfare. After a ceasefire in 1974, Mozambique gained independence in 1975 under the Head of State, Samora Machel.

Civil War

In the wake of Mozambique's independence, many Portuguese colonials fled the area, resulting in a collapse of the country's economy and class system. Mozambique then became a socialist country under its newfound leaders. With nationalism running rampant, most of the four hundred thousand white Portuguese Mozambicans were forced out of the country, and white minorities in surrounding countries also suffered. Members of FRELIMO, who disagreed with the group's stringent socialist policies and persecution of those who benefited from Portuguese colonialism, formed the Mozambican National Resistance, RENAMO (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana), with the support of Rhodesia and South Africa. The group began its attacks on FRELIMO in 1976, and their tactics were marked by massacre and mandated conscription of civilians. It was not until the late 1980s that the militant fighting ceased with a stalemate. By 1989, the resources of both sides were severely depleted, and as a result, formal peace talks began. Violence between FRELIMO and RENAMO continued, but in 1992, the two groups were able to negotiate a permanent ceasefire.

Kulumani During the Mozambican Civil War, villages like Kulumani were consolidated and militarized, and after the fighting ceased, fragmentation and conflict between tradition and modernity remained, as they do in the fictional region that Couto creates. He illustrates how the preceding Mozambican conflicts of the post-colonial era have spawned further tension between the tribal, Christian, and Islamic belief systems that exist in the region. Although it is not explicitly stated in the novel, Florindo, the administrator to Kulumani, can be seen as a member of FRELIMO, while the tribal men who lead violent hunting rituals and are responsible for the rape of Naftalinda's maid, Tandi, can be seen as adherents of RENAMO.

Themes

Female oppression