Lioness Bride of Kimona-ngombe

Overview

During a famine, a company of lions cannot obtain the cattle belonging to Kimona-ngombe kia Na Mbua. A young lioness changes into a woman with attractive hair and clothes. Her companions coach her to ask for water while pretending to visit a brother: the cattle owner will propose marriage, giving her access to him and his livestock. The plan is to kill the man and take his cattle. She reaches his household, accepts the proposal, reports back to the lions and returns two days later, when a goat is killed and a house prepared for her.

The man’s son Ndala insists on sleeping beside his father and new mother. The father eventually permits it, so the bride sleeps on the bed while father and child lie below. The lioness tries to catch her husband during the night, but Ndala wakes his father by complaining of something biting near the floor. She resumes human form. On another night the child hears lions calling from outside and the bride answering them. She reports that the cattle, enslaved people and their owner are available, but the wakeful child keeps preventing the killing.

Ndala warns his father that the bride is a wild beast. The man first dismisses his reports as small pests and childish exaggeration, and starts to take him back to his own mother. The child persists, explaining the change of form and proposing that his father only pretend to sleep. The father returns, covers his head and watches. Seeing the lioness, he recognizes the truth. He removes his son to safety with the boy’s mother and calls the villagers and enslaved household members. They burn the bride’s house; by sunrise the lioness is dead. The closing praise of raising children rests on this particular rescue, not on an invented magical power belonging to Ndala.

Origins & earliest records

Jelemía dia Sabatelu is the named contributor; Chatelain specifies Mbaka dialect and Ambaca origin. The collector’s subsequent religious and gender comparisons are editorial interpretations, not additional actions or powers of the lioness.

Records & interpretation

Complete tale XV, The Lions and Kimona-ngombe, bilingual pp. 144–151; English pp. 145, 147, 149, 151. Contributor note XV p. 289.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Folk-Tales of Angola

   Héli Chatelain, collector, editor and literal English translator; named contributor in origin · 1894

   Complete tale XV, The Lions and Kimona-ngombe, bilingual pp. 144–151; English pp. 145, 147, 149, 151. Contributor note XV p. 289.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Collected Ki-mbundu text with facing English translation and contributor notesChatelain 1894 — Lioness Bride of Kimona-ngombeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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