A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

In Kouézou’s first cycle, the Hare turns a friendly game with a gazelle into a fatal deception and makes trumpets from its horns. Passing animals mistake the music’s source until a Hippopotamus investigates. The Hare offers instruction, injures the pupil and loses the instruments when the angry animal swallows them. A dove protects the Hippopotamus from his pursuit; its scattered feathers continue to warn after its death. Only after removing the last warning feather does the Hare defeat his rival and recover the trumpets.

A civet steals the food he prepares, leaving an odour that reveals the culprit. He finds and kills it, sells its skin for goats and consumes the proceeds. Later he frightens field workers with false announcements of an approaching army and steals their crops. They set a female-shaped sticky dummy that catches his hands, feet and mouth as he attacks its silence. Facing execution, he asks to be killed on the chief’s back, then leaps away so that the intended blow kills the chief instead. The cycle closes with the Hare escaping.

The second cycle begins with falling sala fruit sending the Hare and a growing company of animals into flight. At a fruit tree he remembers the guardian woman’s message when larger messengers fail. He proposes reserving a branch for their chief, then secretly eats its fruit and places the peel on the Elephant. A staged jumping test dislodges the peel and condemns the wrong animal. His later musical confession exposes him; he escapes extraction from a burrow by pretending that a hooked root is his injured leg.

After finally leaving the burrow, he returns disguised as a basket seller wearing a wax hair crown. Heat melts the crown and exposes him, prompting another disguise. He offers the chief a supposed steam treatment and kills him, then uses a drum and trumpet to taunt the village. An observer discovers the performer, the villagers surround him and he escapes their pursuit again. Both cycles preserve the small animal’s cunning alongside predatory and destructive behaviour, rather than presenting every success as benevolent.

Personified hareHorn-trumpet performerFalse army warningsEscapes sticky dummyPlanted evidenceBurrow deceptionWax-crown disguiseRepeated escapes
01

Origins & earliest records

Kouézou is explicitly credited at the end of both cycles. Junod’s contributor discussion p. 72 identifies him as a storyteller from Ntimane. The introductory naming note explains Noua-mpfoundla as the personified hare label; it is not a zoological binomial or a newly supplied personal biography.

02

Records & interpretation

Junod (1897), I Le Roman du Lièvre, premier cycle pp. 90–98, and II second cycle pp. 98–109; Kouézou closing credits pp. 98 and 109; personifying name discussion p. 89 and contributor context p. 72.

In the literature

“Son poing pénétra profond dans la glu”
Kouézou, narrator; Henri-Alexandre Junod, French recording/translation · Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga — I–II Le Roman du Lièvre
I Le Roman du Lièvre, Premier cycle, printed p.97 · Henri-Alexandre Junod (French)

The Hare punches the silent sticky mannequin and becomes trapped; later blows entangle him further.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa

    Kouézou, narrator; Henri-Alexandre Junod, collector and translator · 1897

    Junod (1897), I Le Roman du Lièvre, premier cycle pp. 90–98, and II second cycle pp. 98–109; Kouézou closing credits pp. 98 and 109; personifying name discussion p. 89 and contributor context p. 72.

  2. 02

    Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga — I–II Le Roman du Lièvre

    Kouézou, narrator; Henri-Alexandre Junod, French recording/translation · 1897

    Junod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga, Lausanne: Georges Bridel1897, Princeton scan. Complete French Le Roman du Lièvre cyclesI90–98 andII98–109 with notes, plus personification discussion89–90, independently read. Original97/98/109 visually checked.

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.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa

Junod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga, Lausanne: Georges Bridel1897, Princeton scan. Complete French Le Roman du Lièvre cyclesI90–98 andII98–109 with notes, plus personification discussion89–90, independently read. Original97/98/109 visually checked.

  1. The Hare kills Gazelle to obtain horn trumpets, mutilates Hippopotamus while pretending to teach him, and pursues him after he swallows the instrument. Dove and then its surviving feathers keep warning the intended victim until destroyed. The Hare finally kills Hippopotamus, recovers the trumpet, kills a Civet that stole meat and exchanges her skin for goats. After eating the goats he steals crops by sounding false war alarms. A sticky female mannequin traps his limbs and mouth, but he persuades his captors to execute him on the chief’s back and leaps aside, causing the chief’s death and the executioner’s killing.

    I Le Roman du Lièvre, Premier cycle, complete90–98; Kouézou closing98

  2. A falling fruit frightens the Hare and starts a chain of panicking animals. He understands an old woman’s explanation of a fruit tree, then secretly steals the reserved chief’s branch and plants peel evidence on Elephant, who is wrongly killed. His boast exposes the deception. He fools pursuers at a burrow but waits so long that one side rots, then escapes in rain. A wax crown disguise fails when it melts while he sleeps drunk; shaving his head enables another disguise. He kills a chief under a pretended steam-treatment offer, makes the head a drum and repeatedly summons villagers with music before escaping their final pursuit.

    II Le Roman du Lièvre, Second cycle, complete98–109; Kouézou closing109

Colonial French rendering; comparative Callaway/Châtelain/Theal references in notes are not new independent readings. Collector’s human-personification interpretation at89–90 kept separate from literal narrative action. No ritual, song or illustration reused.

References

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

  1. Attributed oral account in French collected primary editionJunod — Kouézou’s two Hare cyclesResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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