Mia Cuoto; translated by David Brookshaw
Confession of the Lioness by the award-winning Mozambican author Mia Cuoto, translated from the Portuguese by David Brookshaw, is a hybrid tale combing elements of magical realism with the myths, traditions, and superstitions of an isolated village in Mozambique; prescient dreams; and the hunt for lions—real or imagined—terrorizing the village of Kulumani.
The story unfolds through two interwoven, alternating diaries: the diary of Mariamar, a thirty-two-year-old woman whose sister is the latest victim of the lions; the diary of Archangel Bullseye, the hunter hired to kill the lions terrorizing the village. The troubled back stories of each of the characters is gradually revealed, including their meeting sixteen years ago which left a lasting impact on Mariamar.
In this virulently patriarchal society, women are marginalized, their voices silenced. Stories emerge of their oppression, including incest, rape, genital mutilation, and other forms of physical violence. Two prominent women reveal to Archangel that the real predators are not lions but the men inhabiting the village who abuse women with impunity. The men view Archangel with suspicion as an outsider threatening their traditional culture and are determined to sabotage his efforts by using traditional means to address the threat posed by the lions.
The narrative timeline constantly shifts between past and present, between reality and dream-like sequences. Incidents from the past haunt the present, entangling flashbacks with current events. The lines between the hunter and the hunted blur so it is no longer apparent who is doing the hunting and who or what is being hunted. Ambiguity in the language suggests the real threat comes from humans behaving like animals.
In diction that is dark, poetic, and intense, the line separating the real from the imaginary constantly shifts. The language is tentative and ambiguous. Are these real lions who are killing Kulumani’s women? Are they seeking revenge for man’s encroachment on their territory? Or are they a manifestation of the village’s rampant misogynism and a metaphor for the violence perpetrated by men against village women? Are they spirit lions inhabiting the bodies of some of the women through witchcraft to underscore the gendered death-in-life circumstances of their lives? Or are they all of the above?
Cuoto interlocks a number of themes in the novel: the conflict between modernity and tradition; the devastating impact of colonialism; the oppression of women; the demand for gender equity; Christianity versus traditional belief systems; the blurring of lines between the spirit world and the material world; and the struggle to emerge from the ravages of a recent civil war. He balances it all in a novel that conveys a distinctly allegorical feel with no clear ending and no easy answers.
Recommended.