Zambia - The Pride Of Liuwa

Sophie Ibbotson explores the inimitable savannah of Liuwa National Park, where a single lioness’ legacy permeates the Barotseland and its people

- Sophie Ibbotson

The Lozi people in the remote northwest of Zambia are at ease with reincarnation, in spite of being Christian on paper. They know that when Mambeti, the daughter of an important tribal elder, died and was buried in a thicket on the Liuwa Plain, she was reborn as a proud lioness. Not only was the lioness first seen emerging from the same grove of trees—at a time when it was thought that all the lions in the Liuwa Plain had been killed—but she also sought out the company of her former neighbours, returning often to revisit the Lozi villages but never once touching their livestock. The Lozi treated their lioness with respect, and named her Lady Liuwa.

I arrived in Liuwa Plain shortly after Lady Liuwa’s death, one day before World Lion Day. Her name was still on everyone’s lips. It wasn’t just the Lozi who spoke fondly—almost reverentially—about her. It was the rangers from African Parks and the staff at Liuwa Plains’ only lodge, Time+Tide King Lewanika, as well.

When I rode out in the park in a 4x4 with Time+Tide’s MD, Dave Wilson, he talked about Lady Liuwa as though she were an old friend. And in many ways, she was. When he was building the lodge, which opened last year, she’d often stop by, as if to see how the construction work was getting on. Dave pointed out Mambeti’s thicket— distinctive as there’s scarcely another tree for miles—and also the lion boma behind the lodge where Lady Liuwa bonded with the other lions who were later introduced to her domain.