Book Review: Mystery of the White Lions by Linda Tucker

 

A non-fiction about some traditional African beliefs and the role (white) lions play in them. 

In 1991 in Timbavati, South Africa, author Linda Tucker has a near-death experience involving a pride of lions. She is saved by a woman named Maria who seems to have a certain authority over the predators. From here on Tucker delves deep into the local traditional customs and beliefs of the sangomas (traditional healers) and the role the (white) lions of Timbavati play in them. She interviews a sanusi (Zulu diviner) named Credo Mutwa many times about this and eventually walks her own spiritual path involving lions.

An interesting book. I'll be honest, when I picked this up I expected it to be less metaphysical and more about the conservation of the lions of Timbavati. And there's parts of that, but it really is mostly just dedicated to the beliefs of Mutwa and his people. And I was very much invested, actually! I loved learning about the beliefs and customs of Mutwa and the sangomas. The lions, especially Timbavati's white lions, are actually very important in their beliefs, which is sad as the white lions there are pretty much extinct now and even the non-white lions are facing threats from trophy hunters.

To me it was super interesting, but I can also understand that this might be a too esoteric for some readers. I was definitely lost in some parts as well as it's a lot to take in and the conversations between Mutwa and the author get very deep, long and detailed. But I was still consistently interested. I also did really like the parts where Tucker went out of her way to go more into the animal conservation side of things.

There are some things I feel I do need to address in this review, however. First of all: the contentious point on whether or not we should keep breeding white lions. On the one hand, these white lions in captivity (there's very few in the wild at the moment) are largely inbred and thus don't have a very genetic diversity. There's also no advantage to the animal being white, it just looks different. But on the other hand, the white lions do represent something very important and spiritual to the sangomas and lion shamans like Mutwa. They're very central in their beliefs and customs and I think that that to a certain extent should be respected. But does that mean we should keep breeding and releasing animals that aren't that are inbred? Interesting moral question.

Another part I wasn't too fond of: Siegfried and Roy, the two Los Angeles magicians famous for their shows involving white tigers and lions are portrayed as some kind of saviors and preservers of the white lions of Timbavati. Despite the fact that they took these animals (some from the wild) and are now using them for entertainment purposes instead of giving them a way to live out their lives in dignity. It seems more ethical for me for these white lions to either live out their lives in Timbavati in the wild, or if they have to be captured and taken to preserve their genes, taken to a proper zoo or sanctuary. Because this is ain't it and I'm not too fond of how Mutwa sees them as some kind of saviors of the lions, though that might also be my biased Western view. 

Also, Mutwa himself. Interesting person, loved reading what he had to say about his customs and beliefs. Do not love the fact that if you do a background check on him (not brought up in the book itself) that he made statements in support of apartheid and has allied himself with famed antisemitic conspiracy theorist David Icke when it comes to the ancient reptile-shapeshifter aliens theory (which is also antisemitic). Like, if you're going to spend the majority of the book interviewing this guy you can acknowledge the fact that he wasn't all perfect. It'd have been nice if the book would at least have acknowledged these things, but they're never brought up.

So while this was an interesting book to read and had me hooked quite a lot, I did raise my eyebrows a few times. It you like learning about the customs of the sangomas, however, I do recommend this book to an extent, as it does do that job very well. I just recommend doing some further reading after finishing it to draw further conclusions about stuff like the animal welfare, canned hunting, the use of big cats in entertainment and Mutwa himself.

Rating: 3.5/5