Oom Leeuw

Oom Leeuw is a mythical figure from South African myth. His name means “Uncle Lion” and he was regarded as king of the beasts and could roar loud enough to shake the earth. He has strong iron claws and used to have massive wings like a bat that folded against his sides when not in use. He used his wings to swoop down on prey before they could even react and could use these wings to create massive bursts of air. A shortcoming he had was an inability to read, which he was notedly embarrassed about. He kept the bones of his prey in his cave guarded by pairs of white crows, and he was terrified of these bones being broken. One day, Bullfrog entered the cave and broke these bones. This weakened his wings so much that he couldn’t use them. Oom Leeuw threatened to kill the white crows but was unable to follow up on that threat because they simply flew away.

Citations:

Abrahams, Roger D., and Abrahams, Roger. African Folktales. United Kingdom, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011.

Metelerkamp, Sanni. Outa Karel’s Stories: South African Folk-lore Tales. United Kingdom, Macmillan, 1914.