Name: Njozi (meaning 'dream' in Swahili)

Breed: African Lion

Gender: Female

Parents: Arif and Akase, but Saada, through her marriage to Arif, is her adopted mother, all three (c) me

Siblings: Adabu and Adisa, both (c) me

Crush: Sharif (c) me

Mate: None

Cubs: None

Likes: playing with her friends and brothers, spending time with her father and adopted mother

Dislikes: fighting, being criticized because of her dreams

Personality: Kind, gentle and just being around her family

History: Njozi is the only daughter of Prince Arif and his ex mate, the ex Princess Akase. Her name means dream and she lives up to it, sometimes against her will. Her older brothers are the kind of brothers she would never trade because they let her be herself. Like her brothers she is friends with the guardians’ children, namely their only son, Sharif. The two form a bond mainly because they are the only one of their gender among their siblings. When the young Princess starts dreaming about her parents and the trouble they begin to have Njozi is fearful that something strange and frightening is happening to her. She doesn’t want it but she knows there’s nothing she can do. She finds solace in her brothers and Sharif and in a lioness of the pride, her father and uncle’s longtime childhood friend Saada who tells her that her dreams are a gift. Njozi fears that if her mother finds out she will reject and finally comes to her father and tells him. He is surprised but pleased that she is willing to accept her gift. They go together to tell her mother whose reaction is just what Njozi feared but in the heat of it Saada comes and comforts her much to the disgust of the newly former Princess and great relief of the Prince/Shaman. It’s in that moment Njozi believes that her father and Saada have the kind of bond that is needed to heal their family and she hopes the two adults fall in love. When her mother is found dead from a snake bite Njozi is crushed but her feelings over the death are relief as she feels – including her brothers – that their mother wasn’t much of one because she abandoned them after fighting with Arif but time, and being with her friends and father heals the small wound of losing the lioness who birthed and nursed her and her siblings. In time, when the rain season begins, she has a frightening dream of two lionesses out in the rain, fighting. Later she learns that the lionesses were the blind female Etana and the aunt of her three friends. One lioness returns harmed while the other, she later learns from the adults, is banished for attempted murder. After the rain season she and her brothers watch the marriages of King Baraka, her uncle, to Etana, and her father’s second marriage to Saada. These events make her and her brothers wonder of their futures and whether or not they will one day marry their childhood friends. Rafiki will later suggest that Njozi inherit his home, the Tree of Life, when he passes because he believes that her gift of dreaming can help a lot of animals

Relation to TLK: Daughter of Prince Arif, granddaughter of Kovu and Kiara

Headshot Base (c) Me

Body Base (c) Me