The Ndzhenga Males

The Ndzhenga Males, also called the N’waswitshaka Males, are a coalition from Kruger National Park in South Africa. Three were born around 2015 in the N’waswitshaka Pride near Skukuza, named after a river that joins the Sabie; the fourth, from another pride, joined them as a nomad. The coalition’s name, Ndzhenga, means a thorn in the side: one male carries a large scar on his stomach from a buffalo horn that pierced him years earlier.

They dispersed in 2019 and moved north into the southern Sabi Sand, where they suffered illness and mane loss as nomads but still took kills from other lions. They fathered cubs with the Southern and Styx prides, and at the end of 2021 pushed north into the heart of the reserve along the Sand River, taking the huge Kambula (Ntsevu) Pride, driving the last Birmingham male away and turning back the Northern Avocas.

Two of the four had carried injuries for years, and these eventually brought them down: one was found dead east of the Sand River in February 2023, and by mid-2023 only two remained. The individual males are known to followers by informal names such as Amahle, Uboso (Wide Nose) and Orange Eyes, used inconsistently.