The lioness plague
The most critical symbol is the plague of lionesses. Interestingly, there are no male lions among the plague. People are dying, and it is serious, but also, it is sublime. This is not natural behavior for the lions, and it isn't as if there is some famine driving them to need humans as food. Typically, humans and lions live in a peaceful balance. Whatever the lionesses represent, that is partially a response to imbalance. The lionesses are all female, and they are feline monsters, so perhaps they represent the chaotic feminine.
The archetypal sharpshooter
The archetypal value of a hunter-savior comes up again and again in literature. Heroes often kill predators, like Hercules killing the serpent as a child, or the "son of man" stepping on a viper's head in the Old Testament prophecies. In this story from African tribal life, we see the motif in full bloom. The heroic sharpshooter is basically like Adonis, the perfect hero for the town women who are need in of someone powerful. We learn later that they need him not for his hunting abilities but for his sharp reason—they'd like a true patriarch to talk some sense into their abusive husbands.
The abusive patriarch
We first are introduced to the village's abusive culture toward women the same way the town women are introduced to it. The symbolic death of Mariamar's sister means that she is the one who has to suffer the full weight of their father's unbridled and abusive tendencies. To her, this is a literal patriarch, but to the reader, this dynamic symbolizes the status quo among the villagers. Without accountability keeping the men in check, the village has become too misogynistic to tolerate.
The motif of the outsider
The story's shape has an allegorical quality because the hero is a foreigner. The shape of the story is that the hero is trusted to solve a problem, but the problem is difficult and so he takes time to accomplish it. This means a orderly community is suddenly introduced to chaos through an unknown stranger with a powerful nature who can incite changes. Depending on what he changes, his reception varies among the villagers. The allegory culminates in his accomplishment; he manages to heal the culture of the village before departing.
The witchcraft motif
Through another essentially feminine literary trope, we realize what the lioness plague represents. The elder women are strong in nature by time and experience, and they come from another generation which still practiced witchcraft powerfully. They are the nucleus of the village's femininity, and through the motif of witchcraft, the manufacture a problem that exposes the weakness of the town men, for the purpose of rebalancing the town's gender conflict. This motif is obviously archetypal, lending the story a legendary feel.
