African Myths of Origin (Penguin Classics)

by Stephen Belcher

  Inonge went to Mbombe, who was sitting in front of their house, unmoved. ‘Why are you not weeping? Your husband went off into danger, only to get you food for your special appetite, and now he has died in the venture, and you sit there while all the others are weeping. You should be mourning, you who ate the fruit. The price of that fruit was his life. Why are you not weeping?’

  ‘I cannot weep,’ said Mbombe. ‘I feel the pains of labour.’

  THE BIRTH OF LIANJA

  Mbombe’s pregnancy was huge, amazing all who saw it. She could not fit through doors; she suffered from the weight and the burden. As all around her were wailing for the death of Ilelangonda, Mbombe leaned back and began to give birth.

  First came the red ants and the white ants, and then all the other insects: beetles and spiders and moths and flies and mosquitoes. Then came the birds. Finally came the various clans of men, and as they emerged Inonge asked them their names: the Balumbe and the Bolenge and the Ntomba and the Baenga, specialized fishers and other groups. Then came Entonto, younger brother of Lianja, and as he emerged he chanted, ‘We shall be avenged! The insult shall be punished!’

  There was a pause, and nothing came forth from Mbombe. But her contractions continued; she was still in labour. A voice came from within her. ‘My mother, I see that slaves have dirtied the path I should take. I shall not go that way; find me another passage.’

  Mbombe cried out, ‘There is no other passage! I have no choice! You must come that way.’ But the voice within her called out, ‘No, I shall not take the common path. Mark your leg with kaolin and I shall come out with my sister.’

  Mbombe marked her leg with kaolin and immediately it swelled to the size of a tree-trunk. The skin split and out came a big and handsome man, fully armed and carrying a bell. With a gesture, he flew up onto the roof of the house. He called, ‘Nsongo, my sister, come out!’ and he was followed by a beautiful woman who shone like the sun, and she too flitted up to the roof of the house.

  Looking down from the roof, Lianja Anyakanyaka greeted the people of the village by name, and then leaped down to the ground. His sister followed.

  ‘Mbombe, my mother,’ said Lianja, ‘where is your husband, my father?’

  ‘My husband has died,’ said Mbombe.

  ‘How did he die?’ asked Lianja.

  ‘He died while fishing on the river,’ answered Mbombe.

  ‘We shall see,’ said Lianja. ‘Turtle!’ he called, and the turtle appeared. ‘Take a canoe into the stream.’ The turtle took a canoe into the stream; the wood split in two, leaving the turtle swimming to shore.

  ‘How did our father die?’ Lianja again asked Mbombe.

  ‘He died while cutting down a tree.’

  Lianja sent the turtle to cut a tree; it fell upon him, but he was not killed. ‘That is not how our father died,’ said Lianja, and Mbombe admitted the truth: Ilelangonda had been killed while fetching safu nuts for her from the land of Sausau.

  THE WAR WITH SAUSAU

  Lianja prepared war with Sausau. Entonto went ahead; in the forest he met Sausau’s Pygmy hunters, the Batwa, numbering at least seventy. He killed them to the last one and proceeded on his way. He found Sausau sitting in an assembly, and announced himself. Sausau proclaimed that he had killed Ilelangonda while the man was stealing his safu nuts, and produced his head. Entonto said that Lianja was coming to avenge his father, and Sausau scoffed: Lianja was only a child, still trailing his umbilical cord. How could he hope to avenge his father? Entonto left the assembly and returned to Lianja, who mustered his troops.

  Lianja led his army into battle. First he sent the flies and bees and wasps, but Sausau turned them away with a fire of smoke made from banana-leaves. Then he sent the clans of men: the Balumbe, who fought until their leader was killed and then ran away, the Bolenge, whose leader was also killed, then the Ntomba and the Bonsela; none of them could stand against the forces of Sausau.

  Entonto marched to the front, and there he met Bongenge, son of Sausau. They fought; Bongenge pierced Entonto’s shield with his spear, but Entonto pierced Bongenge’s heart and he fell dead. Then Sausau leaped onto the field, fully armed, and struck Entonto down.

  A bird came calling to Lianja to announce his brother’s death. Lianja flew immediately to the central battlefield where Entonto had fallen and found Sausau there.

  ‘Ah, Sausau,’ called Lianja, ‘summon your sister, let her join mine and watch us battle. How many spears have you?’

  ‘I have thirty-two spears,’ cried Sausau.

  ‘Nsongo!’ cried Lianja. ‘Beat the bell! The battle begins!’

  Sausau threw a spear which pierced Lianja; Lianja fell to the ground, but then the spear flew back through the air and his wound healed. He leaped to his feet and called to Sausau, ‘Come, throw your spear! Kill me if you can!’

  Sausau threw all his spears, but none of them could kill Lianja; all flew back out of the wound and were lost in the forest. Then the two men came to grips, and soon Lianja had overpowered Sausau. He seized him, threw him to the ground, and called to Nsongo for his magic knife. She came down and handed it to him; with it, he cut off Father Sausau’s head.

  Nsongo spoke. ‘Lianja, my brother, I love that man. Bring him back to life.’

  Lianja took out his packages of medicines; he scattered powder over the body and then sang a spell. He brought Sausau back to life and made him the slave of Nsongo. Then he used his magic to revive his army, so they might join his train. But before the marvellous march could begin, he ordered that they cut down the safu nut tree which had caused his father’s death.

  They gathered around the tree-trunk with heavy steel axes; the blades could not chip the bark. They came to Lianja and told him the axes had been blunted by the tree. He told them to pour a bit of water over the blades and to try again; they did so, and this time the axes became sharp and bit into the wood. Soon the tree fell down.

  The adventures of Lianja and Nsongo continue with their marvellous march through the forest, until they reach their homeland across the river. They capture craftsmen, makers of beer and fishers, to join their band; they capture Yampunungu the clever hunter. Lianja struggles with Indombe the heavenly serpent, and has to capture the sun to defeat him. They fight monsters and magicians, and finally come to a land they call their own. There Lianja leaves his people.

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  THE KUBA KINGDOM OF THE BUSHOONG: MBOOM AND WOOT

  The various peoples assembled under the Kuba kingdom in the eastern Congo are a southward extension of the vast Mongo grouping, extending out of the forest regions into the savannah. This region is home to a number of kingdoms now recognized for their cultural wealth; south of the Kuba lay the Luba states, and to the west the kingdom of Kongo. Sheltered by the distance from the coasts, the Kuba kingdom escaped much of the turmoil associated with the slave-trade in central Africa and stood intact at the time of the first extensive contacts with Europeans, at the end of the nineteenth century. Everything about the kingdom – the architecture, the dress, the sophisticated customs – impressed the visitors. Kuba mythology is highly variable, and serves, as Jan Vansina has observed, as their tool for speculation about the world; the account that follows links a number of shorter, separate narratives published after 1950.

  At the beginning was Mboom, who was a great spirit and who was alone. He felt pains in his belly, and then began to vomit beings into the world, beginning with the sun, the moon and the stars. In their light, the world took shape; the sun caused the waters to evaporate and land appeared. After these, Mboom vomited the crocodile, the goat, the egret, the minnow, the leopard, the crested eagle (associated with the royal clan) and men, along with other animals. These beings in turn vomited other beings: the crocodile produced all the snakes and reptiles, the goat vomited all the horned animals, the minnow all the fish, and so on. One man vomited up the white ants and died; the ants buried him in the earth. Another man vomited up plants, and a third vomited up the hawk. Mboom then visited the esta
blishments of the different beings and ordained their way of life. At that time, animals and men lived together, but this was eventually to end.

  It is also said that at the beginning Mboom and Ngaan worked together, but they quarrelled in jealousy over a woman. Ngaan withdrew to the waters, and created harmful things such as crocodiles and iguanas and snakes. These creatures are now called the ‘creatures of Ngaan’. It is also said that Mboom brought forth nine sons, all called Woot, each of whom was responsible for a different act of creation, from shaping the earth and making rivers flow to forging iron.

  Near the village of humans was a lake of palm wine. One day, a woman soiled the lake. She was seen, and the people stopped drinking from it. The next day the lake had dried up, and there were only trees where it had been. The trees grew into a forest. Eventually, a Pygmy, hearing of the disappearance of the lake, wondered where the waters might have gone, and reasoned that the trees might have drunk them up. So he tapped various trees to see what their sap was like, and so discovered that certain palm trees gave palm wine. He collected the sap in a pot, and eventually had so much that when he drank it he became drunk and his secret was discovered. The king ordered that the seeds of the tree be collected and planted around the country. It was at this time that animals and men separated; a monkey broke the calabash of a palm-wine tapster. The tapster killed the monkey, the leopard fought the tapster, and as a result of this dispute the animals withdrew to the forest.

  The king’s daughter had two sons, Woot and Nyimi Longa, and two daughters. One day Woot became drunk on palm wine and lay naked; his sons laughed at him, but his daughter covered him up, and after that he decreed that only his daughter would inherit from him.

  Woot contracted leprosy and retired from the village to the forest. His sister Mweel accompanied him and cared for him in his illness; they later became intimate and had a number of children. While living in the forest with Mweel, Woot discovered the items which were to become the emblems of kingship among the Kuba. When he recovered from his illness, he returned to the village with Mweel, their children, and the emblems. After his return, the incest was revealed by a Pygmy who had observed the couple in the forest, and the people of the village were outraged. The son of Mweel and Woot was forced to emigrate; he founded the Lele people. Woot and Mweel also departed the village; she went downstream, and he went upstream.

  Before he left, however, Woot decided to hand over the emblems of power which he had discovered. He told his son to come to him at dawn, as Woot was leaving the village, and to ask for the ‘chicken-basket’. But a Pygmy overheard the conversation and told Woot’s brother Nyimi Longa what he should do. In the dim light of the early morning, Nyimi Longa accosted Woot and asked him for the ‘chicken-basket’, and so he, instead of Woot’s son, received the emblems of kingship. Discovering the deception, Woot was furious and caused a fire which destroyed the village; his wife, Ipopa, cursed the crops and the animals so that the millet rotted on the stalk and the animals died. Then Woot and Ipopa vanished up the river.

  Nyimi Longa rebuilt the village and sent messengers to Woot, and eventually they acquired new domestic animals and the fertility of the crops was restored. It is also said that on his departure Woot caused night to fall over the village, and day returned only after his brother had sent messengers to plead for the people.

  Still later, there was a dispute among the clans over the kingship. The Byeeng and the Bushong clans were rivals, and they agreed to a public test of their claims: each pretender would throw a hammer into the water, and whichever hammer floated would indicate the legitimate claimant. The leader of the Byeeng clan then had his smiths make a hammer of light wood, over which they laid a thin layer of metal. But his sister was married to the leader of the Bushong, and she learned of this artifice; she switched hammers and gave her husband the wooden hammer, which naturally floated on the water when he threw it in. Therefore, the Bushong clan took the kingship. Their leader is known as Shyam Ngong, the first great king of the Bakuba and the originator of many of their distinctive practices. He gave them crops and foodstuffs, modes of dress, behaviour and customs.

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  THE FIRST KINGS OF THE LUBA

  The Luba kingdom formed in the area of Katanga (southern Congo) and northern Zambia, taking shape in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and reaching its peak in the nineteenth. Its early history was marked by warfare (for tribute and territory) and by disputes over succession. Its principal resources, exploited before the development of the kingdom, were salt and iron. This retelling is based on versions published after 1960.

  The first king of the Luba was named Kongolo, who is remembered as bestial and brutal; he is said to have buried his mother alive and to have subjected his own children to the poison-ordeal because they had bothered his wives while they were cooking. But he did discover the salt-marshes which provided prosperity for the Luba people, and he is symbolically associated with the rainbow (and thus with fertility), if only because of the reddish colour of his skin. He was a conqueror, inspired by the columns of ants which he once observed at war, and he established his rule over a number of peoples. He thus became a great king, powerful if not entirely respected.

  The great event of his reign was the arrival of Mbidi Kiluwe, the black-skinned hunter, who came from across the Lualaba river. He was following the pet lion of his sister, which had escaped and run away, but he had lost its trail (some say it was a large hunting-dog, nicknamed the lion, and add that Mbidi Kiluwe was himself accompanied by hunting-dogs). He met Kongolo’s two sisters by the water; they had gone there to tend their fish-traps, and they were surprised to see the stranger’s reflection in the water. Some say that they then ran home to announce the news, and the reactions of the crowd gave them new names: one was called Mabela, lies, and the other Bulanda, sadness. They brought the stranger into the town and welcomed him; food was laid out before him and all present began a feast. But Mbidi Kiluwe refused to eat and looked scornful. Kongolo consulted his diviner and was told that he had to make special arrangements for his guest: he must be given a specially built hut where he could eat unobserved by anyone, and there were rules for the preparation and the delivery of the food. Kongolo, who ate and drank as he wished, would never have discovered such refinements. For drinking, it appeared, the stranger required to be hidden behind a red blanket, again so that none of the common people might see him. And Mbidi Kiluwe gave Kongolo a blanket and drinking cup for his own, and taught him the rituals and decorum that are proper for a great chief. So Kongolo gave the stranger his two sisters in marriage.

  After a time, either because Kongolo was showing some hostility to a rival power or, as some say, because word came that his father was ill, Mbidi Kiluwe departed for his own land. He left his two wives, both pregnant, and he gave them instructions: if their children had Kongolo’s skin colour, a reddish brown, he did not want them, but if they were black like their father they should be sent to join him. He left iron-headed arrows of a particular make for his son to bring with him when the time came. At the river which he had crossed when entering Kongolo’s lands, he made a pact with the ferryman, predicting that some day his son might come fleeing Kongolo to join him. And again he said, if the son were red-skinned the ferryman should refuse him passage, but if he were black-skinned the ferryman should carry him and then refuse passage to the pursuing forces.

  Bulanda gave birth to a son named Ilunga Luala, and Mabela gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Ilunga grew up to be a great runner and dancer and a successful warrior. He was also skilled at games, especially a game called masoko which involves spinning seeds in a cup-shaped hollow. It is also said that he would win at masoko because his seed was really made of iron in the shape of a seed. Whichever was the case, he beat his uncle Kongolo at the game and became so popular that the uncle decided it might be best to get rid of this young pretender. He tried sending the young man off to battle to conquer neighbouring peoples, hoping he would die at the front, but I
lunga returned victorious and even earned another name: Kalala Ilunga, or Ilunga the Conqueror.

  So Kongolo devised a trap for Ilunga: in the centre of the dancing-ground he dug a deep pit, and at the bottom he planted spears and stakes. He covered over the top with mats and sand so the pit was invisible. But Ilunga was wary; he consulted a diviner who was well disposed to him, and the diviner told him he should pay especial attention to the drums while he was dancing. The drums were the tone drums that are used to mimic the tones of human speech, and skilful drummers would always weave messages and praises into their music during a dance. So during the dance Ilunga listened to the tones as well as the rhythms of the drums, and the drummers, who knew of the trap that lay beneath the sand, warned him when his leaps and high steps brought him too close to the pit. He carried a spear as he danced, and finally he hurled the spear to the ground over the pit, and it broke through the mats and revealed the trap that had been laid. Then Ilunga leaped over the pit, dashed through the crowds, and made his escape. He ran to the diviner, who gave him the arrow left by his father, Mbidi Kiluwe, and then he ran on out of the town and towards the land of his father. At the river, the ferryman knew him by his skin colour and gave him passage, and he came to the kingdom which his father now ruled.

  Kongolo followed after, more slowly. It is said that he stranded the men who had helped Ilunga at the top of a tree, although one was able to escape. But when Kongolo came to the river he was checked: true to the promise made to Mbidi Kiluwe, the ferryman had hidden the canoes and there was no other way across the river. Kongolo’s men tried to make boats of reeds, but these sank.

  When Kalala Ilunga returned at the head of an army, Kongolo was forced into a retreat. He moved through the various towns of his kingdom, leaving monuments of sorts to his passage: a rock-formation which is said to be due to the axes of his soldiers trying to cut a passage, and a canal to create a moat around his campsite. Kongolo came to the Lukuvu river, and this time was able to cross – there were far fewer in his party. He rewarded this ferryman with copper-worked emblems: a red paddle with strips of copper, a copper axe, and a copper arm-ring. Then he took refuge in a cave. The only people left with him at this point were his two wives.