When Shemwindo had become exhausted in his anger, for he ran back and forth with his spear but completely failed to kill Mwindo, he spoke to his counselors, saying that they should dig a grave to throw Mwindo into, for he did not want to see a male child. When the counselors had heard the order of the lord of their village, they did not argue with him; rather they went ahead and dug the grave. When the grave was finished, they went to fetch the child, Mwindo. They carried him gently, as a baby should be handled, and went to bury him. Mwindo howled from within the grave, saying: “Oh, my father, this is the death that you will die, but first you will suffer many sorrows.” When Shemwindo heard the remarkable curse of the little castaway, he scolded his people telling them to cover the grave right away. His people went to fetch the plantain and banana trees to lay on the grave, as is the custom. They placed them on top of him and above the plantains they heaped much soil. But at that very moment, it became evident that Mwindo had been born with a conga scepter, the royal fly swatter made of the buffalo tail, which he held in his right hand. He also carried an adze, which he held in his left hand. A little bag of the spirit of Kahombo, the carrier of good fortune, was slung across his back on the left side, and in that little bag there was a long magic rope. Most wondrously, Mwindo was born laughing and also speaking, already a man among men.
When the day was ending, those sitting outdoors looked to where Mwindo had been discarded earlier in the day, and saw that there was light coming forth, as though the sun were shining from within. They ran to tell the others in the village, and they came running. They saw the emanation, but they could not stand still there because the great heat, which was like fire, burned them. As one would pass by, he would attempt to cast his eyes on the light, but he would have to move on, it was so bright.
When everyone had fallen asleep for the night, Mwindo emerged from the grave and sneaked into his mother’s house. There he began to wail. In his home, Shemwindo heard the child’s wailing in the house of the Preferred One. He was totally astonished, saying: “This time what was never seen is seen for the first time. A child is crying again in that house. Has my wife given birth to another child?” Shemwindo was wracked with indecision, unsure whether or not he could even stand up because of his fear. But in his manliness, Shemwindo did stand up, going to the house of his wife, the Preferred One, slithering like a snake, without making a sound. He arrived at the hut, peeked through the open door, and cast his eye on to the child sleeping on the floor. He entered the hut and questioned his wife, saying: “Where does this child come from? Did you leave another one in the womb to whom you have given another birth?” His wife replied to him: “This is Mwindo here.” Where Mwindo was sitting on the ground, he kept silent. Shemwindo witnessing this marvelous event, his mouth itched to speak, but he left the house without being able to speak another word.
He went to wake up his counselors. Arriving there, he told them: “I was not deceived. He has returned. It is astounding.” He told them also: “Tomorrow, when the sky will have become day, then you will go to cut a piece from the trunk of a tree. You will carve in it a husk for a drum. You will then put the hide of an antelope in the river to soften.”
When the sky had become day, all the people called one another and assembled. Then, together they went to see Mwindo in his mother’s house. Mwindo was devoured by the many longing eyes. After they had looked at him, the counselors went to the forest to cut a piece of wood for the husk of the drum. They cut it, the piece of wood, and returned with it to the village. Then they carved the wood, they hollowed it out so that it became a husk.
When the husk was finished, they went again to fetch Mwindo. They carried him gently and put him within the husk of the drum. Mwindo said: “This time, my father has no mercy. What! A small baby is being mistreated!” The people of Shemwindo went to get the hide for the drum. They attached it on top of the drum. They covered the drum with it. When Shemwindo had seen his son placed within the drum, he declared to all his people that he wanted two expert swimmers, divers, to go the next day to throw the drum into the pool where nothing moves. After the swimmers, divers, had been found, they picked up the drum. Then, all the people left the village to throw Mwindo into the water.
When they arrived at the pool where nothing moves, the divers dove into it with the drum, swimming in the river. When they arrived in the middle of the pool, they asked in a loud voice: “Shall we drop him here?” Those sitting on the edge of the river answered: “Yes.” All said together: “Drop it there, so that you can’t be accused of his return.” They released the drum in the middle of the pool and it sank into the depths. The waves made rings above the place where the drum had entered.
After the swimmers had thrown him into the pool, they returned to the shore. Shemwindo was very pleased with them: “You have performed good work!” He awarded each swimmer a maiden. That day, when Mwindo was thrown away, earth and heaven joined together because of the heavy rain. It rained for seven days and that rain brought much famine in Tubondo.
After they had thrown Mwindo away, they returned to the village. When they arrived in Tubondo, Shemwindo threatened his wife Nyamwindo, the Preferred One, saying: “Don’t shed tears weeping for your son. If you weep, I shall send you to the same place your son has been thrown.” That very day, Nyamwindo, Mwindo’s mother, turned into the Despised One. Unable to weep, Nyamwindo went on merely sobbing—but not one little tear did she shed.
Where Mwindo dwelt in the pool where he had been thrown away, when he was in the water on the sand, he moaned within the drum. He stuck his head on the side of the drum. He listened closely to its sound, and said: “I must not wash downstream in the river. I cannot leave without warning my father and all his people who have cast me away of the consequences of throwing me here. They must be able to hear the sound of my voice. If I wash away, then I am not Mwindo.” From where the drum was beneath the water, it arose all alone to the surface of the pool—in its middle—and it remained there. It did not go down the river, neither did it go up the river.
From Tubondo, from the village where the people dwelt, came a row of maidens. They went to draw water from the river, at the wading place. Arriving at the river, as soon as they cast their eyes toward the middle of the pool, they saw the drum on the surface of the water, turning around and around. They inquired of each other: “Companions, we have dazzling apparitions. Lo, the drum that was thrown with Mwindo in it—there it is!” Mwindo living inside that drum in the midst of the pool, said: “If I don’t sing while these maidens are still here drawing water from the river, then I shall not have anyone who will bring the news to where my father is in Tubondo.”
While the maidens were in the act of drawing water and still had their attention fixed toward the drum, Mwindo, where he dwelt in the drum in the pool, threw sweet words into his mouth. He sang:
I am saying farewell to Shemwindo!
I am saying farewell to Shemwindo!
I shall die, O Bira!
My little father threw me into the drum!
I shall die, Mwindo!
The counselors abandoned Shemwindo;
The counselors will become dried leaves.
The counselors of Shemwindo,
The counselors of Shemwindo,
The counselors have failed in their counseling!
My little father, little Shemwindo,
My little father threw me into the drum!
I shall not die, while that little one survives!
The little one is joining Iyaugura,
The little one is joining Iyaugura,
Iyaugura, the sister of Shemwindo.
When the girls heard the way in which Mwindo was singing in the drum in the pool, they climbed up to the village, running and rushing, leaving the water jars behind them in disarray. The men, seeing them appear, running and rushing, at the outskirts of the living area, took their spears and went out, believing that they were being chased by a wild beast. Seeing the spears, the maidens beseeched thei
r fathers: “Hold it! We are going to bring the news to you of how the drum that you threw into the pool has remained there. In fact it is singing: The counselors of Shemwindo, the counselors have failed in their counseling. The counselors will become dried leaves.’ ” When he heard that, Shemwindo accused the girls of lying: “What? The drum that we threw yesterday into the depths of the pool has come to the surface again!” The maidens averred this was true: “Mwindo is still alive. When Shemwindo heard that, again he assembled his people. Everybody went down to the river carrying spears, arrows, and torches. The village stood empty.
From where Mwindo was floating in the river, he was able to see the way in which the maidens had run from the river toward the village. So he stopped singing for a while, saying to himself that he would sing again when the people arrived, following the girls who had just witnessed his astonishing deed. All the people of the village, children and youngsters, old men and young men, old women and young women, when they arrived at the river, seeing the drum in the middle of the pool, were joined together in staring at it. When Mwindo saw them standing in a group on the shore, he threw sweet words into his mouth. He sang:
I am saying farewell to Shemwindo;
I shall die, O Bira!
The counselors abandoned Shemwindo.
The counselors will turn into dried leaves.
What will die and what will be safe
Are going to encounter Iyaugura.
When Mwindo had finished singing like that, bidding farewell to his father and to all the people of Shemwindo, the drum sank into the pool. The waves made rings at the surface. Where Shemwindo and his people were standing on the shore, they were very perplexed. They shook their heads, saying: “How terrible it is! Will some day there be born what has never been born?” After they had witnessed this extraordinary event, they returned to the village, Tubondo.
Mwindo headed upstream. He went to the river’s source, at Kinkunduri’s, to begin his journey. When he arrived at Kinkunduri’s, he lodged there. He said he was going to join Iyaugura, his paternal aunt, there where Kahungu had told him she had gone. He met up with his aunt Iyaugura downstream, and he sang:
Mungai fish, get out of my way!
For Ikukuhi, should I go out of my way for you?
You are impotent against Mwindo,
Mwindo is the Little One Just Born He Walked.
I am going to meet Iyaugura.
For kabusa fish, should I go out of my way for you?
You are helpless against Mwindo,
For Mwindo is the Little One Just Born He Walked.
Canta fish, get out of my way!
Canta, you are impotent against Mwindo.
I am going to encounter Iyaugura, my aunt.
For mutaka fish, should I go out of my way for you?
You are helpless against Mwindo!
I am going to meet Iyaugura, my aunt.
For kitoru fish, should I go out of my way for you?
You see, I am going to encounter Iyaugura, my aunt.
For crabs, should I go out of my way for you?
You are impotent against Mwindo!
See, I am going to encounter Iyaugura, my aunt,
Iyaugura, sister of Shemwindo.
For nyarui fish, should I go out of my way for you?
Whereas Mwindo is the Little One Just Born He Walked.
I am going to encounter Iyaugura, my aunt,
Sister of Shemwindo.
For cayo fish, should I go out of my way for you?
You see, I am going to encounter Iyaugura, my aunt,
Sister of Shemwindo.
Look! You are impotent against Mwindo.
Mwindo, the Little One Just Born He Walked.
He who will go up against me, it is he who will die on the way.
Each time Mwindo arrived in a place where there was a swimming animal, he said that it should get out of the way for him, that they were powerless against him, that he was going to his aunt, Iyaugura. When Mwindo arrived at Cayo’s, he spent the night there; in the morning he traveled on right after awakening. Again he sang:
For ntsuka fish, should I go out of my way for you?
You see that I am going to encounter Iyaugura.
You see that you are powerless against Mwindo.
Mwindo is the Little One Just Born He Walked.
For kirurumba fish, should I get out of the way?
You see that I am going to encounter Aunt Iyaugura.
You see that you are powerless against Mwindo,
For Mwindo is the Little One Just Born He Walked.
For mushomwa fish, should I go out of the way?
You see I am going to encounter Aunt Iyaugura.
You see that you are powerless against Mwindo.
For Mwindo is the Little One Just Born He Walked.
The Encounter with the Dreaded Mukiti
Musoka, the junior sister of the evil Mukiti, had gone to live upstream from hated Mukiti:
For Musoka, should I go out of my way for you?
You are powerless against Mwindo,
Mwindo is the Little One Just Born He Walked.
When Musoka saw Mwindo arriving at her place, she sent an envoy to Mukiti to say that there was a person there where she was, at Musoka’s, who was about to join Iyaugura. The envoy ran quickly to Mukiti. Arriving, he gave the news: “There is a person back there who is joining Iyaugura.” Mukiti replied that the envoy should tell Musoka that the man must not pass beyond her place—“If not, why would I have placed her there?” That envoy arrived at Musoka’s. He told how he had been spoken to by Mukiti. Then Musoka blocked Mwindo’s passage, although she did not know that he was a child of Mukiti’s wife, Iyaugura. Musoka spoke to Mwindo, saying: “Mukiti refuses to let you by. So it is only by proving your manhood that you will be able to pass. I, Musoka, I am placing barriers here. You will not find a trail to pass on.” Mwindo answered her, softening his voice: “I am Mwindo. Never will I be forbidden to pass on any trail. I will break through exactly at the place where you would prevent me from going by.” Mwindo, saying this, pulled himself together. He left the water above him, he dug inside the sand, and he burrowed to a place somewhere between Musoka and Mukiti.
After Mwindo had passed Musoka in this way, having broken through Musoka’s dam, he boasted: “Here I am, the Little One Just Born He Walked. No one ever points a finger at me.” When Musoka saw him anew downstream, she touched her chin, saying: “How then has this tough one here gotten through? If he had passed above me, I would have seen his shadow; if he had passed below me, I would have heard the sound of his feet.” Musoka railed at his escape, saying that she would be scolded by Mukiti.
After Mwindo had passed Musoka, he began to journey to Mukiti’s. He sang:
In Mukiti’s, in Mariba’s dwelling place!
For Mukiti, should I go out of the way for you?
You see I am going to encounter Iyaugura,
Iyaugura, sister of Shemwindo.
Mukiti, you are powerless against Mwindo.
Mwindo is the Little One Just Born He Walked.
When Mukiti in his dwelling place heard this, he asked who was talking about his wife. He moved and shook heaven and earth. The whole pool moved. Mwindo on his part said: “This time we shall really get to know each other, for I, Mwindo, never fear one who is nothing so much as a boasting and pampered child easily angered. I won’t be worried about such a one until I have myself against him.”
Mwindo, organizing himself, went to appear at the spot where the monster Mukiti was coiled up. When Mukiti saw him, he said: “This time it is not the one whom I expected to see. He surpasses all expectation!” He asked: “Who are you?” Mwindo responded, saying that he was Mwindo, the Little One Just Born He Walked, child of Iyaugura. Mukiti said to Mwindo: “What do you want, then?” Mwindo answered saying that he was going to be with his paternal aunt, Iyaugura. Hearing that, Mukiti said to Mwindo: “You are lying. No one ever passes over these logs and dried leaves. Are
you alone the man who in spite of all will be able to pass through the forbidden spot!”
While Mukiti and Mwindo were still boasting and arguing with each other, maidens went from Iyaugura’s place to draw water at Mukiti’s place, because there is where the water hole was. As soon as the maidens heard the way in which Mwindo always referred to Iyaugura as his aunt, they ran to tell her. “Over there, where your husband Mukiti is, a little man has come who says that Mukiti should let him pass, for he is Mwindo, that he is going to meet with Iyaugura, his paternal aunt.” When Iyaugura heard that news, she said: “Lo! That is my child. I will go to where he is.” Iyaugura climbed up the slope. She went to the water hole. She looked to the river that she first might see the man who was calling her his aunt. As soon as Mwindo saw Iyaugura coming to him, he sang:
I am suffering much, Mwindo.
1 will die, Mwindo.
While his aunt Iyaugura was descending the slope, he went on singing, looking in the direction from which his aunt was coming.
Aunt Iyaugura,
Mukiti has blocked the road to me.
I am going to meet Aunt Iyaugura,
I am going to encounter Iyaugura,
Sister of Shemwindo.
For Mukiti, shall I go out of the way?
I am joining Iyaugura,
Sister of Shemwindo.
For Mukiti, my father, shall I go out of my way for him?
You are powerless against Mwindo.
Iyaugura said: “If my sister’s son, the nephew of the people of Mitandi, is in this drum, let him come here so that I can see him before me.” But though his aunt cited the people of Mitandi in this way, Mwindo refused to move in her direction. From inside the drum, Mwindo complained that his aunt had missed the mark. His aunt spoke again: “If you drum, if you are the nephew of the One Who Hears Secrets, come here. Draw near me.” Though his aunt mentioned the One Who Hears Secrets, the drum still refused to draw near. His aunt said anew: “If you really are the nephew of the people of Yana, come before me.” When Mwindo heard this, he went forth from the pool singing:
African Folktales (The Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library) Page 32
