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.
Kalala Ilunga followed after. He also was ferried across the river, and he also rewarded the ferryman with copper emblems matching those presented by Kongolo. The ferryman’s clan has preserved almost all these emblems until the present time, at the cost of bitter and sometimes violent rivalry between different branches of the family. It is said that the paddles were kept reddened with the blood of sacrifices.
They eventually captured Kongolo. His wives were getting tired of their situation, and when one of them met a warrior scouting for Kalala Ilunga’s army she quickly reached an agreement on delivering Kongolo. One day, when Kongolo came out of the cave the wives quickly blocked the entrance with the firewood they had been collecting, and Kalala Ilunga’s warriors were able to capture the fugitive king. He was later beheaded, and possibly castrated as well. His parts were buried, or carried underground by termites. Kalala Ilunga became the undisputed ruler of the land, apportioning regions and positions to his followers, and his followers became kings after him, obeying the rules and procedures established by the hunter Mbidi Kaluwe.
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THE KINGDOMS OF THE LUNDA
The Lunda owed much of their royal political system to the Luba, as can be seen in the similarity of their stories to those of the preceding chapters. Lunda power was essentially based on conquest; they established themselves in territories lying south of the Luba kingdom, and spread both east and west so that in the eighteenth century they occupied the central portion of southern Africa, and were in contact with the Portuguese from both coasts, from Angola and from Mozambique. The older kingdom, that of Mwata Yamvu (a dynastic title), lay to the west; that of Mwata Kazembe lay to the east. They conquered many peoples, some of whose stories are told below, and the title at least of Mwata Kazembe lasted until the independence of Zambia. These narratives are retold from versions published around 1950.
THE KINGDOM OF MWATA YAMVU
A king named Nkonde ruled in the land of Kapanga. He had four children: two older sons, Kinguli and Chinyama, a daughter named Luweji, and a youngest son named Lyulu. One day, however, he burst out in anger against his two older sons. Various reasons are given for his anger: some people say that he got drunk and that his sons saw him naked. Others say that the sons found their father engaged in making grass mats. He had beside him a bundle of long grasses, and on the other side a bowl of water in which he dipped the grasses to make them supple for the weaving. The water had become cloudy from the dust on the grasses, and the two sons thought it was palm wine. They reproached their father for drinking alone and not sharing the palm wine, and he reacted angrily. Whatever the reason, Nkonde declared that they would never rule after him, and that his daughter Luweji would receive the royal bracelet and rule the kingdom.
King Nkonde fell sick soon after this episode and died. His counsellors debated, but the royal decree had been clear: the daughter must rule after her father. Otherwise, whatever the problems associated with a female ruler, they would face far more serious problems from the angry spirit of the king. So they dressed Luweji to become king and gave her the bracelet of royalty, and she ruled in the place of King Nkonde.
Luweji was not married, and she hesitated to choose a husband because of the rivalries her choice might cause among the clans of the kingdom. She ruled alone, assisted by her younger brother Lyulu. When her monthly periods came upon her, she would entrust the royal bracelet to Lyulu while she retired to the women’s hut.
One day, women who had gone down to the stream to fetch water saw on the other bank a tall and handsome man, equipped as a hunter. He had entered the territory pursuing an antelope which he had wounded, and he was resting by the water, weary from the pursuit. The women reported his presence, and the strange hunter was soon invited to the royal court. There, Queen Luweji clearly found his company enjoyable, and he spent more and more time sitting on a mat beside her, even during her court sessions. After some time, she informed her counsellors that she had decided to marry the stranger. They objected strongly, but she called her lover before them and asked him to explain who he was. He told them that his name was Chibinda Ilunga, and that he was a grandson of the first king of the Luba and the brother of the present king. Where his brother preferred making war and hunting men, he preferred to spend his time in the bush and to hunt animals. It was in this way that he had come to the land of the Lunda, pursuing an animal that he had wounded. The counsellors reluctantly agreed that Chibinda Ilunga was of royal lineage, and a worthy consort for Luweji. Still, the news caused great dissension in the kingdom. The two older brothers, Kinguli and Chinyama, announced that they would depart with all their followers. They were willing to live under the rule of their sister, according to their father’s wish, but they would not accept the rule of a stranger. So they left the kingdom, and many others followed them into exile. The royal town was much smaller after their departure; many huts stood empty and eventually fell into ruin.
One brother made his way west to Kambamba, where he encountered the Portuguese and allied with them for some military campaigns, which won him lands. It is said he helped the Portuguese against Queen Nzinga of Angola. Chinyama went south, across the Zambezi, and founded his own capital and ruled there.
Chibinda Ilunga then married Luweji, and they lived together. Soon after the marriage, however, her period came upon her. She handed the royal bracelet to her new husband, and ordered the people to obey him as they would her. This command caused great dissension among the people. Many who had accepted the marriage were unwilling to accept the rule by a stranger, and so more clans emigrated to new lands.
Time passed. Luweji and Chibinda Ilunga had no children. Eventually, Luweji told her husband to take a second wife, named Kamonga Lwaza. They did indeed have a son, who became known as Mwata Luseng. It was he who established the royal offices such as the Lukonkeshya, the senior queen mother. Mwata Luseng’s sons engaged in warfare. On his death, his son Naweji became king and took the title of Mwata Yamvu. The meaning of the name was a threat: he promised to conquer or to kill all the chiefs who had fled the kingdom at the time of Luweji’s marriage to Chibinda Ilunga. The name Mwata Yamvu became the dynastic title of the Lunda kings in that area after him.
Mwata Yamvu sent armies out from the Lunda kingdom to subdue neighbouring peoples, and over them he then placed Lunda rulers, so that in this region all the Lunda are commonly held to be chiefs. His son Mwata Yamvu Muteba continued this policy. An early conflict which ended peacefully was with King Kinyanta, whose power rivalled that of Mwata Yamvu and who was descended from Lyulu, brother of Luweji. But the war-leader whom Mwata Yamvu had sent against Kinyanta succeeded in capturing Kinyanta’s mother, and so Kinyanta submitted and swore allegiance to Mwata Yamvu. The two armies combined and launched new conquests.
In the royal capital, however, a disaster occurred. A great fire broke out and destroyed much of the town and killed a prince, Muchaili. The fire had started near the blacksmiths’ quarter, and so the king held the chief blacksmith, Lubunda, responsible for the death of his son. Lubunda
was ordered to build a tower that would reach the sun, so the king might have the flames of the sun as part of his ceremonial raiment. Lubunda and his workers began the task, constructing a great scaffolding of bamboo and wooden poles, bound tightly with leather thongs, and their tower rose high above the royal town. But the materials were not strong enough for the great height, and after a time, long before reaching the sun, the tower collapsed into the capital, killing many people with its fall. Lubunda survived, and immediately fled the capital. He took his tools and many of his followers, and his trail was quickly lost.
Some time later, however, a trader came to the royal capital, and among his goods were fine little iron bells and other articles of metal such as knives and copper ornaments. The king questioned him on the source of these articles, and the trader answered that the metal objects had come from a land far to the east, near the Lualaba river, where there were several rulers, among them a smith named Lubunda. Mwata Yamvu Muteba decided that this must be the Lubunda who had fled his kingdom, and so he appointed war-leaders to lead an army and capture Lubunda. He gave the principal leader, Mutanda Yembe-Yembe, a royal drum to take with him, as a sign that Mutanda enjoyed a complete delegation of royal authority. Mutanda was accompanied by Kinyanta, who was descended from Lyulu, brother of Queen Luweji.
PEOPLES OF THE LUAPULA RIVER
These stories are told by the peoples who were subdued by the Lunda and brought under the rule of Mwata Kazembe some time in the late eighteenth century. They inhabit a swampy valley south of Lake Mweru, which separates Zambia from the Congo. In recent years they have made their living from fishing in the lake; the land on which they live is not really suitable for agriculture. The peoples of the valley settled there in different times, before the conquest by the Lunda.
There were two brothers of the Clay clan. One was named Kaponto, the other Matanda. They lived beside the river. One day the children were playing by the river. Kaponto’s daughter was playing with a doll which belonged to Matanda’s daughter, and she accidentally threw it into the water farther than she could reach to get it back. The doll drifted with the current and was lost. Matanda’s daughter complained to her father, and her father complained to his brother, demanding that Kaponto’s daughter become his slave to make up the loss. Kaponto refused, although he offered some restitution for the doll. But Matanda was stubborn, and so Kaponto decided to take his family away.
They travelled down the river, and came eventually to a great grassy plain; beyond them they saw a rise with seven distinct hills. They decided to move to the hills and settle there. But the group moved slowly, and so they had to camp before they reached the hills. In the morning, they failed to stamp out their cooking-fire as thoroughly as they should have done; it smouldered and set fire to the grass. The fire spread swiftly over the plain, and brought death to the odd people who lived there: tiny people with huge heads who fell over and were then unable to rise again. All the tiny people died in the fire except for one old couple. The old couple instructed Kaponto on the rituals to follow when burying the dead, and what he should do when he wished to bring rain, and on other practices which they told him to continue. He and his followers were preparing to bury the small people when the rains began to fall. The rains brought a great flood. The humans took refuge on the hills, but even there they were threatened. It was Kaponto’s sister who saved them: she showed them how to make themselves canoes from the trees, so that they could ride the waters. She modelled the boat upon her body, and even now the footrests for the paddlers are known as the ‘breasts of Kaponto’s sister’. The name Kaponto then became the title of the ritual land-master of the territory, although chieftainship was then unknown in the area. The rains eventually stopped, but the waters did not vanish: they became Lake Mweru. The place of the seven hills is known as Kilwa island.
Some time later, in the hills to the east of the valley, there was a dispute among the Bemba of the Crocodile clan. The cause of the dispute was also a doll lost in the water; Nkuba refused to offer a human life to make up for the loss of the doll, and chose rather to go into exile. He sent scouts ahead to find a place to live. The scouts came to the land where the descendants of Kaponto and his people lived, and found them living very simply. They had no chiefs, and they had little idea of the value that other humans placed upon goods: they used ivory as if it were stone. The scouts went hunting and killed an elephant; as was their custom, they then presented the tusks of the elephant to the ritual land-master, treating him as the chief of the land. But he complained he had no use for the ivory, and suggested they should give him meat instead. The scouts returned to Nkuba and told him they had found a land where people had no unity or power. So Nkuba moved into the valley and took power, through a combination of battles and marriage alliances with the various clans. The older inhabitants of the land became known as the Bwilile, while the Bemba newcomers took the name of Shila.
THE KINGDOM OF MWATA KAZEMBE
Mutanda Yembe-Yembe led his troops east, conquering lands in the name of Mwata Yamvu. In the meantime, Mwata Yamvu Muteba died, and was succeeded by Mwata Yamvu Mukanzu. Mutanda returned to the royal court to swear allegiance to Mukanzu, and he was confirmed in his rule of the lands he had conquered. These lands included an area which provided salt of good quality, far better than the poor stuff made from burned reeds which was available at the Lunda court. The salt would cause problems. At a later time, Mutanda was again summoned to the royal court; a wound on his leg prevented him from travelling, and so he sent Kinyanta as his emissary, warning him not to mention the salt plain which was part of their domain. But Kinyanta hid two lumps of salt and at a suitable moment brought them out to season the food of Mwata Yamvu Mukanzu. Mukanzu then appointed Kinyanta to be Kazembe (governor) of the province of the Lualaba, because Mutanda had shown himself untrustworthy in the matter of the salt. Kinyanta returned to his domain, but Mutanda Yembe-Yembe had been warned of the royal order. He immediately imprisoned Kinyanta. But Kinyanta escaped, thanks to his wife: she pleaded to be allowed to bring him food, and Mutanda agreed. In the food-bowl she hid a knife, and with it Kinyanta cut his bonds and escaped. But he was quickly recaptured: Mutanda threatened to torture his son, and the child’s mother revealed where her husband was hiding, waiting for her to bring him more food.
However, they were unable to kill Kinyanta. Despite all their attempts and the torments to which they put him, he did not die. At last his wife told them how he might be killed: he should be wrapped in a fishing-net with a mortar and pestle, weighted down with grindstones, and submerged in the river. When they did this, Kinyanta perished. Mutanda also killed Kinyanta’s brother Kisombola, and the two became tutelary spirits of the waters, honoured by paired shrines throughout the lands of the eastern Lunda.
News of Kinyanta’s death was brought to the Lunda court, and Mwata Yamvu Mukanzu appointed Kinyanta’s son Nganga a Bilonda to be the first Kazembe of the lands of the Lualaba. He sent him back accompanied by a large army, and at this news, Mutanda Yembe-Yembe took his followers and fled to the south. Kazembe Nganga found only smouldering ruins when he turned to his town.
Kazembe Nganga followed Mwata Yamvu Mukanzu’s instructions, and undertook conquests to the east, spreading Lunda power. But he died soon after; people say that it was because of contact with the head of a king whom he had conquered. Following a divination practice, he had spent a night using the dead king’s head as a pillow, and a vision came to him that he would soon die, and that the Lunda would never win a passage to the north.
There was a dispute over the succession: two groups arrived at the court of Mwata Yamvu Mukanzu to claim the power. But messengers had already reached the king to inform him that the people’s preference was for the claimant who would place a freshly cut head at his feet. One claimant produced the head of the king that had caused the death of Nganga a Bilonda; another the still bloody head of a slave, slain that morning. Mwata Yamvu Mukanzu appointed a contest which favoured the second contender:
each should shoot an arrow at a hollow in a great tree near the royal compound. In this way Kanyembo Mpemba was appointed the second Mwata Kazembe, and the dividing line between the two royal domains was the Lualaba river.
Mwata Kazembe Kanyembo returned to his side of the Lualaba river and prepared to launch new conquests. He was blocked for a time by the Luapula river; his army could not find a safe ford. The army captured a man named Kapwasa, who promised to show them the ford, but after they let him go to find other guides, he vanished. Some time later, they captured a chief named Kisamamba, who pleaded to be allowed to fish for them; when they let him go in his dugout canoe, he too vanished. They captured Kisamamba’s brother, who told them he would show them how to make oil from mufutu nuts. He pounded the nuts in a great mortar, and placed the pulp into a pot of boiling water. Soon he was sweating profusely, such was the heat of his work and of the day, and so the guards allowed him down to the river to draw some water. He dived in and vanished, for the fishermen of the Luapula were all capable of swimming underwater from one side of the river to the other.
At last, Mwata Kazembe Kanyembo succeeded in crossing the river: his scouts found three women digging up roots, and the women showed them the ford. The army crossed the river and arrived in the lands of the chief Kipepa. The women were in fact the wife and daughters of Kipepa. Kanyembo drove a spear into a great tree near the ford, to mark the place where the Lunda had crossed the river, and swore a pact of friendship with Kipepa.
Kanyembo then overcame Makumba, the divinity of the Baushi. His soldiers captured Makumba, and then they tried to burn the great block of wood (some say it was amber), covered with oils and feathers and cowrie-shells from past offerings. But the statue would not burn; instead, the men tending the fire suffered burns from sparks flying out of the fire, and they developed blisters and boils. Kanyembo then ordered them to put out the fire. He came forth and placed cowrie-shells and crane-feathers on the block of wood, and they stuck immediately. He told Makumba that they were henceforth united. Makumba showed agreement by healing the king’s men of their burns and blisters.
African Myths of Origin Page 24