When their elder brother, Kantu, heard this, he was angry because Ruhanga had not considered him when assigning places in society, and so he said he would oppose the order that Ruhanga had set up and bring destruction and strife into the world.
Hearing that, Ruhanga told Nkya to come with him, and they left the earth which had become corrupt and withdrew to heaven, pushing away the tree and the poles which had joined the two. The iron bar fell down and broke into many small pieces, so it is now spread over the world to be used in tools.
KING BABA
Baba was the grandson of Nkya, and became king after his father Kakama Twale disappeared under the evil influence of Kantu. People were prosperous under his rule, and so Kantu became jealous. He went to Ruhanga and asked that he remove the desire to eat from people. Ruhanga did so, and without the desire for food no humans did anything any more: they let the cattle wander, they did not visit each other or talk, they just sat. King Baba realized that this condition must be due to Ruhanga. Kantu perceived that thought and reported to Ruhanga that Baba thought ill of him in his heart, and Ruhanga became angry. So he released hunger and disease and death into the world. The first to die was the child of the king, and naturally at first the people thought that he had fallen asleep, and they wondered why they could not wake him. Then Baba sent a message to Ruhanga telling him how they could not wake up the boy. Ruhanga was sorry, knowing the boy had died, and at first he wanted to limit death, so that after four days the body would live again, but Nkya told him it would be better if people died for good. So Ruhanga sent a reply to Baba and told him to bury the child.
In his grief over the loss of his son, Baba cried out and cursed the land, and Kantu caught him and took him away in the same way he had taken Baba’s father.
KING ISAZA
Several kings followed Baba, and then a very young man named Isaza came to the throne. He immediately dismissed all the elders who advised the king, and said that as he was young, he would be advised by young men only. But he eventually changed his mind.
One day, when hunting, he killed a zebra, and admired the beautiful patterns on the skin. He determined to make the skin into a garment, and he had it sewn tightly around him. For a time, his new costume was spectacular and all admired him. But then the skin shrank as it dried, and it tightened upon the king’s body and he began to feel constricted. He asked his friends what he should do, but they were little help. They told him that kings made a fine spectacle, but that kingship had its discomforts, and so he should simply endure the pain as the price of his splendour. But then the hide shrank further. The king began to have trouble breathing, and then fainted. His companions did not know what to do at that point; they could not cut the skin away without also cutting the king’s flesh. So they wondered, and found no solution.
Word of the king’s plight came to the elders who had been banished, and they decided they should help the king in spite of his foolishness. So they fetched Isaza and threw him in a pond of water so that he was almost completely submerged, and they would not release him even when he revived and complained. Isaza thought they were trying to drown him. But after a short time the wet skin began to stretch. The constriction of his chest eased and he could breathe freely. Then the old men withdrew him from the water and cut off the skin. In gratitude for their service, and recognizing his earlier errors, Isaza decreed that property should thereafter be held by the elders in families.
ISAZA AND THE KING OF THE UNDERWORLD
Nyamiyongo, king of the underworld, decided to try to form an alliance with a king on earth, and sent messengers to Isaza. They came and asked the king to show them six things: that which brings the dawn, that which falls short, that which binds water, that which causes kings to turn, that which has no wit, and that which ends sorrow. But they did not tell the king what these things were. The messengers withdrew, and the king consulted with his advisers. But they could not make out the riddles of the messengers. Isaza summoned wise men from all the region, but none could explain these things. But one day, as his queen came worriedly from the consultations of the ministers, she talked to her maid and told her of the challenge from Nyamiyongo, and in a moment the young maid said that she could solve the riddle for the king. So the king and his ministers met with the maid, and she showed them what it meant. She had a baby placed on the king’s mat, and the baby crawled about and dirtied the skin and overturned a water container. There, said the maid, is that which has no wit. Then she showed them a dog with a tobacco-pipe and fire: the dog could not light the pipe, but sat there. There, said the maid, is that which falls short. Then she filled a pot with water and set it boiling, and then placed in it some millet, and after a time the millet had absorbed the water. There, said the maid, is that which binds water. Then she led them outside and showed them a cock. There, she said, is that which brings the dawn. Then a cow lowed nearby, and the king turned to see it. There, said the maid, is that which causes kings to turn. She told them also of that which ends sorrow, but that secret has been forgotten.
So the king’s counsellors showed the maiden’s items to the messengers of Nyamiyongo, and the messengers of Nyamiyongo explained their king’s desire for an alliance with an earthly ruler. The king proposed that they should become blood-brothers, each eating a coffee bean soaked in the blood of the other. But Isaza was wary of this offer, and so gave the bean to a servant, rather than eating it himself.
But Nyamiyongo learned of this deception, and was humiliated to think that he had formed an alliance with a human servant. So he planned destruction for Isaza. First, he chose the most beautiful and deceitful woman in his court and dressed her in wonderful finery. Her name was Nyamata. She came to Isaza’s court and easily won his attention and then his heart. He wished to send messengers to her kinsmen to formalize their relationship, but she refused that. She wished him to come with her, but he was not willing to leave his kingdom. But she persisted. One day, however, they were together when the herds of cattle were brought in from pasture, and the king stood admiring them and didn’t even notice when Nyamata went from his side, and hardly heard her when she called him. Then he said he could not come, because he wished to watch the cows being milked. Realizing that she could not compete with his cattle, Nyamata withdrew into the underworld. There she gave birth to a son.
Nyamiyongo had discovered his weapon: he sent a pair of magnificent cattle, bull and cow, to Isaza, and Isaza took them and loved them. He spent all his time with them, even bringing them into his hut at night. But one night the cows vanished. The next day he went hunting them across the land, and he found their horns sticking up from a bog. He leaped in to try to pull them out, and found suddenly that he had fallen through the earth and was in the underworld.
There he was brought before Nyamiyongo, and while at first he was treated well, eventually Nyamiyongo reproached him for having tricked the king of the underworld into an alliance with a servant. Then Nyamiyongo gave the cattle to Isaza, as well as his wife and child who were there, and told him he was free to leave: but Isaza never found the way out of the underworld, and so was forced to wander there. This was the end of the kings who were gods.
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THE KINGDOM OF BUGANDA
The kingdom of Buganda developed in the eighteenth century in the areas immediately north-west of Lake Victoria, in regions where the heavy rainfall made banana-cultivation very rewarding but also made cattle-ownership difficult because of the insect-borne diseases. The expansion of Buganda in the nineteenth century also led to the spread of the story of Kintu into neighbouring areas such as Busoga (north of the lake) and BuHaya, to the south-west. This was the kingdom still in power when the English penetrated the area at the end of the nineteenth century; it was then divided between Muslim clans, who wished to retain some independence and particularly to maintain the slave-trade which had brought prosperity at one time to the royal house, and the Christians who considered themselves the victims of that trade. These episodes are retold from an a
ccount made by a member of the royal family at the end of the nineteenth century and later translated in English.
KINTU
The first man in Buganda was Kintu; he came into the country with one cow and lived from the cow’s milk. That was all there was to eat. A woman named Nambi came down from heaven and saw Kintu and fell in love with him. When she returned to heaven she told her father Ggulu that she wished to marry the human, but he opposed the match. He said they should test Kintu, and so he sent his sons down to steal Kintu’s cow. Kintu was now without his accustomed food. But he explored and tried various plants and was able to find enough things to eat. Then Nambi, seeing Kintu’s cow among her father’s herds, realized that her family was harming the man and determined to help him get his cow back. She went down and brought Kintu back to heaven.
When Kintu appeared in heaven, Ggulu decided that he should further test the man his daughter desired. They put Kintu into a house and then cooked a meal large enough for a hundred people. They brought this to him and told him he should eat it all as proof of his powers; if he left any they would kill him. So Kintu sat and ate as much as he could, but there was still a great deal left over. He looked around the hut and found a hole, and so he began putting the food down the hole. Thus he was able to dispose of the meal. Then he covered the hole so that it was invisible, and put the empty containers outside.
Ggulu found it hard to believe that Kintu had eaten all the food, and decided there must be other tests. He gave Kintu a copper axe and told him to cut firewood from the rocks. Kintu went, wondering what he should do: the copper was certainly not strong enough to break rock, and would only dent the edge or bounce back when he struck the rock. But he found a rock that was flaking away by itself, and so he was able to collect a certain amount of stone chips which he gave to Ggulu. Ggulu set him another test: Kintu must collect a pot of water, but he could not draw it from the well; it must be dew. Kintu placed the pot in a field and wandered about, wondering how to solve this problem, but when he came back he found the pot full of water (he guessed Nambi had helped him), and so he took it to Ggulu.
Ggulu decided at this point that Kintu was indeed an extraordinary person, and perhaps deserved to marry his daughter and to get his cow back. But as a last test, he told Kintu that he must pick his cow from among Ggulu’s herds, in which there were many cows just like Kintu’s. As Kintu was waiting for them to collect the herds a bee flew up to him and spoke, telling him to watch on which cow’s horns it settled; that would be his own cow. So he watched the bee as they drove one herd by him; the bee didn’t move, and he told them his cow was not in that herd. A second herd was brought, but again the bee did not move. Then a third herd was brought before him, and the bee flew out over it and settled on the horns of a cow. ‘This’, said Kintu, ‘is my cow,’ and he went to separate it from the herd. The bee flew on and landed on another cow. ‘That’, said Kintu, ‘is a calf from my cow,’ and he fetched it also, and again with two other animals. Ggulu agreed at this point that Kintu was clever enough to marry his daughter, and so he summoned Nambi and told the two of them they might marry. But he also told them they should collect their gear and leave immediately, and not come back, or else Nambi’s brother Walumbe, Death, would wish to come with them.
They set off, leading the cattle and also sheep, goats and chickens, and carrying plantains and other food-plants. But a little way off Nambi remembered the millet she used to feed to the chickens and said she must go back for it. Kintu argued against this, reminding her of Ggulu’s warning, but she insisted she must fetch her millet. So she went back, and although she tried to hide, Walumbe saw her and demanded that she let him come with her. Kintu was very displeased when he saw Walumbe, but there was no way to get rid of him, and so they continued on their way.
They settled and Nambi planted the plantains and soon had a large grove of plantain trees. She and Kintu had many children. One day Walumbe came and asked Kintu to give him a daughter to work as his cook. But Kintu refused: ‘What shall I tell my father-in-law if he asks for his granddaughter?’ he asked. Walumbe went away, but came back again another time, and again Kintu refused. ‘In that case,’ said Walumbe, ‘I shall kill them.’ But Kintu did not know what he meant, for at that time no one had died.
Later, one of Kintu’s daughters died, and afterwards others, too. Kintu went to Ggulu to tell him what Walumbe was doing, and Ggulu reminded him that he had been warned. But after Kintu had pleaded, Ggulu agreed to send down another of his sons to help and to drive off Walumbe. So Kaikuzi came down and greeted his sister and then his brother, and told Walumbe that he had been sent down to bring him back to heaven. But Walumbe refused to go without his sister. He escaped from Kaikuzi and fled away. Kaikuzi spent much time trying to catch Walumbe, but Walumbe succeeded in escaping. Finally, Kaikuzi decided to make one last attempt. He told everyone to stay in their houses and not to go outside for several days, until he told them it was all right, and he also warned them not to cry out or make any signs. And so he hunted freely over the earth looking for Walumbe. Walumbe had in fact emerged from the earth where he had hidden, and Kaikuzi was very close to catching him. But some children had taken their goats out to graze. When they saw Walumbe, they cried out in fear and Walumbe immediately withdrew back underground. Kaikuzi saw what had happened and decided that was enough. He told Kintu that the children had ruined his plan, and that he was tired of hunting Death. He would return to his father’s house. Kintu thanked him, and since that time Death lives on earth and kills people freely.
KINTU’S KINGDOM
Having settled on the earth with Nambi and their possessions, Kintu began to travel around Buganda. They lived in many different places, and they established their children at those sites before they moved on. Kintu fought one war during this time, against a king snake named Bemba who lived on Naggabali hill. As he was preparing for war, a tortoise offered to assist him and he accepted. The tortoise went with his followers to the snakes and told them he was a medicine-man who controlled a power against death. At night, he said, his head and limbs would disappear, reappearing in the morning, and this was the secret of their eternal life. That night, all the tortoises withdrew their heads and limbs into their shells, and brought them out again in the morning. So Bemba the snake was fooled and told the tortoise to cut off his head that night, so that he might have the secret of life. That night the tortoise and his followers cut the heads off the snakes and then sent word to Kintu that the enemy had been defeated.
When he was old, Kintu went on a tour of his lands. On his return he found that his wife Nambi, daughter of Ggulu, had been unfaithful to him. Kintu’s minister, Kisolo, had caught the man involved and locked him up, but did not tell Kintu immediately because he thought the king was too tired from the travels. But Kintu learned of the event and became furious with Kisolo, interpreting the minister’s silence as guilt. While Kisolo was explaining why he had waited to tell the king, Kintu speared him, and Kisolo ran away. Later Kintu sent for him, but on the way back Kisolo died of his wounds. Ashamed, because he was the first man to kill another, Kintu himself vanished. His oldest son Mulanga refused to become king, as he knew his father had not died, and he also vanished. So they appointed a younger son, Chwa Nabakka, king.
LATER KINGS
The son of Chwa Nabakka, Kalemeera, feared very much that his father would vanish in the same way that Kintu and Mulanga had done, and so he was obtrusively watchful of his father. His father devised a plan to have him sent to the court of a relative, the king of Bunyoro. While he was in Bunyoro, Kalemeera and King Winyi became close friends, and Kalemeera was allowed to sleep in the same dwelling as the king’s chief wife, Wanyana. He went further, and seduced Wanyana. She became pregnant. When he learned this, Kalemeera talked to an adviser, and the adviser found a way out. He went to King Winyi and told him that he had performed a divination and learned that one of the king’s wives had committed adultery and was pregnant. The king should send her away, building
a special house outside the palace, and never look on her again. When the baby was born, it should be thrown into a clay pit. These measures would ensure the continued prosperity of the kingdom and the king’s rule. King Winyi agreed to these measures. The guilty wife was secluded, but the child was not killed. Kalemeera later left Bunyoro, but died on the return to his father’s palace.
Chwa, meanwhile, vanished in the same way as his father had done. The chiefs then chose one of the ministers to rule them for a time, and then another, but they were dissatisfied. Then they heard of the son of Kalemeera who was living in Bunyoro: his name was Kimera.
Kimera was invited to rule in Buganda. After consulting with his mother and other advisers he agreed. He built his own capital, away from the old settlement of Ganda, and he organized the royal court and appointed the ministers and ritual specialists. Later, he heard his mother had died, and he buried his umbilical cord which until then she had guarded.
He died as a consequence of an expedition against Busoga. He appointed his son Lumansi as general to lead the expedition. But Lumansi died of an illness on the way out, and so the army returned. Lumansi’s son Tembo was told that Kimera had caused Lumansi’s death, and so he determined to kill his grandfather to avenge his father. He did not have many opportunities, but one day he found Kimera alone, hunting in the bush, and killed him with blows from a club. Tembo then became king. He ruled with his sister Nattembo. Two of his children committed incest, and he himself died mad.
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THE KINGDOM OF RWANDA
The oral traditions of the royal house of Rwanda reach back to the fifteenth century. The kingdom was a highly centralized state in a small, mountainous and fertile area, and the people were divided into two major groups: the Wa-Tutsi, who considered themselves the aristocratic, pastoralist conquerors of the region, and the Hutu (associated with the Pygmy Twa groups) who became the subordinate and agriculturalist class. This social division has persisted into modern times with very tragic results; each group has seized opportunities to massacre numbers of the others, most recently in 1994. The promise of Rwanda, rich in resources and human potential, has been stunted as a result. The oral traditions of Rwanda have been very systematically collected over the years, and constitute one of the treasure-stores of traditional African culture, but the events since independence in 1962 have all but erased their meaning and value. The following narratives retell the story of the establishment of the kingdom (over the reigns of several kings) as narrated by Clement Gakanisha, an official historian of the royal house, recorded in the 1950s, and a more popular version recorded by a missionary at the start of the twentieth century.
African Myths of Origin (Penguin Classics) Page 19