Zabunduswd), Synthetically Restoring The Vision of Stage 1, The

or here, "dispersal" of the sexes; and (3) an actual contemporaneous
condition, human awareness of present flaws in view of

past perfection, some attempt at solution. Fukiau argues that the aim
of the myth's representation by two bound figures in the nkobe is to
seize the moment of greatest tension and dynamic strength in their
relationship, the moment of greatest complementary opposition
between male and female, strength and weakness, creativity and
destruction. At this moment the "powers are bound" (ngolo
zabunduswd), synthetically restoring the vision of Stage 1, the
original perfection, of the myth.
The South-Central Variant 207
In ritual contexts, these principles are clearly expressed in the
rotational pattern of dancing. There is no agreement over the direction
of Stages 1, 2, or 3, but if clockwise dancing is used to depict the
separation of powers or qualities from an original unity, then
counterclockwise dancing will indicate the attempt to reintegrate
these powers or qualities. In contemporary Kongo ritual both
directions are used. Healing prophets dance around their sufferers one
way to "undo the illness," then the other way to restore health.
Funerary ceremonies dance one way in the village, then the opposite
way in the cemetery.
Dance directions and stages in narrative have the identical purpose
of articulating the relationship of unity to diversity, the processes of
endogeny ("within one") to exogeny ("between two"), and in Lemba
this was seen with regard to marriage. But at a philosophical level the
problem was more general, addressed to the relationship of the one to
the many, of peace to violence, of strength to weakness, of social order
to disorder, and similar issues. This approach to cosmogony is
characteristically Bantu. Unitary power must somehow be related to,
and preserved in, diversity and multiplicity. In the next Mahungu text,
the problem of endogeny and exogeny is depicted with reference to the
culture of food: who eats whom, and what this has to do with social
order.
I have already suggested that Mahungu, an important north-Kongo
deity of duality, existed in local cosmologies across the entire Lemba
area. Three texts from eastern Cabinda represent this wider corpus.
Text 6
(1) Va kala muntu evo bantu bwadi; kifu kiau kwe vondanga
bantu bangana badi muntsi.
There was once a man or two people whose custom it was to kill
other inhabitants of the land.
(2) Bu bameni ku vonda, ku sasa muntu wowo; batunga bianga
biodi.
When they had killed someone, they cut him into pieces, and
divided
(3) Bu batunga bianga bibiodi bu ba meni kubasa muntu
kukaba kutula kikuku va kianga kinka dedi.
208 RITUALS
the meat into the two baskets they had made, and dried it over
the hearth fire.
(4) Buna babasalanga pila yoyo bayolukanga bayolukanga:
"nanie? nanie? wo? nani e?"
As they would be treating their victims thusly, passers-by
would call: "Who is there? Who?"
(5) "O miMavungu eManga nsitu, muna rn manga diambu ngie
kuviokila mu dikubu."
"Ah, it is Mavungu the ogre of the forest. To avoid trouble pass
by in the trees beside the road."
(6) Batu Banka "e e yisa, nkwenda kwama ko yayu."
Some would say, "I'll not go to the side."
(7) Yuwa ti mi Mavungu ukituka buyoba kumanga kwaku, ku
viokila mu dikubu.
The answer would come, "Listen, it is Mavungu; you're crazy
to come here, pass by the side."
(8) Mi yisa nkwenda kwama ko, evo mi yisa ku kwenda kwama
ko.
And again they would say, "I'll not bother to go to the side."
(9) Di bakala be dio dibeki diela bu vioki tsikwandi. Ba salapila
yoyo.
Wise men would pass by to the side. And so it continued.
(10) Buna muntu nka bwesa vioka. Bu bayolukanga kuna "Nani
nkolukanga kokwe?"
Then another person came along, and he too called out as he
approached: "To whom am I calling out there?"
(11) Ti o mi Mavungu.
It is Mavungu.
(12) Titika biyobwe. Nkwe yendanga kuna.
He was foolish, and went there.
(13) Nkwe sa basika vana, ka bianga bibiodi, bisa nsimbidila.
When he arrived there, he saw two baskets; he was grabbed,
(14) Kwitsa va kala va befu yinu bonso.
and told: "come stay with us here together." (He did)
(15) Buna bavingilafwatinikilumbu kisa kwila ko. Muntu waka
vana.
They waited a little and one day they saw another person
arriving.
(16) Bembi mu ntubanga vo "O mi Mavungu, utitika biyoba
manga diambu vioka mu kubu.
And they said, "we are Mavungu, do not be foolish. To avoid
trouble, pass by the side.
(17) Buna befu tu kedikwitu vave nandibefuyau e. Tu nvondanga
bantu babe.
We are ourselves here, we are who we are. We kill people.
(18) Buna kiange kiki kiame kiange kiki kiandi
This is my basket, that is his."
(19) Buna bianga bibiodi ngie nzitu ti e yimweni; a buna nandi ti
tidi kwenda ti e e tubantu vava.
Then they saw that their two baskets were empty; and he said
they would need to get some more people.
(20) Befu yinu ti befu tu nvondanga bangana, buti ngie wa
n'nanguka kwaku wa nkwenda ku bwala; mi yibesa ku
kamba kwaku ko ti mi Mavungu ukituka buyoba viokila mu
dikubwe.
We will go by ourselves to kill some more, you may go to the
village [for other food], but don't tell about us, that here is
Mavungu who warns people to pass by the side.
(21) Buna bakala vana babakanga bababwadi.
[When they heard] they went and seized them both.
(22) Ah! Befu na kubalanga ti bantu banvinha ko be mu nvondanga
bantu.
Ah—we are not madmen to have lived here killing other people.
(23) Bababwila babanata bababwadi bayenda peleso.
They fell upon them, and carried them both to prison.
(24) Pila mweka. Pila mweka befu yinu bana ba Nzambi ba nka.
And so it happened. So it is with us children of God on earth.
The violent antisocial side of Mahungu, merely alluded to in
Texts 4 and 5, here becomes the focus of the tale. BaKongo
16
storytellers frequently generate such antiheroes to illustrate a social

norm of which the negative figure is the inversion. Not having heard of
210 RITUALS
Levi-Strauss's concept of the "symmetrical and inverse" possibility
of myth, they call these antiheroes "diabolos" referring to the apt
metaphor of the photographic negative, which reveals the mirror
image inverted in every way. Real witches, less comfortable to speak
about, have the same qualities. The tale of Mavungu the ogre of the
forest was undoubtedly meant to entertain as well as teach, and to
frighten just a bit. Nitu's narration has numerous ellipses in it, as if
everyone present knew the story well enough to fit the pieces together
around the gaps.
There is no historical evidence thatBaKongo were cannibalistic;
however such tales as this confused missionaries and travelers.
BaKongo did, and still do, use the figure of speech "eating" to speak
about consumption of all kinds, whether it be food, medicine, money,
or another's physical and psychic energy. An overabundant consumption,
or an inappropriate consumption, is defined as witchcraft.
In terms of this very abstract understanding of "eating," the present
tale defines propriety by illustrating its negative inversion. Mavungu
lives in the forest; human beings live in villages. Mavungu eats the
flesh of his own kind, and only that; humans eat flesh of animals and a
variety of other foods. It is not clear from the text whether there is one
or two Mavungus, and if the latter, whether the traveler who joins
Mavungu perhaps becomes the second. It is evident, however, that
this traveling middle figure mediates the civilized inhabitants of the
village and the cannibalistic ogre of the forest
In this text, as in the foregoing, the two Mavungus (Mahungus) who
are otherwise so dissimilar have in common their initial endogyny—in
sexual identity, in "eating" their own kind—and the way they are
transformed into figures of exogeny—sexual differentiation and marriage,
and prohibited cannibalism, the tacit enactment of which would
be eating other species and foods. In the next myth text, even more
17
complex dualities will be heaped upon Mahungu.

Text 7
( 1 ) Ba tunga bwala. Bu ba tunga bwala ba buta bana, bau badi vo
bwala.
They built a village, and when they had built their village, they
had children.
(2) Buna bu ba buta bana, unka u kamba a mwayi:
Then, a certain one said to his fellow:
(3) "Bwabu mi buta bwisi mbote ko, pana dionga diakupasiye
lotsa bibulu du nsitu buna unvana dionga diandi."
"My weapon is inadequate, give me your spear to go hunt wild
animals in the fields."
(4) Bu ka uenda u mona zinzau beti dia; ubonga dionga ubanda
mu nzau.
He went out and saw some elephants eating. He took the spear,
and hit one.
(5) Nzau unata dionga.
The elephant carried away the spear (lodged in its side.)
(6) Kunlanda menga kulanda menga, we bwa mu nlangu u
n'neni wenzi kwandi.
He followed the trail of blood until it disappeared in a large
river.
(7) Ah! Pila kiadi dionga di mwayi di ma zimbala.
Oh, what sadness, the spear of his fellow was lost.
(8) Buna uyitsa kwidi nzadiandi: "Mwayi, dionga dicimbidi; ti
tola mwayi ti dionga diama disi mbakana kwe?"
Then he returned and told the owner, "brother, the spear is
lost! How will I find it?"
(9) "Diambu ve komVaku yiyi kwela ngie ku kwela komb'ami,
mi ku kwela kombaku."
"Do not worry. I'll take your sister in marriage [as payment],
and you will marry my sister, and we shall be intermarried."
(10) "Ka diambu ve komb'aku yiyi kwela, ki lendi kuwa ko!'*
"I cannot hear of marrying your sister!"
(11) "Ka diambu evo ku botuka, ka botuka kwandi nate mi yi
m'mona dionga diama."
"Either that, or I shall leave, unless my spear is found."
(12) Buna kiadi kibwa kwidi nzadaindi nandi nzadVama ma
tsutika mu dionga, ulambalala mu bwilu.
Then great sadness came over his brother, the one who had lost
the spear, and he went to sleep for the night.
(13) Buna ulotu ndosi.
He dreamed of a voice saying,
212 RITUALS
(14) Baka ngengeyoyo kileko kiyolukanga kio buna kwenda mu
nzila kuvulanga ngenge bantanguninanga kuvulanga kileko,
"Yayi nzila yenda kwami?" Buna m mona na kanvwena
f
"swi, swi" wakayenda.

"Take this hunting bell ngenge and go on a journey asking it to
answer questions:'' Shall I take this road?' And if you see that it
says 'swi, swi' do not take the road.
(15) Kansi buna m'mona kunkuvula, "Yayi nzila be mi yenda
kwami e?" buna nandisika tuba "nge, nge, nge, nge"yenda
mu nzila yoyo.
But if you ask 'shall I take this road?' and it speaks 'nge, nge,
nge, nge' then take the road.
(16) Buna bu ka yenda nzila yoyo utumamana bonso bu nkamba
ndosi
If you follow these instructions, you will see your dream
fulfilled."
(17) Buna bu ka yenda mu nzila umona divambu.
Then he took to the path, and soon came to a fork.
(18) "A ngenge, yayi nzila yenda kwami e?" "Nge, nge, nge, nge,
nge, nge."
"Oh ngenge, shall I take this path here?" "Nge, nge, nge."
(19) Buna ka diata, ka diata kwe sadilanga pila yoyo zinzila
ziazio uvuka kwandi.
Then he walked and walked, approaching all paths he came
to in this wise.
(20) We bata nlangu un'neni bwatu bwidi vovo, "A a ngenge, yi
kandama mu bwatwe?" "Nge, nge, nge, nge."
At long last he came to the great river, and saw a boat. "Oh
ngenge shall I launch out in the boat?" "Nge, nge, nge."
(21) "A ngenge yenda ku mongo nlangwe?" "Swi, swi, swi."
"Oh ngenge shall I go upstream?" "Swi, swi, swi."
(22) "A ngenge, kwidi yenda? A ngenga yenda ku wanda
nlangwe?" "Nge, nge, nge, nge."
"Oh ngenge, which way? Shall I go downstream?" "Nge, nge,
nge."
(23) Buna nandibu ka yenda, buna ubonga ntievo dilemo uvwila.
Buna uyimbilanga "Mavungu palabanda, e Mavungwe
palabanda, e Mavungu palabanda, e Mavungu palabanda,
e Mavungu palabanda.
Then he took the oar as he departed, singing "Mavungu going
downstream, Mavungu going downstream, downstream,
downstream... ."
(24) Buna bwatu bweti diata ngolo buna bu ka diata, ubaka va
kielo kinka batu bapwedi bisanzu bidi vana.
Then he was moving along rapidly in the boat, when he came
upon a dilapidated house with many people in it.
(25) "Mavungu!" Mavungu "nhinga!" "0 witsa mu diyamba
yitsa kwaku yitsa tapuka. Kanga bwatu, witsa mwa kwaku
diyamba."
"Mavungu" he heard. "What?" "Come over here to smoke
some hemp with us. Tie up your boat and come smoke hemp."
(26) "Ve minu a, a ngenge yenda ye nwa diyambe?" "Swi, swi,
swi."
"Oh ngenge, he asked, shall I stop to smoke hemp?" "Swi,
-swi, swi."
(27) "Yenda ku wanda nlangu?" "Nge, nge, nge, nge, nge."
"Then shall I continue downstream?" "Nge, nge, nge."
(28) Buna udiata usalapila yoyo. Buna udiata, uyimbila Iwimbu
Iwandi "Mavungu palabanda."
Then he continued in this manner, singing as he moved along
his song "Mavungu going downstream."
(29) Buna udiata ke basika va dikabu di ba kieto bandumba,
buna "ti una vioka vava kulendi baka ndumba evo nkietu u
ulenda sakana yaku ko?"
Presently, as he moved along, he came upon a band of young
women who called out," can't you cross over here and take one
of us to amuse yourself?"
(30) Buna nandi uyuvula ngenga. "Yenda kwama kune?" Swi,
swi, swi.
Then he asked ngenge, "Shall I go over there?" "Swi, swi,
swi."
(31) A ngenge, "Yenda ku wanda nlangu?" "Nge, nge, nge, nge"
And again, "Shall I continue downstream?" "Nge, nge, nge."
(32) "Te u manga mu mavanga mamo ma bantonta u manga."
"Not until you reject everything offered you."
(33) Buna uyenda umona va tapukila nzau na menga.
214 RITUALS _____
Finally he saw, as he went, the place where the elephant
trailing drops of blood had gone ashore.
(34) "A ngenga yi tapuka vavava?" "Nge, nge, nge, nge. "Buna u
yenda vana.
"Oh ngenge, shall I go ashore here?" "Nge, nge." So he
pulled ashore.
(35) Ngengeyandi u yolukanga "nge, nge, "pasi ba zaba ti nandi
nganga: "nge, nge" "a mboti tata, mboti, mboti, mboti "
There ngenge sounded ahead of them so that others should
think him to be a healer. "Nge, nge" "Oh, greetings, sir,
greetings."
(36) "A ngie widi nganga?" "Nhinga a ko." "Kwidi bedi ko yi
bedi, katsi mi nganga yineni beniyidi.
"Oh, are you a healer?" "Yes indeed. A very famous one, a
very famous healer indeed."
(37) Buna o fefufumu bwala baka bazebi ko muntu wowo vo
nandi u ba na dionga diandi. Uba na dionga di ka tsuma
nzau ka banzei kwau ko, buna "bejwe mutu widi vava boba
yenzi ku ku die banvengi pasi kune.
The village chief did not know that this was the man attached to
the spear that had injured the elephant and so he told him,
"With us here is a person who was injured and he is in great
pain."
(38) Buna ti ngie widi nganga ti ulenda botula nsongu wou, beju si
tu kufuta.
"If you are a healer you could remove his suffering. We would
pay you."
(39) Ye nandi mboti kwandi A ngenga, "yi lenda kwami buka
nsongu wou?" Ngenge, "Nge, nge,
"All right," he accepted. Asking ngenge, "May I help this
sufferer?" Ngenge said, "nge, nge"
(40) "Ti mu kwa nkisi ama bu ka ntubanga ti o a benu bwabu mi
y a mbuka nsongu wou. "
"In listening to my instrument, I can tell you that I shall heal
this sufferer."
(41) Buna a ngenga, "tibapenibidiayilenda dia kwami e? Pasi yi
buka nsongo?" "Nge, nge, nge, nge."
Then he asked ngenge, "What they pay me for healing, may I
take it for myself?" "Nge, nge, nge."
(42) Uyoluka. Buna landila diodio nandi u yenda mu nzo u tala
nsongo wou ti "e benwe bonso mwa ku u lu wetisia?" "Ah!E
mame e mame, kadikwica, kadikwitsa. TiIwitsitsisikafwa.
Then he entered the house to look at the patient, asking
"Which one of you in there is the sufferer?" "O mame,
O mame, come, come quickly, or I shall die," he heard.
(43) E a tata sala kwaku. Buna nandiuyenda uye kota ku nzo. Na
nzau yoyo u mona va kotila dionga u bonga bilongo bonso
(datolo) ou(nganga) u tula vanapasi dionga dilebila. Buna
ubwata pila yayi ngolo.
To the father he said "wait," and he entered the house. There
he saw the elephant injured by the spear; he took medicine and
like a healer put it on the spear wound to diminish the pain, and
he pulled hard on the spear.
(44) "E mame, e mame, e mame" dionga di vodikanga divodikanga.
Buna nandi u tuba a beno pananu kwala bwabubu
mambu mameni.
"O mame mame," he cried as the spear slowly came out.
"Now," he said, "find a wrapping for the wound, the case will
be over."
(45) We twala kwala ka luzibula twala vava divudu ka, luzibula.
Buna nandi banvana kwala kuna nzo u zinga pasi u zinga
dionga dio diaka monika kwidi bantu.
And they brought him a wrapping which he wrapped around
the wound, instructing them not to open it. He also wrapped the
spear so it would not be seen by the people.
(46) A a "ngenga zibika mesu mau."Buna ngenga u zibika mesu
ma babo. Buna nandi u nata dionga diodio kwe sweka kuna
tsomo ku ka yizila muna bwatu kwe tula, buna u vutuka.
"Ngenge close their eyes," he said. Then ngenge closed their
eyes, and he secretly carried the spear over to the boat and laid
it there, then he returned to them.
(47) "Bwabu muefuti" "E befu twa kufute. Bonga tsanga kitebi be
yo.
"Now you can pay me." "Yes, we will pay you. Take this
banana sapling.
(48) Kwe vataya muna kilumbu bonga tsanga kite beyo kwe vata
ya muna kilumbu ku mena muna kilumbu kubuta."
On the same day as it is planted, it will bear fruit, on the very
same day."
216 RITUALS
(49) Buna banvana mikailu minkaka u yitsa kwandi. Buna ka
mana ku Iwaka vovo u vuka pe pila most Bantumisa mu
ndambu na ka zola kwenda ko.
They gave him other gifts also to honor him. Then he returned
in the same manner as he had come, but he had been so honored
he hardly wanted to leave.
(50) Buna ulwaka kwidi nzadi'andi, a a polo ti ndamba mwayi,
"nzadi, twala dionga diama."
When he arrived at the place of his brother to whom he had a
debt, this one asked "brother, where's my spear?"
(51) "Ti dionga disiko di sa bakana ko." do, "ka tuna tuban
zipolo ko."
"I didn't bring the spear" he feigned. "We cannot discuss the
debt," the other replied.
(52) Buna nadi "mwayi bonga dionga diaku." Buna u tuma
nkietu'andi twala di kieta, vata tsanga yoyo.
So he said, "brother, take your spear." He also sent his wife to
bring kola nuts and the banana sapling.
(53) Tsangayo ba tsimbukuluyima kumbu menayima buta. "Ah!
ah!"
They planted the sapling, and in one day it produced ripe
bananas.
(54) Nzadi, "siala mboti mi yima kwenda ku diangala ku ku
kangala. Siala mboti ukeba bwala. Keba na cikomba ciaku
mi yi ma kwenda ki diangala."
"Brother," said the one, "I am taking a walk to the forest.
Farewell, guard the village, and watch over your sister, I'm off
to the forest."
(55) Buna nandi bu kayenda ku diangala, mwana mamatoto kite
kio kibenga: "mamatoto, mamatoto!" udila, udila, udila.
So when he had left for the forest, a child in the village began to
cry for banana stew: "Banana stew, banana stew!"
(56) A ukamba n'nuni'andi yfe bongila mwana toto. Mwana
wandilanga ngwandi katsi nandi unata kitebi
The man instructed the baby's guardian to bring it banana
stew. The child cried for its mother but was brought bananas.
(57) Nandi dibakala dio u bitala kulubuka bonga ngie veka e ngie
dibakala bemweni tidi kwaku kuvonda mwana bonga toto,
buna uyenda.
He looked at the bananas before him, but she scolded him,
"You alone are aiming to harm the child by taking those
bananas."
(58) "E ka diambu ko totu eyi kite ki nzadVami, kiziko mambu."
y
Buna udokula toto.

"It doesn't matter," he said, "these bananas belong to my
brother," and he tore one off.
(59) Bu kamana kudokula toto mwana udia, bu kamana kudia
toto batsimbukula kitebi vie vie, ki ma tina.
When he had done so, the child ate of it. But as the child ate, the
banana bunch disappeared completely.
(60) Bu kitina nandi ku diangala kukayenda utuba. A bwau
bwabu a yi tidi kwenda. Diambu dia kavana bwala mwayi
nzadi u yi bikici diambu diaka vana.
When this happened he went to the forest to tell the owner,
who, upon hearing of the disappearance of the bananas,
quickly returned.
(61) Buna uyitsa. Bu ka yitsa, utala kite mwayi: "kamba kitebi
konso ku kiyenzi Tiwitsa kamba ko a mwayi pila kiadi mu
kite kiama Kamba kite kiama konso ku ki yenzi."
And he came. When he arrived, he looked at his brother,
"show me the banana tree, and tell me how the bunch
disappeared. Oh what sadness over my lost bananas."
(62) Eamwayi, ndenvukilaminu, mwan'akukazienandiubedila
lukuji ku fwa. Buna miyi lokuni toto yiveni mwan'aku kazi
mi yisa yi dia kwama kove, vangi mwana. Kansi nandi udidi.
Buna minu bu yiveni udidi buna kite kitinitsi.
"Believe me, brother, your child was in agony, and close to
dying of hunger. So I took the bananas and gave him some. I
myself ate none, he alone. So truly, when I gave him the
bananas, and he ate, the entire bunch disappeared."
(63) Mwayi, diambupe tu ntuba va kite kiama yitidi. Twala kite
kiama ka diambu ko mwan'aku evo mwan'ami kansi kite
kiama yitidi.
"Brother, it does us no good to discuss the bananas, just bring
me the missing bunch. No matter if it was your child or mine,
just return the bunch."
(64) Buna ununguka kiambu diodio diyitsa kwidi nandi. "A
Mavungu, yi Mavungu, a Mavungu e." Bwabu ngie
makiekulu mu kitebi." "Nhinga."
218 RITUALS
Then he slept on the matter and someone spoke to him
"Mavungu," "I Mavungu?" "You Mavungu. Now you shall
find your bananas." "Yes."
(65) "Bonga ngenga ye vatakana, ye vanga bonso buvanga
nzad'aku. Buna uyenda utakana bwatu bobwau. Uyuvula
kwandi keti va nzila. Uyuvula ngenga "yenda mu ndambu
yo? Swi, swi" bokwa bwau.
"Take ngenge and do as your brother did." So he went out
toward the boat. He asked which path to take. He asked
ngenge "shall I go this way?" "Swi, swi" reject it.
(66) Ye tula mu bwatu a ngenga "Yi kandama mu bwatu?" "Nge,
nge, nge." Ka kandama mu bwatu lumbu lo kwa Iwau, "E
Mavungo e palabanda, E Mavungwe palabanda." Buna
uyenda.
Shall I take this way in the boat?" And ngenge, "Nge, nge,
nge." So he took off in the boat singing "Mavungu going
downstream, going downstream." He heard a voice:
(67) "A Mavungu, Mavungu eyiza nwa dyamba. "Buna utapuka
uye nwa dyamba. Bu kamana kunwa dyamba usia nkaka
ubasisa mwisi.
"Mavungu, Mavungu, come over here to smoke hemp." And
he crossed over to smoke hemp, soon to be obscured in a haze
of smoke.
(68) Kansi kazimbukulu we kavana bwala, vana bwala bu ka
fuma.
He lost his way, and before he realized what had happened, he
was in the place from whence he had come. In the village they
shouted,
(69) "0 mwayi ma kwizal" "Ti e e nkieto e nandi kadi nata
kitebi." "Mwayi ma kwiza e e"; "kitebi kiami?" 'A mwayi, yi
sa ki baka ko!"
"Oh, brother is back. Woman, come carry the bananas."
"Brother has come!" "What, my banana bunch?" " Oh,
brother, I didn't find them."
(70) Ulembakana mu diambu bakutumisa mu mavanga mapwedi
na kwe tapukanga. Buna ulembakana kubaka kitebi kiokio
mu diambu di buvulu bwandi ki bila nkisi wowo ulenda
vanga kwidi wonso-wonso ukuntumamanga.
He failed because he let himself be distracted by the many
seductions along the way; because of his own foolishness; and
because he did not follow the magic of ngenge which could
have guided him wherever he needed it.
(71) Kansi nandi bu ka manga tumamana nkisi wowo ye mpila
yoyo buna te bafundana na veka dikanda kiandi Ba kana
kivika kwidi mutu wowo.
Because he refused to be guided by this magic, they accused
him even within his own clan, and they abandoned him to
slavery.
Of the several substructures that are woven into the foregoing
Mahungu myth, the following will be examined in detail: (1) the
relationship between two brothers, who are Mavungu's two sides; (2)
the opposition of hunting and cultivation; (3) the interaction of the
human and the nonhuman (animal) realms; and (4) the distinction
between successful and failed mediation.
Relationships between the two brothers are initially couched in
terms of equality and familiarity; the one calls the other mwayi, fellow,
brother, confidant, kin (7.2). As their relationship becomes one of
greater distance, they become nzadi to each other, a term which while
still denoting "brother" can also refer to in-law, or someone of a
collateral group, of the other part of a settlement or social unit (7.8).
By the end, this relationship has been transformed into one of status
differentiation, the one having become a successful healer and mediator,
the other a slave, muntu mu kivika (7.71). The myth directly
addresses the issue of social unity and difference, the one and the
many.
Loss of a spear (7.6) is the narrative element introduced to discuss
the differentiation in society that results from ambiguous relations of
technique, subsistence, and ownership. If the spear cannot be
returned to a brother, what is its equivalent The original spear owner
proposes that a sister given in marriage would suffice. The spear loser
rejects the proposition as "unthinkable," whereupon the first brother
threatens to leave the village—to segment. The reason for the refusal
of a sister exchange on the part of the spear loser is not made explicit,
but the lines of the dilemma are sufficiently like real life in Kongo
society that it may be inferred. To accept a sister in exchange for a lost
spear would confuse the lines of descent, ownership, and marriage. At
one level it would be incestuous since the social unit of shared and
borrowed tools is the descent group, the matrilineage, within which
marriage is prohibited. The classic Kongo social-structural question
220 RITUALS
is raised, of how an undivided, descent community of goods, can be
divided. The well-known ritual of sacrificing a pig to "kill the descent
of one blood" (yonda ngulu a luvila) is often invoked as the solution
to the problem. In actual practice, it is rarely resorted to, but is said to
have been used in the past where dominant single-lineage communities
like the Nsundi invaders needed to set up polities of their own
kind. A minimal exchange duality could be created in this wise. In the
myth, the spear loser is thus faced with several options, each with
clear consequences. If he finds and returns the spear, he maintains
descent ties with his brother, or if he ignores the spear and exchanges a
sister, he must break descent ties. The metaphor of goods and blood is
clear, and may be graphically presented:
return maintain give sister break descent
spear ' descent ties " in marriage (blood) ties
#
The group whose members borrow from one another—the matrilineage—

seeks its spouses beyond its own confines, but to make this
the group of marriage exchange (by severing blood ties) would render
the unit of exogamous alliance very limiting. The rejection by
Mavungu (the spear loser) of the tight exchange model is an implicit
affirmation of the wider exchange model. This appears to entail
another consequence in his actions. Having rejected alliance with his
brother, yet not wishing this latter to segment, he resorts to a mystical
solution to solve his problem: find the spear and establish contact with
"the world beyond." Although there is no evidence that this myth was
related ioLemba, structurally it does so relate by negating the isolated
endogamous community, and establishing a preference for effective
mystical mediation. It is at this point that hunting symbolism becomes
significant.
Mavungu (the spear loser) is cast as a hunter and successful mystical
mediator; the other Mavungu, whom we may call the banana
bunch loser, is put into the role of the cultivator and the ineffectual
mediator. One specific object relates hunting to effective mystical
mediation. Ngenge, the bell hung under the belly of the
hunting dog, leads the hunter through tall grass and forest to the game.
African dogs do not bark. Their bells announce their presence to the
hunter while not frightening away the game. This perception of the
bell that smells out game is lifted and used as a metaphor for the
effective diviner and mystical mediator. In the present myth ngenge is
thus the near-living instrument of effective magic. Metaphors pile up
in short order as Mavungu, spear loser but effective mediator, sets out
on his journey to track the elephant. At one level the quest is a simple
hunter's pursuit of a wounded animal. But the "path" of this pursuit is
a wide river, suggesting a mystical journey. At another level the quest
is indeed a dream, in which ngenge the hunting bell, by deft analogy,
takes the figure of Mavungu (spear loser) on a mystical course to a
correct solution of his problem with his brother back home.
There are two conclusions to the myth: one having to do with the
consequences of effective mystical mediation, the other having to do
with the outcome of relations between the brothers Mavungu. In the
first, Mavungu (spear loser), as successful mediator, becomes a
renowned healer with an ability to "hear" magical messages. Ngenge
leads him to his goal, the "wounded elephant," who, transported to a
mystical plain, becomes a human sufferer whom he cures. Hunting is
a wide-spread metaphor for healing in Kongo culture, in which the
hunter relates to animals (the hunted) approximately as the healer
relates not to the sufferer but to the illness. The healer seeks out the
affliction and finds it, in order to eradicate it. The healer is like the
hunter in another sense. He goes out into the wilds of nature and
brings back the plants with which he treats, just as the hunter goes out
to bring back food for humans. In Kongo thinking, wildness possesses
power and is the source of man's strength. Thus it is understood that
Mavungu (spear loser turned healer) brings the banana tree back from
the wild for his home and for his brother. Hunter and healer straddle
two sides of the continuum from domestic to wild. The hunter begins
in the village, but his field of action is in the wild. The healer s origin is
5
outside in the wilds, but his field of operation is domestic society. In

the present myth, the hunter chases the animal from the domestic field
back into the wild, whereas the healer brings back plants from the
wild. The two domains, the domestic and the wild, inversions one of
the other, are mediated by ngenge. Again, although there is no
mention of this text as Lemia-related, the central ritual function of a
small bell is appropriate for Lemba. Numerous references from
Dapper's 1668 account, several from the western variant, and that
from Haiti describe such a bell. In the present text, this central
mediating role may be sketched in the manner on page 222. In structuralist
analysis, there are several columns of oppositions which are
mediated by a middle operator, or which operate upon each other.
Ngenge, the magical voice of the bell which moves between the village
and the wilds, transforms the hunter into the healer, who heals the
wound he has inflicted. His spear is transformed into an object of
222 RITUALS
medicinal attention, for which he is rewarded a palm sapling. Finally,
he is given power over mediation, the power of treating illness in
society and ruling. That such a structure or set of procedures exists in
Kongo thinking, is clear from examining the herbaria of banganga.
There is, for example, "corpse hunter" (munkula mvumbi), SL small
tree growing at the edge of the forest, used to treat side pain and
cramps. As the hunter goes into the wilds to kill in order to live, so the
healer, with his origin outside of society and his mystical roots
elsewhere, chases death from the domestic scene.
illness in "
society
medicine
palm
sapling
spear J
game in
wilds
healer
cures
wound
hunter
inflicts
wound.
ngenge
It is of course the different attitude of the two brothers Mavungu
toward ngenge that determines their relationship to each other, and
their status in society. Mavungu (spear loser turned healer) becomes
the model of the priest, faithful to his" voice," and the recipient of high
status. Mavungu (banana bunch loser) is depicted as the least disciplined
person around, who is seduced away from the "straight and
narrow" for a shallow "high" of hemp smoking. There may be a
commentary here on some tendencies in Lemba. In the artifactual
record of Lemba s western variant there are numerous pipes identified
9
either as "Lemba pipes" or "hemp pipes," some nicely carved,

others large water-filled gourd pipes.
The composite picture of Mavungu in this text suggests something
of the culture hero, bringer of messages from the beyond and of the
banana tree to man. The dualistic play on two sides to every issue or
question dominates. The text is set up as a double confrontation with
the same challenge: to find the lost item—spear or banana tree—
received from the other. The fact that both protagonists carry the same
name, Mavungu, emphatically drives across this point of minimal
differences in similarity, that is complementarity. Even the conclusion
is suggestive of this: whereas Mavungu (spear loser turned
healer) is lauded, Mavungu (banana bunch loser) is ridiculed and
made a slave.
In the next text, Mavungu is again a two-in-one figure, father/son,
18
for whom the complementarity of two-within-one becomes a tragic

dilemma.
Text 8
(1) Mwana unka dizina diandi Mavungo ma. Mavungu kadi
sola; bana be, kadi salanga.
There was once a child named Mavungu. Of all the children, he
worked the least.
(2) A pila mwana, be u ngie kadi sola; nandi kadi sala kisalu
kiandi kuvola kitimba kalendi sala ko.
Oh! What a manner of child that he would not work. His only
work was to suck on his pipe. Regular work he would not do.
(3) Ngundi ye disia baluta kuzola bana bobo basalanga buna
nandi ukalanga kwandi va bwala.
Mother and Father loved the children who worked, but
Mavungu was usually alone in the village.
(4) Buna mu kilumbu kinka ukota ku nzo ununguka, bu ka
nunguka: umona nkieto u kitoko beni uyitsa kwidi nandi.
One day when Mavungu went into the house to sleep he
dreamed: In his dream he saw a beautiful woman speaking to
him.
(5) "A ngie Mavungo, yuwa mayintuba, minu kivana meni."
"Oh Mavungu, listen to what I tell you."
(6) "Kubonga mbedi kulengula mani; buna nkwitsa va tsitsi nti
nhoka yo bantanguninanga ti mboma umweni. Mboma
kutin'ani boma ko. Kupasula mboma yoyo si umona diambu
dilenda kukusadisa, dilenda kukuvana moyo, w mutu
unvwama."
"Take a knife and sharpen it. Then come to the foot of the tree
indicated and you will see a python. Do not run from it in fear.
Cut open the python and you will see something which can help
you, give you life, and make you rich."
224 RITUALS
(7) Buna bu kakotuka yimeni, Mavungu ubonga mwa mbedi
ulengula, bantu bayituka benil "O Mavungu, ti ka salanga
ko. A bu bwidi kanlengudila mbedi?"
So Mavungu took a knife; the people were greatly surprised.
"Oh, Mavungu the one who never works! How will he sharpen
a knife?"
(8) Ulengula, ulengula, uyenda ku diala ku nsitu wo unkamba
ndozi. Uyenda va tsitsi nti, umona mboma uyilama vana.
He sharpened and sharpened, and went to the forest shown in
the dream, and to the field indicated, where he saw at the foot of
a tree a python.
(9) Ukimba monho, usimba mboma, upasuna, ka zimbukula
nkietu 0 be kwe nkamba ndozi ma kitoko beni.
He seized the python, and cut it open as instructed. There he
uncovered the very beautiful woman who had spoken in the
dream.
(10) "A Mavungo, ngie ngie mbadi, mbakidi kibwa kimbote ti O
yizebi nduko kuna."
"O Mavungu, partner, I've a good place, come with me there,"
she said.
(11) Buna bu bayenda kuna nkieto wowo uyimbila: "Ye ditete a
Mavungo minu bu ngina vanga monso mangina vanga mu
ngieu.
Then he followed her there, and as they went she sang: "You
cannot believe what I can do for you.
(12) Bidi, bidi te lufwa Iwaku, siaku bonso bwa kwitsa bela pila
disia diaku kumona (na)pe befu evo beyandi, kina kilumbu
mho mu m'monana beyandi e kianvutuka, Mavungu Ma
Kata Mbamba, bonso bu u teka kala va mwelo nzo siaku. Yu
wutswe?"
Only you must promise that until your death, your father will
not see you, and you will not see him. On the day that you
should meet with him, you will return to your prior state,
MaKata Mbamba, a nobody, as you were before. Understand?"
(13) "Ti yuwutsu kwama."
"I understand."
(14) Buna bu bayenda va kibwa kiokio kimboti beni kikineni
kimula uyimbila: "Mavungu makuvu utomba Iwangu
lukubia-dila; Iwangu mbi ka mbiadila Iwalu." Buna
katsimbukulu beti sola.
As they proceeded to the village the woman sang to conjure up
water to reside by: "Mavungu wants to live by the water,
let there be water." And they found what they sought
(15) Uyimbilamulumbulolokazimbukulatsinzo. Uyimbulamu
lumbu lolo katsimbukula va kakibanga kitoko beni kia
t
kavana. Buna Mavungu umona nhenzi.

She then sang a song, and they discovered a vast piece of land.
She sang a song for every beautiful thing they came upon, and
Mavungu was very happy.
(16) Buna kayimbila lumbu waka ku nlangu makumbiye bisalu
binkaka bikwizilanga mu tangu mindela binkwiza mo
dikumbi kwiza kota ku nzo unvwika, zisapatu uvula
mivwatu miandi mi kabela mu zipasi evo mu kiadi unvwika
mivwatu mikitoko.
Then she sang another song and steamers appeared on the
water in great hosts, with white men in them; one came near the
house and they entered the house, giving him new shoes and
replacing his old clothes with new beautiful clothes.
(17) Buna Mavungu uyangdlala beni ye dinka buvulu buwombo
bu bayandi zingindu.
Then Mavungu rejoiced greatly at his own good fortune,
imagining his own folks' great awe in knowing of it.
(18) Buna zingulu zio ziyendanga ku bwala bu tat'andi kwe
dianga mayaka mangana. Buna siandi utuba, "a ngie n tela,
yenda we tala zingulu ziozio zindianga mayaka."
One day Mavungu's pigs strayed to his father's village where
they ate much manioc out of the field. His father spoke to a
hunter, "go and find these pigs that are eating all the manioc."
(19) Buna n'tela wowo uyenda u bakuka bakuka. Uyenda,
ubasika va bwala bubuneni.
And the hunter found where they had rutted the field. He pursued
them on and on until he discovered a large town.
(20) Ubaka boma. "A pila kiadi minu, ntela yinkwitsanga tangu
katsio mu nsitu wau, buna bwala bubunene kwe bu
basikidi?"
He was seized with fright. "How curious! A hunter comes into
this forest regularly, yet suddenly there is a vast town here.
226 RITUALS .
How has that come about?"
(21) Kansi nandi n'tela utuba, "A amika kina Una kileko ko, kiyi
kambu monanga mu meso ko."
But the hunter thought, "I cannot flee from something just because
I haven't seen it before."
(22) Uyenda kuna bwala beni uyuvula, "Nanibeka bwala bubu?"
0 Mavungo" "Mavungu mbi?" "O Mavungu Ma Kata
Mbamba." "A mwana tata uzimbala tama kotso nandi
makwitsa vanga ma pila yiyi."
So he went into the village and asked "Whose town is this?"
"Why Mavungu's." "Which Mavungu?" "Mavungu Ma Kata
Mbamba." "Then this is the child that father lost long ago.
How has he come to this present position?"
(23) Buna u ye basika kwidi nandi unata nandi bu ka ye mona
siandi uvana kio.
Then Mavungu brought gifts to send to his father in the hunter's
hands.
(24) "Kedika Kedika Mavungu mweni." Ti nandi, "Yi mweni,
tata, yimweni tata, yi m'mweni mu mesu mami."
"Truly, truly I saw Mavungu. I saw him, father, I saw him
father with my own eyes."
(25) Buna landila Mavungu ukubika nzila mu kwe mona
mwanandi naveka ubonga ndusi.
Then Mavungu (the elder) prepared to journey to see his child
whom he called "Ndusi" (homonym).
(26) Bu kayenda mu nzila buna nkietu wo utala a Mavungu:
"Kadi kwenda kwidi siaku, kansi kwenda buna nkietu wo
ukubika binuanunu. Uvanga bobo.
As he was going the woman warned Mavungu (the younger),
"When your father comes, do not meet him. Stay with me, for
1 am preparing the weapons to battle against him." She did this.
(27) Mu kilumbu kinka, Mavungu uyindula: "A bwe tulendi
simbidila nsamu wo ko bwabubu miyaka kisina yibeki.
Bileko bipwedi, tata kalendi kubimona ko?"
Mavungu thought to himself on that day, "How can this be
handled? I have received many riches. But is my father not
even allowed to see them?"
(28) A mi didi "Mboti Tata!" kamona ku sa ntsibikila ku nzo
utola nzo mu ngolo ziandi.
When he arrived and greeted them the woman closed up the
house with all her strength to keep Mavungu inside.
(29) Nkieto uyenda kukunuana kadizaba tinnuniama widi mu
kwiza.
She went out to fight with him knowing it was his father coming.
(30) Buna uyenda "a u tata?" "Tia u Mavungu?" "A mboti tata,
mboti!" Nkietu waka mu kudila mu diambu di muina
ukavana.
But he came and greeted his father, and his father greeted him.
The woman began to weep on account of the prohibition she
had given.
(31) Buna bu kadila pila yoyo wa vutuka. A Mavungu, buna
nandi nkieto wowo uzola kikwezi kiadi beni, yi unkanina.
When he heard her cry thus, Mavungu returned to her. He
thought, "if she feels this way, and likes her father-in-law, I
might compromise her rule."
(32) Ubanza vo bika yivana ndambu lusadusu pasi kasadila mu
Jitangu-tangu. Kasi evo kadi yizebi kwa ti bisalu bia ntina.
He thought," let me go ahead and give some of my wealth to my
father," thinking it would not disappear.
(33) Buna uvana siandi ndambu lusadusu; basimbana mu mioko:
"O yonso tangu kwiza pasi tumonana."
Then he gave his father some gifts, and they embraced: "Any
time you may come so we may see each other."
(34) Ye bu basiala kumbusa a dibakala bu mengi kwa mambu
mami: "Siuvutuka, Mavungu maKataMbamba, siuvutuka
va lukalu Iwaku lu uteka ba."
When this happened, the wife disapproved in these words:
"Mavungu ma Kata Mbamba, you will revert to what you were
before."
(35) Dibakala diodio udila, udila udila. Kalendi kunlenvukila
t
ko. Buna samba bo bwau Mavungu makalu wutomba

Iwangu lukabiala biabio bi bavana bwala bimana kutina.
The man (Mavungu) wept and wept, but she would not forgive
him. All the wealth he had sought as well as the town suddenly
disappeared.
(36) Mavungu udila udila. Bu kadila kazimbukula nsitu uma boe
kwelakana bo bwau bu ubela.
228 RITUALS
Mavungu cried and cried. As he wept he found himself suddenly
in the field where they had "married."
(37) Buna nkietu mpe waka mu kudila mu diambu dikiadi buketi
bundimina. Buna udila pila yoyo.
The woman was also now sorrowful because of the impossibility
of their union.
(38) Udedakana Mavungu uyesingama va nti va katwama
singamanga.
Her farewells were as fond as his by the tree where they had
met.
(39) Bunazimbambazivutakana bana mbiyayoyikala mu nandi
yivutakana mu nandi.
And all of the misery of his former state returned to Mavungu.
(40) Buna mu kiadi ki pila yoyo Mavungu ukituka bonso bu
f
kateka kala. Buna mu kiadi kipila yoyo ufwila vana.

And with such sadness, Mavungu changed back to what he had
formerly been, and in sorrow there he died.
The prohibition imposed on Mavungu (the younger) that he must
reject forever his father to have a good life with a wife, creates a tragic
dilemma for him. He must choose between accepting his father, at the
cost of remaining politically impotent, or going with the woman to
have material rewards but without being able to exchange them with
his father. In this conceptualization of Kongo society the central
juridical corporate institution, the matrilineage, is left unmentioned.
Rather, the society is conceived in terms of the relationships an
individual may voluntarily emphasize: patrilaterality and alliance.
This text, like the preceding, seems to exaggerate the mutual exclusivity
of the alternatives, and in so doing actually demonstrates the
importance of integrating the two in a workable view of human
society. It would appear that one of the main characteristics of these
Mavungu myths is their internal analysis of society's various complementarities:
male and female, age-different siblings, modes of subsistence,
different aspects of kinship such as patrifiliality and alliance.
Every case of exaggerated or disjunctive complementarity contains
its own solution, its unique form of mediation. Above I formulated this
in terms of endogenous and exogenous process, or attempted solutions
within one and achieved solutions between two. In the Lemba
origin myth about Mahungu (Text 5), endogyny was expressed in the
primal androgynous state of the hero, and exogeny was created by
first exaggerating sexual difference, then by resolving it in the complementarity
of marriage. In Text 6 about Mavungu the forest ogre,
endogyny was expressed in the character of a radically antisocial hero
who lived in the forest and ate only human flesh, and exogeny was
emphasized in the arrest of the cannibalistic ("species endogastronomic")
Mavungu and his incorporation into a noncannibalistic
("species exogastronomic"), law-abiding community. Text 7 about
Mavungu (spear loser turned healer) and Mavungu (banana bunch
loser turned slave) demonstrated several themes of endogyny becoming
exogeny. The two brothers were initially of one status. With the
loss of the spear, internal exchange of wives (sisters) and segmentation
were proposed, but rejected. Original endogynous solutions to
property, alliance, and descent were shown to be unacceptable.
Exogenous solutions stated in the outcomes of the myth were status
differentiation between the two brothers, and the differential access to
mystical mediation resulting from differential subsistence roles of
hunting, cultivation, and healing. Also, the desirability was underlined
of mediation between the human and the "other-human" world
of animals and spirits.
In Text 8, about Mavungu father/son, the exogenous solution is left
unmentioned, or one might say it is mentioned by the exaggeration of
endogenous alternatives—remaining with father and being weak and
lazy, or leaving the identity of father and benefiting from the rewards
of an alliance with the " other": in this case, trade at the oceanside and
great political success, as seen in the grand city. The implicit exogenous
solution is not hard to uncover. If Mavungu's "death'' is due to the
mutual exclusivity of patrifiliality and alliance, then "life" results
from the complementarity of these two types of relations. This latter
is, of course, the Lemba solution to the excessive endogyny of
isolated settlements, marrying internally, thereby weakening trade
and peace networks across the countryside. Any marriage "out," but
particularly a "return blood" marriage such as the patrilateral crosscousin
marriage, accomplishes the feat of structuring patrifilial continuity
together with alliance.
Numerous literary works have taken up this problem. Malonga's
novel M'pfoumou ma Mazono is the story of a woman who is forced
to flee her husband, a prominent chief and her cousin, after an illicit
affair with her husband's slave. In a vision her maternal grandmother
19
tells her that the child she carries is her husband's. This
comforts her greatly, but she dares not yet return and becomes a
renegade, taking up life in the wild. There her son is born, and with his
230 RITUALS
mother grows up in a cave by a lake. He teaches himself all the arts of
human survival, especially hunting. This life in the depths of the wild
is interrupted by two hunters from the husband-father's community,
who as runaway slaves find the cave. The son, meanwhile, has
become a strong and capable youth and invites them to join the forest
settlement. This "wild" society of renegades grows into a vast city
based on principles of egalitarian democracy instead of status differentiation,
including slavery. Ultimately the healer-magician of the
group, himself a runaway slave, divines the necessity to re-establish
contact with civil society. Under the leadership of the youthful son,
they move their mysterious community into the midst of other villages
and establish a market to trade with them. At first threatened to the
point of challenging war to regain lost slaves, the established society
selects as its negotiator the husband-father. Father and son recognize
one another, which of course permits father and mother to be reconciled
as well, restoring peace to the region. Father conveys upon son a
legitimate political office in the form of an inauguration to a ritual
order (Lembal). Each now has his own independent community, and
they continue as allies in trade and war, closely intermarried.
The theme of the wilderness settlement recurs in mythology and
lore, as well as ritual. Sometimes the inhabitants of such a settlement
are ghost and spirits (matembo, minkuyu, bisimbi), at other times they
represent a type of human community, different from but potentially
related to the human community as a whole. Invariably these wilderness
settlements are sources of contrast and of renewal, and powerful
sources of wealth and danger, simultaneously. They embody peripherality
and marginality, the power that comes from liminality and
contrast. Often the mystery community represents an inversion of
human society (Mavungu as the forest ogre) or an exaggeration of
contradictions within the human society (Mavungu's city of wealth by
the sea, Text 8). There is thus the theme of mediation achieved or
mediation failed which runs through all accounts. One of the techniques
of mediation in myth, ritual, and institution-building is to
devise mediatory symbols such as ngenge, rivers, journeys, burrowing
nkumbi rats, tukula red, and mpemba white, as well as composite
mythic-religious figures such as Mahungu and the pythonwoman
in the tree. These mediatory symbols and figures vary from
the more-or-less human to the more-or-less natural (nonhuman).
Sometimes, as in the case of the python-woman, this variance occurs
in the midst of the text. The tendency to disguise or convert a hero into
a natural or animal object, to remove him/her from the human realm,
seems to correspond to the degree to which a social contradiction is
consciously acknowledged. Thus, in Text 7 (Mavungu as the two
brothers) and Text 8 (Mavungu father/son) the hunter is a significant
mediator who stands in close relation to the natural world. Moving
across the human/nature opposition, he is able to illustrate the differences
as well as the interdependencies of the two realms. Mahungu
as hero of complementary opposition often expresses contradictions
in political and social life. The most interesting case of mediation
failed is that in which the wife is couched in the form of a python ( Text
8). Mediation achieved is portrayed in Text 5, and to a certain extent
in Texts 6 and 7.
Insofar, then, as renewal, restoration, or regeneration of society is
achieved the mediating symbols are of a humanizing quality in the
myths. But insofar as these harmonious states are not achieved, the
mediatory symbols tend to become naturalized. The importance of
this issue for theories of myth analysis is great. It moves analysis
beyond the point where all myth functions as a " logical model capable
of overcoming a contradiction" to the realizaton that societies are
20
able to perceive the tragic dimensions of these contradictions and

to understand that they cannot be overcome. Or, if they can be
overcome, just what institutional alternatives must be followed, and
which must be avoided because their consequences are tragic. These
issues will be taken up in subsequent chapters, as will be that of how
recognition of social contradiction relates to the medicines of healing
in Lemba.
Chapter 7
The Western (Yombe, Woyo,
Vili) Variant of Lemba
Introduction to the Sources
The western variant of Lemba is based on a great quantity and a wide
diversity of sources because of centuries of coastal contact with
Europeans. However, despite the extensive work by such ethnographers
as Bittremieux and the Loango expedition, only the Laman
catechists have described in any detail Lemba's rites in this region.
The two texts which follow, from eastern Mayombe, describe respectively
the modes of recruitment to Lemba through "dream, curse or
possession" (Text 9) and the initiatory seance (Text 10). An etiological
1 2
myth from the forest region of the Mayombe near Kangu (text
11) features Kongo trickster Tsimona-Mambu as culture hero,
bringer of Lemba, providing a basis for the analysis of the lyrical
domain in the western variant. Trickster myths from outside Lemba
(Text 12) offer contrastive material of the same range as that presented
on Mahungu in the previous chapter.
The western variant demonstrates major points of differentiation
between the Yombe forest and the coastal kingdoms and peoples.
Although the eastern Yombe versions of Lemba resemble areas
already studied, the coastal accounts change in an important sense.
Art-historical expressions of Lemba—bracelets, drums, shrinesbecome
more ornate. Among the coastal Vili, and possibly inland
among some Yombe, Bembe, and Kunyi, the portable nkobe disappears
in favor of a fixed shrine-house in the back yard "pantheon."
Charm-jewelry appears in the form of miniature drums, figurines,
shrine doors, necklaces, and elaborate bracelets in cast or engraved
copper and brass. These objects permit a fuller analysis of the expressive
domain of consecrated medicine.
233
234 RITUALS
The Lemba Seance in Eastern Mayombe
Text 9
RECRUITMENT TO LEMBA
(1) Lemba i nkisi wena mu nkonko yijwanene bonso nlunga.
Lemba is an nkisi in the form of an nkonko drum or a bracelet
(2) Nkisi wowo ubanzwa vo wambaki mbongo zazingi zikalenda
tudulwa kwa bakulu.
It is thought of this nkisi that it requires greath wealth to get the
ancestors to bestow it.
(3) Yandi wavangulwa mu ntinta yampemba isokwanga mu
mpandulu andi
It is enacted with white chalk, given during its consecration.
(4) Mboki, longo (bongo?) biandi biambukila biena muna mpe.
Also, a marriage ceremony constitutes part of it.
(5) Yandi Lemba ulotuswa ndozi mu bakulu.
Lemba itself is presented in a dream from the ancestors.
(6) Yandi ubikwanga vo nkisi a bakulu. Yandi ukwendanga ku
mpemba ye ku bwala.
It is called an nkisi of the ancestors; it mediates the land of the
dead and the village.
(7) Ikuma kakomwanga mu ndotolo a ndozi ye mu mpinunu a
mafina ye mu mbwanunu a minkuyu.
Thus it is activated by dreaming, by nightmares of suffocating
by a curse, or through spirit possession.
(8) Mboki mpandulu vo nkebolo a Lemba zena zazingi beni.
For this reason initiations and initiands to Lemba are many.
(9) Bankaka bakebanga Lemba mu nlunga a koko.
Some keep Lemba in the bracelet on their arm.
(10) Nlunga una mpe sadulwanga mbatu bonso nkonko a Lemba.
A bracelet is sometimes used like the nkonko Lemba drum.
(11) Vo bakondolo nkonko, buna i nlunga balenda komina nloko
mwankaka.
If they lack the drum, they use the bracelet to strike certain
spells.
The Western Variant 235
(12) Balutidi sadila nlunga wanzongo mu tula mu koko.
Copper bracelets are mostly used, worn on the arm.
(13) Mboki nlunga wowo ukalanga na nganga Lemba; vo Jwidi
mpe ka ulendi katulwa ko.
So the bracelet of the priest remains with him; if he dies it may
not be removed.
(14) Mboki kansimbi muntu wankaka ko walembwa dio vanda.
Thus [Lemba] will not seize another person if it is not transmitted
to another initiand.
(15) Nga vo una simba mu diba, bunafwanane mu futa vo nsusu
mosi kwa nganga Lemba.
Even if one is seized, it suffices to pay a chicken to a Lemba
priest.
(16) Ndiena wavanda Lemba diandi usanga vuvu vo bakulu
bandi babana bana fwa ku mpemba balenda kwiza kuntudila
mbongo.
The one who composes his own Lemba, hopes that his ancestors
in Mpemba will provide him with funds [for the initiation].
(17) Yandi Lemba lenda heha mbongo zena kwa bakulu ye zena
kwa bamoyo mu diambu dialenda kiandi kiena kwandi mu
twadisa mbongo kwa mfumu andikadibu batombulanga wo,
buna bahehanga mu mafula makwizila mbongo mpasi bantu
bakaka mambu Lemba basinduka mo mana bakamana
mbongo za Lemba.
Lemba is capable of exchanging wealth of the ancestors with
the living so that it may be at their disposal, providing wealth to
a person's lord so he may receive it; thus they exchange in the
entrances whence comes wealth, and those who are in Lemba
with their problems receive Lemba 's wealth.
(18) Nkisi una mpe wena ye nkazi a Lemba.
The nkisi also has a Lemba wife.
(19) Ukotanga wo yandi i kundi ku nima nkisi wowo.
She enters it .to be the "friend" behind the nkisi.
(20) Vo muntu una bwana nkuyu kansi ndinga yuzikamani buna
nganga Lemba una bonga lutete Iwansudia vo Iwa tende.
If a person is possesssed by a spirit but his speech is blocked,
the Lemba priest will take a lutete gourd seed.
236 RITUALS
(21) Vo yandi mbevo una lo tota, buna ngudi a nganga una
kunkamba vo: "Yoya, monso mamweni, samuna."
If the sufferer cracks it open [with his teeth], the chief priest
tells him: "Whatever you see, tell it"
(22) Buna mbevo i ntumbu badika vova vo kakedi vova ko, buna
yandi una samuna makamweni
Then the sufferer immediately begins to speak if he has not
already and tells all he has seen.
(23) Vo nkuyu kamweni vo unkembi mambu, buna yandi una
ntumbu samuna ye zaikisa yayonsono.
If a spirit has appeared or spoken, he will reveal it and make all
known.
(24) Bobo i salu bia Lemba.
This then is Lemba's purpose.
(25) Mboki nkisi wowo ukembwanga mu nkela.
This nkisi is kept in a box.
(26) Nkela yoyo ka ilendi talu wankaka mu ngudi ko.
No one [beside the owner] may look into it.
(27) Mboki nkisi wowo ukebwanga ku vinga kia mu ngudi a nzo,
kuna vinga kiokio ka kikoti muntu ko.
It is guarded in a special room in the interior of the house where
no one may enter.
(28) Buna una kubwa, nga vo ka bwa ko, buna una tekwa mu
mbongo za Lemba.
Should someone do this, he would be sold for the benefit
ofLemba.
(29) Fisidi Lemba nga diena mwamu. Konso diodio disadulwanga
kwa babingi.
Perhaps this is all about Lemba. Many use it in this way.
(30) Ka diafwidi ko nate ye bwabu.
It has not died out till this day.
Text 10
PRESENTING MWEMO-A-LEMBA MEDICINE
(21) Fu kia zinganga za Lemba, vo bamweni muntu wena
kimvwama, buna i ntumbu kunkamba vo nwa mwemo a
Lemba, Ls.v., makaya ma Lemba-lemba.
It is a custom of Lemba priests, when they see a person of
means, to tell him he must drink Mwemo-a-Lemba, that is,
leaves of the lemba-lemba plant.
(22) Kansi vo muntu vumbidi vumu, buna si bavela munsumbiye
si bavela wa mu nkumba a Lemba.
But if a person has a swollen stomach, they give him
munsumbi leaves.
LEMBA CHILD BARGAINS FEE FOR COMPOSING NKISI
(23) Mwana nganga i ntumbu bonga mpataye kwe bwanisa ngudi
nganga kuna fula.
The neophyte priest next gives his high priest five francs at the
village entrance.
(24) Zinganga zazonsono zavanda Lemba mu tini kiansi kiokio,
bu buwilu nsamu vo Lemba si dwandusu ku kingandi, buna
bana kwina, kidi babaka zimbongo mu mpandusulu au.
All priests who have been consecrated to Lemba in the surrounding
area, when they hear of the Lemba affair, they make
their way hither in order to enrich themselves by their initiatory
expertise.
(25) Ngudi a nganga si katambula kumi evo kumiye mpata tanu.
The chief priest will receive 50-75 francs (10-15 mpata).
(26) Mboki zinganga zankaka zazono kani 30 vo 40 si zasola
mwala (nzonzi) au mu kwe kubalombila zimbongo.
Thirty or forty other priests will send their representatives
forward to request payments of money.
(27) Buna mwala si kateka tambula kani mpata mole vo tatu.
The representatives will receive 10-15 francs (2-3 mpata)
each.
(28) Mboki si katangunanga nganga vo: ndieu ebu kadilanga,
mboki mwana nganga si kavana ndiana ntalu yayi katambulanga
ye yandi i ntumbu futa bonso buvovele nzonzi nate
ye babonsono bamenifuta.
The priests will be told: the one who has requested Lemba,
as Lemba child will be told the fee for receiving it, and he will
pay whatever the spokesman says, until all have been paid.
(29) Mboki i ntumbu vandisa nkisi.
Then his nkisi will be composed.
238 RITUALS
(30) Nkama Lemba ufutwanga ngulu ye mpata tatu, minkwala
zole mpidi zole zambongo.
y
The chief priest's wife is paid a pig and fifteen francs, two
nkwala mats, and two mpidi baskets full of raphia cloth.
COMPOSING NKISI LEMBA
(1) Lemba i nkisi watudulwa mu mwila a tola.
Lemba is an nkisi which is put in a cylinder.
(2) Mu ngudi a mwila wowo mwasokwa mafutu mole maminkanda
miabulu, nkumbu a futu diabakala: "Nsasa
Lemba."
Inside it are placed two sacks of animal skin, the name of the
male bag being: "Nsasa Lemba."
(3) Va diau vatulwa bilongo.
[In] On it are placed medicines.
(4) Singa kiakala mu mbu ye mpemba biau biatoma kangwa va
futu diankanda mbala.
String is wound tightly around it to better contain the mpemba
chalk in this bag of mbala antelope skin.
(5) Futu diankaka dia nkanda nkumbi divwilu kwa nkama
Lemba; va diau vena bilongo: n'nanga ye tukula.
The other sack, made of the nkumbi [rat's?] skin, is the
Lemba wife's; on [in] are put medicines: cauries and tukula
red.
(6) Futu diodio dibikwanga nkumbu "Mpemba Lemba."
This sack is called "Mpemba Lemba."
(7) Lemba biekwa ku Nsona.
Lemba is consecrated on Nsona day.
(8) Nsuka lumbu mpaikulu au kumbazi, bakala sikateka bonga
Nsasa Lemba ye bonga mpemba ye teka tula mampemba
mandi vafutu diodio; mboki sonika mpemba mu mpenga ye
mu mvamba miamoko.
Next morning they go to the square; the male [initiand] first
takes the Nsasa Lemba bag and puts chalk onto the bag's skin;
then he inscribes chalk on his temples and his hands.
(9) Mboki nkento mpe si kakutula funda ye sonika tukula mu
mpenga ye mu moko.
Then the woman [initiand] also removes tukula red from her
bag and inscribes it upon her temples and hands.
(10) Mboki bau bole ntumbu vaika.
Then the two of them come out.
(11) . . . buna kabalenda zieta vo sala mu lumbu kiokio ko, kansi
si bavundila kio kaka.
. . . they may not walk or work on this day but must sit the day
out quietly.
(12) Lembama kiokio, bau bana baka kimbevo vo kijfwa.
Failing to obey this, they may take sick or die.
(13) Mafutu matulwa mu nti.
The bags are hung in a tree.
(14) Bilongo biankaka batudulwa mu ngudi a mwilu: dingongo,
makayi kwa Lembe.
Other medicines are placed into the cylinder, dingongo nuts
and Lemba herbs [calmants?].
(15) Lekwa kiokio i nsuki zatebwa ku ntu a ndieu wavanda
Lemba ye zakangwa va nsi a nkanda nsesi ye nkaka ye
nkanda a kubu, wakangwa mpe zinsuki zamwana nganga ye
za ngudi a nganga.
[Another] thing is hair from the head of he who has composed
Lemba; it is tied into skins of nsesi antelope, pangolin,
and kubu antelope; also in it are hair of the neophyte priest and
the chief priest.
(16) Nkanda wowo batambulanga wo mu lumbu kina kiteki
mana vanda nkisi wowo.
This skin [?] is brought along on the day when they have
completed composing the nkisi.
(17) Mafunda momo miatatu miabikwa "minkunda."
These three bags are called "the abode."
(18) Batulanga mpe bikengi.
Bikengi water plants are also put in it.
(19) Nkisi wowo wena mpe ye funda dibikwanga "kikundu dia
Lemba": va diau batulwa bilongo biampila mu mpila—
mweba, ntutu, cizika, munsumbi-nsumbi, nkuku-nona, ye
nionzo ye makaya manlolo.
240 RITUALS
The nkisi also has a satchel called"Lemba power" into which
is put a variety of medicines—mweba, ntutu bark, cizika,
munsumbi-nsumbi, nkuku-nona, nionzo and nlolo leaves.
(20) Nkisi wowo wasadulwa mu mayela ma mpila i.s.v., vumu,
ntima, ntu, lubanzi.
This nkisi is used for a variety of illnesses such as those
affecting abdomen, heart, head, side.
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY BEHIND THE HOUSE
(31) [illegible]... buna i ntumbu kunata ku mbusa nzoye nkento
andi.
[the initiand and rite objects] are carried behind the house with
his wife.
(32) Ngeye n'nuni Lemba, keba nkazi aku Lemba bwambote; si
bakamba mpe kwa nkento, ngeye nkama Lemba, kebannuni
aku Lemba bwambote.
[The priest intones] "You Lemba husband, guard your
Lemba wife well"; they advise the wife, "You Lemba wife,
keep your Lemba husband well."
(33) Mu nzo a Lemba ka mulendi kota muntu wankaka ko.
"No other person may enter the Lemba house.
(34) Vo umweni muntu dieti nkwalu yiwena, buna kamba nuni
aku evo umweni mpe muntu viokele mpe evo diata mu Iwi
nkulu Iwa nzo aku, buna kamba nuni aku.
If you see another person do so, tell your husband; or if you see
someone leaving or walking near your house, tell your
husband."
WHEN THE PROFANATION OCCURS
(35) Buna vo muntu si kasumuna mina miomio dia Lemba, buna
si ka futa mvika; kansi mu ntanguyayilenda futa kani mpata
4 evo bonso buzolele nganga.
When a person violates the prescriptions of Lemba, he must
pay a fine; however nowadays [ca. 1915] it may be 20 francs or
whatever the priest decides.
(36) Bu beti wo vandisa, buna nganga ye nkento andi mboki
mwana ngo ye nkento andi mpe; buna babakala si bateka
vwanda vo ntandu a buku biole bianti.
When it is composed, the priest and his wife, then the "leopard
child" and his wife [ are present]; the men first sit on the bark of
two trees.
(37) Mboki bankaka bana kubafuta ku nsi a vunga napi ye
zinganga zankaka zed sika zinkonko e zindungu ye beti
zimbila nkunga wau:
The others come to pay them remain silently beneath a blanket
while other priests beat nkonko and ndungu drums, singing
this song:
(38) Wavanda lemba, kusuka kwamoyo.
He consecrates to Lemba, let him cleanse his life.
(39) Lemba diami dia bumpati bwa nganga
My Lemba enclosure is the glory of the priesthood.
Mayamona mu Lemba ndiadi
Behold this Lembal
Sukula ko!
Cleanse it!
(40) Bu bameni diodio, i ntumbu vaika ye bakento ntumbu kwe
vinganga ye diatasana minlembo ye simbasana moko ku nsi
a vunga ye minkunga ye zinkonko mina tamana bonso
busilulu babakala nateye kani lokula biole, mboki vaika.
When they have done this, [the priests] leave and the women
present "walk" over one another with fingers and hold hands
under the blanket while singing and drumming the nkonko
drum like the men did it, until the two are cleansed, then they
come out
FINAL RITE IN THE FOREST
(41) Landila bilumbu biole tata nganga kunata mwana nganga
ku mjinda.
Two days later the Lemba father takes the Lemba child to the
forest.
(42) Kuna mjinda bavwandila va mfuma ye makuku, bisoma
mole va nsi bau biekanga—is. v., Mpemba Lemba ye Nsasa
Lemba.
242 RITUALS
There in the forest they sit upon an mfuma cotton tree and a set
of termite mounds respectively, the ground beneath them
consecrated as "Mpemba Lemba" and "Nsasa Lemba"
(43) Mbangudulu a mambu momo i vo bakala evo nkento andi
wena sita buna si kabuta mu diambu diakameni vanda nkisi
ko.
The meaning of this is: if the male or the female is sterile, they
may give birth because they composed this nkisi.
(44) Mbangudulu a makuku i vo bana sibutwa.
The meaning of the termite mounds is that children will be
born.
(45) Bu si bakola nyo a nonia ye kuntentika yo va mbata a ntu
andi, binonia biobiobubetikunzanzalayekuntatika ku ntu,
buna kalendi yaula vo nikuka nkutu ko.
When they take one with termites in it and place it atop the
head when the termites begin to crawl out and bite the head,
they must not cry out or squirm.
(46) Nga vo si kanikuka vo kubula binonia, buna i mabuta
kakubudi, si bana kumbika vo ndoki.
If they squirm or slap the termites their own offspring are struck
and they will be called witches.
(47) Bonso bwena ntalu a binzulu biobio bieti kunzanzala, i bobo
buna kala ntalu a nkun'andi mpe.
As is the number of these termites [ ants] so shall be the number
of their offspring.
(48) Mwana wantete vo bana buta vo wankento, una bikwa
"Mpemba Lemba;" vo bakala, "Nsasa Lemba" bonso
bwabiekwa bisama biabiole zinkumbu.
If the first child born is a girl, it will be called "Mpemba
Lemba"; if a male, "Nsasa Lemba" corresponding to the
names of the consecrated signs.
(49) Landila diodio, si banika ngunzi ye mpemba mboki kwe
biosonikingi mu nitu mwana nganga yamvimba matonamatona
mampembe ye mambwaki.
Following this, they grind a mixture of ngunzi-rsd and
mpemba-chslk and trace the whole body of the neophyte priest
with white and red spots.
The Expressive Domains
SPACE AND TIME:""FROM PORTABLE TO FIXED RITUAL SYMBOLISM
Most characteristic of the western variant's spatial-temporal domain
is the transformation of the symbolism of ceremonial ritual into the
symbolism of permanent architecture and garden (figure 18). The
richness of both rite and n'kobe diminish. The rite described by
Babutidi (Text 10) lacks the elaborate rhythmic flow between village,
savanna, forest, and stream of the northern and south-central variants.
The western-Kongo landscape is largely forested, and villages
and towns and fields cut and burned out of the forest constitute the
only clearings. Lemba's ceremonial rhythm spans this simple dichotomy
of forest and village clearing. Across the Mayombe, n'kobe and
reference to a "house"-shrine are both present in varying degrees of
elaboration. In Babutidi's account, for example, from the far eastern
Mayombe, the n'kobe is as complete as farther east and north,
although one of the satchels within it is called the Lemba "house"
(minkunda, 10.17), and although there is this reference to a "house"
(10.33), the final ceremonies are held in the forest. Farther west, on
the coast and in Loango especially, the n'kobe disappears entirely.
The Lemba shrine becomes a fixed installation at the intersection of
the forest and village, an elaborate "kitchen" behind the hearth, a
garden grove of trees, filled with other objects.
Ethnographies from the Mayombe and Loango describe this
Lemba "house" and details of the fixed installation. In the Kangu
area of Mayombe, Bittremieux described the Lemba couple's yard as
a wooded grove (bikulu bia Lemba) of wild shrubs and trees transplanted
to the domestic area between house and shrine, and surrounded
by a fence. The trees included the mfuma cotton tree (JEriodendron
anfractuosum), nkumbi (Lannea Welwitshii), lubota
(Milletia), kuaku (Oncoba sp), nsanga-nsanga (Ricinodendron
africanum); smaller plants included lolo kitseke (Annona Senegalensis),
mvuila tseke (planted together, perhaps suggesting their
association with the human world ( = savanna, tseke) in contrast to
the ancestral world ( = forest), ditambi-tambi (in association with
the lubota tree). By themselves in a small enclosure behind the shrine
house were mutsanga-lavu and dilemba-lemba {Brillantaisia
alata). The whole arrangement suggests a floral cosmogram fixed to a
spatial location much as the n'kobe eastward contains a miniaturized
cosmogram of plants collected from the zones of savanna, forest,
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village, water, and cemetery. The purpose of bringing all these plants
from the wild to be represented in the shrine grove, states Bittremieux,
is to assure that the Lemba couple will be genuinely "other," truly
changed (baluka), permanently liminal.
3
The Lemba shrine-house is described by several writers. In the

Mayombe Bittremieux reports that on its gable there is a sculpture
made of woven nsoni grass of the ndimba snake (Psammophis
sibilans, or Leptodira Duchesnii), and a representation of the lolo
4
and mvuila plants. Loango coast expedition writers report that the
Lemba house in that area is situated in the forest well away from the
houses, surrounded by a papyrus fence, and is used as a treasure
house by the Lemba couple, secluded, locked with fanciful door
locks. Its decor is such that only the wealthy can afford it. Between
5
the two front doors, one for the Lemba husband, the other for the
Lemba wife, are planted respectively a baobab tree and a mfuma silk
cotton tree. Surprisingly little of this fixed architecture has survived,
6
either in museum holdings of sculpture or in photographs and

drawings.
More is known of the shrine context of the Lemba house. Lemba,
where it appeared, was evidently the major shrine installation in a
pantheon of n 'kisi figures and objects. In the back-yard shrine-garden
of Yombe chief Ngambula, whose life and Lemba priesthood was
depicted in Chapter 3, Lemba's shrine was flanked by other
min'kisi, including: Simbu, in annzungu pot, deity of time; a small
ndubi statue with a mirror in its stomach (kundu); a lukatu statue in
a pot, also with a mirror in its midsection; Mbudila, an n'kisi figure
related to time and to the reign of the Mamboma chief; and a variety of
others called Mambinda, Maluangu, Mangaka, and Nzola, either
represented by a pot, a statue, or another object
7
The transformation of Lemba'% symbolism in the western region

corresponds, then, to a general shift from moveable to fixed estates;
from hunting and shifting cultivation to fixed landed domains; from
segmentary polities to kingdoms and chiefdoms; from caravans traversing
vast stretches over trails to endpoints, ports, and commerce at
the coast.
ECONOMIC AND EXCHANGE STRUCTURES
A brief perusal of the exchanges inBabutidi's account (Text 10, figure
19) suggests an important difference from exchanges in other
accounts already examined. Here the main payments are made in the
currency of the late Free State and early Belgian colony. Only pay246
RITUALS
Figure 19
Exchange structure of Lemba account,
after Babutidi (Text 10)
Neophyte Takes Mwemo Medicine
Lemba child,
"sufferer"
mpata (5fr.)
mwemo
chief Lemba
priest
Bargaining the Fee, Presenting Neophyte
Lemba child
mpata 10-15 ( 5 0 - 7 5 fr.) [ •
mpata 2 3 ( 1 0 - 1 5 fr. each,
= 3 0 0 - 4 5 0 fr.)
promise to compose
Lemba for neophyte
1 pig
mpata 3 (15 fr.)
2 nkwala mats
2 mpidi baskets of
mbongo raphia cloths
chief priest
30-40 Lemba priests
wife of chief priest
opening
feast?
Composing Medicine & Marriage
Lemba neophyte
n'kisi in
cylindrical
container
(nkela)
Lemba priests
Lemba couple marriage
& bracelets?
Purification Ceremony
Lemba
couple
moata 4 (20 fr.)
singing & drumming
to couple under
blanket-shroud
Lemba priests
Lemba priests &
priestesses
Closing Ceremony in Forest
Lemba couple ~«
officiating of
ceremony,
anointing red & white
Lemba father
ments to the chief priest's wife are in the traditional currency of
mats, mbongo raphia cloth, and pigs.
Following the Free State's introduction of brass wires in the
eighties to compete with indigenous copper wire, the mpata (=five
Belgian francs, ten United States cents) was introduced in 1910 by the
Belgian Congo concurrently with the imposition of the head tax in this
currency. With the creation of railroads on the south bank of the
Congo River and in the Mayombe forests, European commercial
interests were more effectively able to reach the sizeable Lower-
Congo, north-bank productive resources. The old ability to mount
caravans was revived briefly as individuals, lineages, and local chiefs
portered palm nuts, ground nuts, beans, tobacco, even sheep and pigs,
to these commercial outposts in exchange for colonial money and
manufactured goods. Direct equivalences are not easy to establish
between pigs, francs, raphia, and Lemba, as Chapter 2 has already
suggested. It may be noted, however, that Babutidi's account compiles
about 5 80 francs, one pig, and two baskets of raphia cloth as hard
items of cost. In terms of trade figures of ca. 1928, this would have
required bringing something like fifty to seventy man-loads of palm
nuts to the nearest purchasing station, at thirty kilograms per person.
Or, in terms of workers' incomes in the towns in 1925-30, about forty
months of rations for one person (at ten to twenty francs per month),
and two years salary (forty to sixty francs per month). In other words,
8
only someone who possessed the patronage of his lineage or who was
a merchant of means could afford Lemba?$ initiation. It is surprising
that anyone could still afford this type of ceremonial expenditure in an
era of the head tax, corvee labor, and the emergence of wage labor and
the exchange of wages for manufactured goods.
The level of expenditure, and the involvement of thirty or forty
Lemba priests in the initiation, plus their wives, suggest something of
the commitment to the institution in the 1910-15 era in eastern
Mayombe, and the extent of Lemba's authority even this late in the
colonial era
VERBAL CATEGORIES, RITUAL ACTION, AND LEMBA NAMES
There is something eternal about Kongo ritual. It is continually
extracting from the events of daily life and human society the salient
features which pertain to lasting perspectives, values, and categories
of Kongo culture. This process is far more enduring than a particular
individual, chiefdom, lineage, kingdom, drum of affliction or religious
movement. But these latter are situated in terms of the enduring. In the
248 RITUALS
western coastal region there are schemas in the historical record which
relate the various kingdoms and ritual associations, and individuals
within them. Thus, in the Loango of 1875, according to Bastian,
someone suggested that Loango, Kakongo, and Ngoyo were like husband
(nnuni), wife (n'kazi), and priestly mediator (itomwa=one
who is sent) to each other: a complementarity of roles. Ngoyo was the
home territory of the prestigious Bunzi shrine, not only the ritual basis
of the Ngoyo kingdom but also that of Kakongo and Loango as well.
In actual practice this meant little more than that the northern kingdoms
sent emissaries to Bunzi during important decisions and transitions,
to consult В unzi's oracle. Throughout the region another principle
9
of spiritual "rooting" existed in the notion of the xina or zina

"name" that flowed from a person's father to himself or herself, and
back again to the father's lineage in the next generation. In noble
marriages this principle was very important, and a person's status
depended on his having a "father" and a "name" (zina). Names and
role terms, therefore, reflected a classificatory scheme deriving either
from the values of kinship, class, or polity. Lemba was no exception,
and its relationship to other social processes and schemes is the
subject of this section.
Konda and Babutidi, like Kwamba in his description of the northern
variant, offer very clearly labeled categories of ritual action in
Lemba, and the names received during the inaugurals by Lemba
priests reflect these categories closely. The ritual process is described
in terms of a few central concepts, beginning with the term кота, "to
strike, augment, obligate, assemble, or constrain." The term has
achieved some notoriety in Kongo studies from its use in connection
with nail or wedge charms and the driving in of the wedges (кота
nsonso, кота m'funyia). Konda uses it in a broader sense to refer to
the awakening of a force which may be either negative and injurious,
or positive and redemptive. Lemba is "aroused" (komwa) through
dreaming of a. Lemba ancestor, having a nightmare that one is suffocating
(being bewitched), or being possessed by a spirit (9.7). A
person may also have his "speech blocked" (9.20). All are symptoms
whose etiology may lead to the recommendation that the afflicted
should take the Lemba medicine and be considered for initiation.
Both Konda and Babutidi speak of the priest in Lemba experiencing
further negative ritual action in his defilement (sumuna Lemba, 9.27;
sumuna mina dia Lemba, 10.28).
Positive ritual action to overcome these negative states includes the
expected prescriptions to drink the Lemba medicine (nwa mwemo a
Lemba, 10.21), consecrate Lemba (10.7), and initiate to the nkisi
(vanda, 10.19, 23, 32). There are also idiomatic terms of positive
ritual action such as "cracking the lutete seed," done by the presiding
priest as a sign to the " afflicted" that he may now loosen his words and
tell all he has seen in his dream or nightmare, in particular the identity
of the person or spirit afflicting him. The basic term of ritual action,
koma, is used with the verb loka, to speak or cast a spell; thus koma
nloko. Whereas many Lemba priests and couples use their nkonko
drum to create a spell, some do this by rubbing or spitting palm wine
on their copper Lemba bracelets (Konda, text 9.9-12).
Possibly the most indicative phrase in the western variant depicting
Lemba's ritual action is this: "Lemba is capable of exchanging wealth
of the ancestors with that of the living so it may be at the latters
5
disposal... so they exchange in the entrances whence wealth comes,

and those who are involved with Lemba with their problems receive
Lemba's wealth" (Yandi Lemba lenda heha mbongo zena kwa
bakulu ye zena kwa bamoyo mu diambu dialenda kiandi kiena
kwandi mu twadisa mbongo ... buna bahehanga mu mafula
makwizila mbongo mpasibantu bakaka mambu Lemba basinduka
mo mana bakamana mbongo za Lemba, 9.17). The key terms here
are heha and fula. The first, also veva or veeva, means to blow,
clean, softly vibrate in the breeze, flutter, as well as to be bewitched or
have a spell cast over one. In its substantive form the term becomes
mpeve, which Bible translators took to express spirit, whence mpeve
a nlongo, Holy Spirit. The second term, fula, denotes to blow, spit, or
channel a substance, or a path, route, and the wind following these
paths. One may fudila n'kisi, arouse an n'kisi by spitting on it, or
fula nzonza, arouse a quarrel (zonza, rhetoric, speaking). Mafula
are entrances to villages, markets, cemeteries. The verb fula is used
in the eastern variant, as well as in other accounts of Lemba in the
Mayombe, to refer to the ritual resurrection of the neophyte. The
adept, having "died" (fwa ngambu) and seen spirits, is awakened
(fulukidi) and given to drink from the tsasa pot by the Lemba
priestess. In the east, the priests sing the song "Resurrect the Child"
(kimfula, fudila mwana) as an invocation to Nga Malamu while one
of the priests blows into the neophyte's ear. Related to the same
cognate is mbondo fula, the broom of justice and oratory, depicted on
some Lemba bracelets (plate 12). The text (9.17) suggests that
Lemba is able to arouse the ancestors in a type of sacrificial trade so
as to enhance the wealth of the living. This process occurs most
auspiciously in the "entrances" (mafula) which is, indeed, where
250 RITUALS
much of the actual exchanging is done in markets (see plate 3). It is
this term fula, to raise, blow, bring into being, to "spiritize," which
becomes the key word in Konda's concept of '' spirit of mercantilism''
or "capitalism" (heha mbongo, arouse the spirit of wealth; or
hehanga mu mafula makwizila mbongo, arouse the spirit in the
entrances whence comes wealth).
The names of Lemba priests reflect preoccupations with the range
of ritual actions already suggested: oratorical skill, grasping or seeing
mystical power, enjoying full ritual purity, and increasing offspring as
well as wealth. The names are chosen to characterize the new person,
resurrected to Lemba and its prevailing values. But they also uncannily
portray persons grappling with personal problems. Bittremieux
cites the following. Mvuza, "jabberer," is the name of one whose
10
words now flowfreely, recalling the affliction of the Lemba sufferer

with "blocked words" (9.20). Makunduku, "he masters powers,"
suggests a preoccupation with the problem of power. The full name is
drawn from the phrase makunduku va mbata vwa, "on our death
God alone is almighty," recognizing human mortality. Ngambula(cf.
Chapter 3) means "washer-ofF, from menga ma tsusu, simba:
kwambula, "the blood of chickens; hold it: release it," that is, one
who is not afraid to penetrate to the core of a serious social issue, and
deal with it, but who then is able to extract himself from it. Nyambivana,
"God-gives," is used for someone who has accumulated the
requisite wealth to enter Lemba while still a youth.
Thus far these names reflect serene spiritual Lemba values. Others
reflect economic values of acquisitiveness. Mvu, "year," is the name
of a priest who says "a whole year I have slaved to be able to afford
Lemba's inauguration." Yindindi, "thinking," refers to one who was
always thinking how he might make his fortunes cover Lemba's
costs. Valata, "scraping and scrounging," referred to one who considered
himself having to scrape, scrounge, and struggle to afford a
Lemba marriage. Phila-mose, "same-as," is the name of one who
says to himself, "Now I stand on the same footing as the old men who
had to collect the necessary sum over many years." Mueba is the
name of the chief priest, after the mueba tree (Irvingia Barteri),
referring to the notion that "everyone gets his just desserts—that is,
fruits." Sabu, "crossing-over," refers to one who tsabukidiLemba,
crossed over into Lemba, one who "had his money working." Or
Vandu-vandu, "charm-activator," from Dilemba diedi kuiza
vandulu zimbongo, "my Lemba, when it's turned on will enrich me
(in the funds and children)." These names bring out the variety of
values emphasized in Lemba, and their rooting in broader categories
of ritual action.
It remains, however, to explain the link between this spirit of
acquisitiveness and mercantilism so prevalent in the foregoing names
and ritual acts, and the symptomatology and etiology of the Lemba
affliction. Konda suggests that the affliction is brought on by something
the sufferer may have seen in a dream, a nightmare, or possession
by a spirit (9.20-22). Babutidi speaks of it as something that may
affect abdomen, heart, head, and side (10.20). Further consideration
of this issue will be deferred till Chapters 9 and 10. It is clear,
however, that this Lemba "spirit of mercantilism" provoked considerable
antagonism in a society in which the ethic of redistribution is
deeply engrained.
MEDICINE AND ART
In previous sections on Lemba medicine the contents of the n'kobe
have been examined in terms of their function. Here an interpretation
will be undertaken of all material objects created specifically under
the rubric of Lemba medicine: the nkobe (or western equivalents),
the fixed shrine, the bracelet, the drum, the rattle or bell, pipes, and
statues. In each of these mediums, individual objects—wood, plants,
metal—are shaped, named, and brought together in associative categories.
They are thus given a signification. Sometimes these objects
may contain bodily elements of persons involved—the neophyte's
semen, hair, nails—and thus have an added, iconic signification. In
other cases they may bring together statements of symbolism known
in the world of conventional meaning, such as the relationship of men
to women with their characteristics. A complex ritual system such
as Lemba, however, takes these iconic and symbolic statements and
reshapes or reassociates them for its own purposes. This process,
which has been shown to use and construct metaphor, can be analyzed
to gain special understanding of the institution's major concepts and
values. The metaphoric process uses parallel series of expressions to
make a composite statement about society and the universe, about the
relationship of resources to power, and about the living to the ancestors
from whom all power flows. Because Lemba expressiveness
reaches out to make statements of these social, natural, cosmic
wholes, aesthetic criteria are implied. That is, elements are abstracted
from the whole in order to represent it. For example, the western
Lemba bracelets depict a man and a woman joined by a flower-petal
252 RITUALS
motif or a cowrie shell (plates 8-12). Miniature drums worn on
necklaces or sculpted on pottery lids depict the drums of Lemba. In
many cases these miniatures are worn as jewelry and used as charms
(see plates 15, 16, 18). Mythic heroes, represented in the nkobe as
shakers or rattles, are often hung from the priests' belts during dances
dedicated to the deity or hero.
The most common statement of signification in the Lemba n'kobe
Figure 20
Tukobe of the Western Lemba region:
Loango and Ngoyo (Cabinda)
chewed kola
powder of redwood
holy water.
In mat, "red"
cowrie shell
bits of bottles"
shells
feathers
trade beads -
("tubes of
clay")
bones
small bells
claws
"small pot"
pipe
rattles
"drum played
by boy with
hand"
Loango Coast, after
Dapper, 1670, pp. 336-7
basket filled
with sandy clay
surrounding
wooden statue,
barely protruding
at top
loose in nkobe,
rags
resin drops
w i t h feat
shell
seed
Ngoyo (Woyo),
MAC 35191,1933, collected
by Bittremieux (Plate 4)

and shrine is the relationship between male and female. This relationship
refers not only to the reproductive process in which children
are born, but also it takes the male-female union as a model for all
complementarity between social groups, for example, neighboring
lineages. In the Yombe variants of the Lemba n'kobe (figure 21),
male and female complementarity is couched in a number of metaphoric
contrasts summed up in the names Tsasa-Lemba SLndPfemba-
Lemba respectively.
Western Mayombe, Kangu,
MAC 43040,1937, collected
by Bittremieux (Plates 5-7)
Eastern Mayombe, Mamundi,
after Babutidi (Text 10)
254 RITUALS
The iconography ofTsasa and Pfemba is rather complex and
needs further clarification. Firstly, Pfemba is not the same as
mpemba (chalk, whiteness, clarity), despite Babutidi's use of the term
(10.6; 10.42; 10.48) and scholarly attempts to explain the apparent
contradiction of "red" symbolism being named "white." Pfemba,11
the "female" satchel, is indeed "red," as Bittremieux's research into

the Mayombe nkobe he collected (figure 21) indicates. The Pfemba
12
packet in Lemba is closely associated with the well-known Pfemba

(also Phemba) maternity figures of the Mayombe and the coast,
figures which reveal often a reddish hue of tukula anointment. These
figures, which attracted collectors' attention in the last century and
are therefore widespread in European museums, are in turn related to
an n'kisi cult which had to do with women's problems in general and
midwifery in particular. Bastian and Pechuel-Loesch, who visited a
Pfemba center in the 1870's, recorded a legend about the well-known
midwife who founded the movement 13
Ethnographic research by Lehuard has identified the pose of these

children in arms and laps of Pfemba maternity figures as dead children
being mourned by their mothers. One possible interpretation of
14
this puzzling posture, one which I propose, is that these children are
immaculate-conception, spirit children akin to simbi children "taken"
by the spirits. In this way they reconcile, or mediate at an abstract
level, the domestic role of childbearing with the notion of female
rulership. In Chapter 2, I suggested that one could find many
variations on the theme of fertility—augmenting local kin groups—
and leadership transcending kinship to create an overarching political
order. Ancient Loango and Sonyo noble marriages served a purely
political purpose, as was seen in Chapter 2, and were commonly not
even consummated In Lemba, where fertility of the local clan
section was combined with political alliances, Pfemba "redness" in
the "female" section of the nkobe offered a unique alternative
resolution of this problem of fertility and leadership, of the exclusivity
of local kinship and the need to create broader alliances.
This male-female relationship as articulated in whiteness and redness,
respectively, is extended further by the relationship of the treeclimbing
mbala civet cat to the burrowing rodent nkumbi, in whose
skins Tsasa-Lemba and Pfemba-Lemba are kept. This metaphor is
nearly identical to that of the eastern variant (Chapter 5) except that
there the nkumbi skin contained the male "white" ingredients, and
the musimba, another tree-climbing cat, contained the female element.
However, eastern sources are not reliable enough to make
anything of this symbolic inversion.
The third satchel in Babutidi s depiction of the n'kobe (figure 21)
9
extends several domains of the above metaphor—social roles and

small animals—to the patrifilial line of Lemba. Hair from the heads of
the Lemba chief priest, from the presiding Lemba father, and the
neophyte, along with leaves of lemba-lemba and dingongo beans,
are placed in a container of the skins of nsesi and kubu antelopes
and nkaka, the pangolin. The correlation of these skins to the three
roles is not given; however, their stereotypes are suggestive. Nsesi is
slight and clever, swift and evasive, and is depicted in fables as able to
outwit larger animals. Kubu is a marsh antelope. Pangolin is
recognized not only for its anomalous character, its scales and its
mammalian features such as suckling its young, but also for its long
tongue which can penetrate any cavity in a termite mound. Indications
are that the metaphor linking Tsasa and Pfemba to mbala and
nkumbi skins also relates the three figures of patrifilial continuity—
from mystical purity to profanity—to the three animals whose
characteristics extend from water to land, from inner to outer qualities.
Combined, the three satchels in animal skin situate the key social
roles of Lemba through marriage and patrifiliality in terms of natural
attributes, animal and cosmological, as shown in figure 22. The cosmological
"coordinates" appear to be plotted on two axes: one vertical,
linking trees to underground burrows, the other Unking the water, sign
of mystical communion, with land and the outside with the inside of an
anthill or termite mound.
The column of plants links the above-mentioned three satchels,
known as the " domestic abode of Lemba'' to the fourth satchel in the
n'kobe, known as the "power of Lemba." Whereas "abode" is contained
in wild animals' skins, "power" is contained in a domestic
plant, raphia. Whereas "abode's" plants are semidomesticated, wild
plants growing in the village, "power's" plants, many in number, grow
wild. Subtle contrastive principles of inversion appear to be at work
here. Whereas the cosmological spacing and character traits of the
animals explained their use in defining social roles in Lemba, the use
of raphia, and the contents of the satchel called "power," define
another attribute in Lemba, its adherent's skill or ability in capturing
the extensive, outside, wild, and public forces. The plants listed in
Babutidi's "power" satchel are like those collected in Kwamba's
northern variant during the priests' final trek onto the savanna and to
the cemetery. In Fukiau's account raphia is included because it stands
for the Lemba priest's ability to journey far without being interrupted.
The cognate satchel in another Mayombe n'kobe (see figure 21, collected
by Bittremieux) contains many trade goods, including iron slag,
256 RITUALS
Figure 22
Dominant metaphor of correspondences,
Western variant of Lemba
author's
analytic
category
name sexual roles
and social
identities
substance
and
color
animal
order
cosmologie
space
plants
"Tsasa" male white
"clear"
mpemba
mbala
cat
aboveground,
tree-level
"Pfemba" female red
tukula
n'kumbi
rat
burrows
underground
domestic
abode
high priest kubu
antelope
water lembalemba
Lemba Father n'kaka
pangolin
termite
mound
dingongo
bean
Lemba child nsesi
antelope
forest
public
power
savanna raphia
palm
a nail, a key, a ring, trade beads, and shells. Dapper's account of

Lemba from seventeenth-century Loango has European goods (trade
beads, a bottle, a bell) and shells bespeaking the coast laid upon a
"mat," surely a raphia mat. Running throughout the contents of
the tukobe is this theme, then, of the power that comes from knowing
and controlling the outside, the realm beyond the domestic.
In most tukobe this concept "beyond the domestic" is linked to the
ancestors, either in the form of a cultic hero's effigy in the nkobe in the
form of a small "nzita" figure used on a dance rattle, or as an mbinda
figure hung on the belt, or as a piece of ntobe tomb earth. The inclusion
of savanna or forest plants in this concept's representation, as in
the satchel "power of Lemba" above, would be consonant with a
broader, cosmological statement linking ancestral and natural
powers.
The Lemba drums, bracelets, rattles, and statues are the instruments
with which this power is captured and used. Numerous texts
speak of the ancestors or mythic heroes being "in" the drums, or of
them "speaking" through the drums, or of Lemba being "drummed
up" by the Lemba father or chief priest The drum of Lemba—
whether nkonzi, nkonko or ngoma—wsiS frequently copied in
9
miniature, the cavity being filled with plant substance (the "powers"
above) to retain or conjure a spell (ndokolo). Such a process of
representing a representation, or metaphorizing a metaphor, may
permissibly be termed fetishization. The miniature drums of Lemba
were either hung on statues, or carried about on one's body as a charm
(see plates 13-16). On Woyo pot-lids illustrating proverbs, Lemba
was represented by the drum motif. 15
Bracelets, like drums, contained the power of Lemba. The Lemba

bracelets were sometimes wrapped in raphia fronds to capture the
palm fiber's connotation of movement beyond the domestic realm. 16
Elsewhere the bracelets were regarded as substitutes for the drums,

for, as Konda suggests (9.9-11), the wearer could spit palm wine on
the bracelet, rub it, or simply wear it in public to demonstrate his real
social status and power. Motifs appearing on Lemba bracelets indicate
specific applications of power. In the western variant, male and
female images representing the Lemba household are very common.
The male figure, usually seated, is accompanied by one, two, or three
female figures. The male figure is holding a staff, whereas the female
figures occasionally have in their hands what appears to be a pestle or
pipe. Between the figures, and on bracelets without human figures,
other motifs make their appearance.
One of the most common of these decorative motifs on the bracelets
is the cowrie shell. It may also appear atop the n kobe, or atop one of
f
the interior containers of the n'kobe, or within a satchel. Its general

meaning is that of cherished continuity in the populace, that is the
precious quality of children, and the importance of fertility. It thus
defines, on the bracelets, the relationship of the male to female figures
also represented there.
In a cognate position to the cowrie, many bracelets display a flower
or "spider-web" motif, with four, six, eight, or ten "threads." The
exact meaning of this motif remains unclear. It resembles Cameroon
spider masks which have the same motif atop the human head. The
spider occurs as mystical mediator in Kongo legends, including the
trickster Lemba origin myth to be examined shortly. The motif may
also represent the diyowa of Lemba, the place of purification and
clarity in the face of the powers of the beyond. On one bracelet the
motif is presented as a four-petaled flower or wheel and as a cross.
Other bracelets juxtapose the flower/wheel "cosmogram" with a
motif resembling a bow tie, but which is the rhetorician's charm
mbondo fula, worn or held during intensive palaver sessions by the
professional advocate (nzonzi) (plate 12). Mbondo fula appears on
pot-lid proverbs along with the Lemba drum and other musical
instruments, to acclaim the virtues of authority in the household and
of persuasiveness in public life. In light of the importance of rhenba
17
medicine chest lid from Mayombe, with evidence of pointed zin±

*ie shell stand (center), and smith's bellow motif. Collected by L. B
or to 1937. (MRAC 43040.) Contents depicted in Figure 21.
Plate 5. Lei
shells, cow
tremieux pr
Plate 6. Contents of Lemba chest (in Plate 5), identified further in Figure 21.
Plate 7. "Powers of Lemba" raphia bag contents from Lemba chest (Plates 5
and 6), including ironworking articles, locally manufactured and traded;
trade beads, shells, horns, and seed pods. (MRAC 43040.) See Figure 21.
Plate 8. Detail of cast copper Lemba bracelet from Loango coast, collected
by Adolph Bastian, ca. 1870. Museum fur Volkerkunde, Berlin-Dahlem III
C 347. Drawing of full bracelet with three figures and multi-petal motif
from A. Bastian, Deutsche Expedition an der Loango Küste, Jena, 1874.
Inside cover plate.
Plate 9. Brass bracelet with cowrie motif, often denoting
fertility, possibly in this case in connection with
Lemba, Kunya. (Museum fur Volkerkunde, Berlin-
Dahlem, III C 6524. Donated by Robert Visser, 1896.)
Plate 10. Wooden model for Lemba bracelet
imprint in casting sand or clay, with multipetal
motif over human figure; Vili. (Museum
fur Volkerkunde, Berlin-Dahlem, III
C 8136. Donated by Robert Visser, n.d.
[1890's].)
Plate 11. Cowrie motif on opposite side of wooden
bracelet model pictured in Plate 10. (Museum fur
Volkerkunde, Berlin-Dahlem, III C 8136. Donated
by Robert Visser.)
Plate 12. Copper Lemba bracelet with floral motif (top)
and orator's charm mbondo-fula (bottom). (MRAC
24985, collected by J. Renkin, 1909.)
Plate 13. Brass Lemba bracelet with four human figures. (MRAC
54.60.2, collector unknown.)
Plate 14. Ngoma-Lemba dram, Mayombe. (MRAC 34778, donated by L.
Bittremieux, n.d.)
Plate 15. Miniature charm Lemba drum necklace, probably Loango coast.
(Linden Museum, Stuttgart, 38363, donated by Robert Visser, 1905.)
Plate 17. Mukonzi a Lemba drum, Mayombe. (Statens Etnografiska Museum,

Stockholm, 1919.1.437, donated by Karl Laman.)
Plate 18. Couple seated on trunk (in wood, 14 cm.), Landana, Cabinda.
(Afrika Museum Berg en Dal, 177, n.d.) That this is a depiction of a Lemba
couple is suggested by the figures' matching bracelets, female figure's
miniature drum necklace pendant, the posture of closeness, and the caps
with characteristic "multi-petal" motif on male's cap (see Plate 19).
Plate 19. Couple seated on trunk, Landana, Cabinda (rear view). (Afrika
Museum Berg en Dal, 177, n.d.) Multi-petal motif on top of cap of male
figure contains spiral recalling similar motifs on bracelets—above heads—
and on Lemba chest lids. Although obscure, this design is thought by some
to denote idea of "navel of head," i.e., thefontanelle, or "fount of wisdom"
from beyond. This would explain why many Lemba figures, like contemporary
Kongo prophets, wear caps, or protect hair.
Plate 20. This undated (40 cm.) Loango ivory ((A) front view, (B) rear view) from
the Julian and Grace Rymar collection depicts a series of couples and polygynous
household groups in poses and costumes characteristic of a nineteenthcentury
Loango gathering, possibly including Lemba seances. As shown in the
detailed view on the next 2 pages, the top couple, arms embracing, suggests the
closeness of a Lemba couple. He is smoking a pipe, recalling references to
Lemba pipes (B-D III C 13873 and B-D Katalog No. 372, Appendix) and to
smoking in the Lemba ceremony (see Brazil Lemba song, Chapter 8, opening).
She is holding her breast in a Kongo gesture of benediction. The tops of their
caps bear spiral designs similar to those of the couple depicted in Plates 19 and
20. Other figures and scenes in the panels of the ivory are less clear, but depict
possible ceremonial meaning as well. The top scene, which suggests defloration,
childbirth, and an emphasis On fertility, stands in interesting inverse relationship
to the bottom scene, in which the accent is the top of the head. Presumably the
top figure is female, the bottom male. The two depictions match the iconic
duality in Lemba symbolism on the integral complementarity of fertility, symbolized
often by the cowrie shell on bracelets and the medicine chest, and on
power or clairvoyance, symbolized by the multi-petal motif on bracelets, the
medicine chest, and atop caps. However, a fuller interpretation of this rich piece
awaits the systematic study of several centuries of Loango ivory carving and
related art.
258 RITUALS
torical skill in public elsewhere in Lemba''s self-image and of the
equal importance of a flourishing household represented in the cowrie,
it is likely that the flower/spider/wheel motif, which in one or two
cases is a "cross" of four spokes, is a unique Lemba cosmogram
embodying the complex values of Lemba at a more abstract level than
is given in any of the texts at my disposal. In the Ngoyo region it
appears in red on the lid of the nkobe (see plate 4). Another Lemba
n'kobe lid (figure 21, plate 5) restates comparable values with the
arrangement of four-pointed, long zinga shells surrounded a center,
interspersed with blacksmith's bellows and some other round object.
Again, these are the objects of the "powers of Lemba" inBabutidi's
account, which link the Lemba adherent with the forces of nature, the
beyond, trade, and public politics.
THE LYRICAL: MONI-MAMBU TRICKSTER AND THE ORIGINS OF LEMBA
Trickster, represented across Kongo society, is variously called
"Seer of troubles" (Moni-Mambu, Tsimona-Mambu), "Troublemaker"
(Mumboni-a-Mpasi), quarreller, or some other term describing
his problem-making nature in most secular tales. He is also called
visionary and healer where legends of him are related to a cultic
context, as in the Lemba etiology myth to follow, where he is cast as
the culture hero who goes to God the father to seek a solution to his
wives' troubles, encounters many difficulties and trials, but eventually
receives his father's recognition, and brings back Lemba.
If Mahungu's principal characteristic was the inherent dualistic
nature of a social role, Moni-Mambu's is the lack of a sense of what is
right at the right time in social discourse. In most legendary settings,
his character is in the process of developing. Usually his civil, moral,
and even physical sensibilities are incomplete. In episode after episode
he is caught up in social intricacies and ambiguities he does not
understand, confused by semantic nuances too subtle for his experience.
It is as if he has learned the phonemes of human interaction but
has not heard of syntax. He is like Mahungu in one sense. In some
narratives Moni-Mambu develops into a figure of mediation and
wisdom, yet in other narratives he is parodied as unsuccessful mediator,
indeed, as a tragic figure who gets caught on the dilemmas of his
own tricks. Whereas both tendencies are developed in a single
Mahungu narrative, they are separate in the trickster narratives. In the
first of the following texts, trickster brings Lemba

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or here, "dispersal" of the sexes; and (3) an actual contemporaneous

condition, human awareness of present flaws in view of

storytellers frequently generate such antiheroes to illustrate a social

complex dualities will be heaped upon Mahungu.

"swi, swi" wakayenda.

Buna udokula toto.

The group whose members borrow from one another—the matrilineage—

outside in the wilds, but his field of operation is domestic society. In

either as "Lemba pipes" or "hemp pipes," some nicely carved,

for whom the complementarity of two-within-one becomes a tragic

kavana. Buna Mavungu umona nhenzi.

ko. Buna samba bo bwau Mavungu makalu wutomba

kateka kala. Buna mu kiadi kipila yoyo ufwila vana.

able to perceive the tragic dimensions of these contradictions and

The Lemba shrine-house is described by several writers. In the

either in museum holdings of sculpture or in photographs and

The transformation of Lemba'% symbolism in the western region

of spiritual "rooting" existed in the notion of the xina or zina

disposal... so they exchange in the entrances whence wealth comes,

words now flowfreely, recalling the affliction of the Lemba sufferer

The Western Variant 253

the "female" satchel, is indeed "red," as Bittremieux's research into

packet in Lemba is closely associated with the well-known Pfemba

Ethnographic research by Lehuard has identified the pose of these

extends several domains of the above metaphor—social roles and

a nail, a key, a ring, trade beads, and shells. Dapper's account of

Bracelets, like drums, contained the power of Lemba. The Lemba

Elsewhere the bracelets were regarded as substitutes for the drums,

the interior containers of the n'kobe, or within a satchel. Its general

medicine chest lid from Mayombe, with evidence of pointed zin±

Plate 17. Mukonzi a Lemba drum, Mayombe. (Statens Etnografiska Museum,

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