One of the oldest motifs in world literature, the theme of resurrection goes back to the earliest roots of mythology. The belief that a god or a divine king would be reborn in his son, or as a poor child, was widespread long before Christianity canonized it.
In Africa, only one form of the complex concept of the resurrected god or divine king is widespread--that of the king who is reborn in his son. Islam and Christianity introduced many new ideas into Africa, most of which quickly found a place in African mythology and completely transformed it, often making it hard to distinguish the indigenous African elements. Thus, the theme of resurrection in African myth differs from its familiar ancient Middle Eastern counterparts: the Preclassical theme of the god who dies and is revived (Osiris, Attis, Adonis); the Jewish tradition of King David who will return to save his people; the Christian concept of the resurrected Christ.
Zulu sagas tell of ancient kings who return in the form of snakes, usually the great mamba, to warn their people of impending danger. Another variation occurs in the east-central African Rwandese epic, which traces the origin of Rwanda as a nation and includes tales of the kings Babinga, Ryangombe, Binego, and Ruganzu. King Ryangombe dies as a man but lives on as King of the Spirits. His mother was a lioness and, as such, queen of the earth kingdom. Thus, Ryangombe (his name refers to buffalo horn, the only thing that could kill him), like many other god-kings, has a double existence: as a human mortal and as an immortal spirit king. He reappears after his death, speaks to his people through mediums, and helps his nation with all its problems. There are many African tales of great men coming back as lions. In several of these, the lions claim young boys as their sons and bring them up in the desert.
The idea of a father coming back as his son, or a grandfather as his grandson, is common in Africa, and many variations on this theme occur. Among some African peoples it is customary to name a young boy after his father if the father has recently died, or to name him after his grandfather, or even an uncle, if the boy resembles one of these men in any way.
The importance of the resurrection of a dying king as his son in African mythology must not be underestimated, for it represents the continuity of a nation. A nation can endure only when it survives the deaths of one generation of rulers after another. To that end it needs strong leaders who are also acceptable to the nation as legitimate heirs to power.
The Nkundo epic cycle of Lianja remains popular among most of the peoples of Central Africa's Congo Basin, one of the few areas where the original oral literature still flourishes. The epic covers four generations of the Nkundo dynasty of the Bonkundo people, and repeats the resurrection theme several times. Particularly in Zaire's central provinces, among speakers of the Mongo-Nkundo group of dialects, recital of the epic takes many nights and is accompanied by singing in which the audience may take part. The original recording and translation of the epic by Belgian scholar E. Boelaert filled three volumes.
Lianja, the eponymous hero of this epic, was indubitably a god in pre-Christian and pre-Islamic times. The moment he is born he flies up to the roof of his mother's house together with his
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