Essay Week 7: Congo Folklore and Family Relationships

This week I read folktales from the Congo Unit. A very common theme across the twenty or so stories was family, with most stories containing siblings and having a characters mother in the story as well. The parents were not a very integral part of the story, but there always seemed to be a mother present. At the very least, the stories would at least start by saying the main character or characters were the son or daughter of whatever the parent’s name happened to be. The most common family interaction was between siblings, especially brothers. In The Vanishing Wife and The Twin Brothers, the main characters are a set of brothers who do not get along. A number of stories were based on a brotherly quarrel that causes them to split and head separate directions.

On a side note, something interesting that I noticed is not all of the siblings or characters were in human form. There were leopards, antelopes, crocodiles, and numerous other animals that were given very human-like characteristics. They could think, talk, and interact like humans and seemed to be interchangeable with them in the stories I read. These animals would have arguments and quarrels just like some of the brothers did in each story.

Another important family relationship in the folktales was marriage. From what I can remember, pretty much each story involved male characters that had a wife (or wives) or went searching for a wife. Marriage was so important that a few characters were even gifted beautiful wives by some form of magic.

There weren’t a lot of common themes that seemed either promoted or discouraged as far as families go, but there were lots of men who had multiple wives. Other than polygamy, there didn’t seem to be any other common themes though, except quarrels between brothers that ended in fighting!

Animals found in Africa.

Bibliography:

Image Info: African Animals from The New Student's Reference Work (2006). Web Source: Wikipedia.

Storytelling Week 7: The Happy Twin Brothers

The Happy Twin Brothers

A pregnant woman lived in the jungles of Africa and was about to give birth to he child. To her surprise, she actually had twin boys. These were not ordinary children though, as they were miraculously born almost fully-grown. She named the twins Luemba and Mavungu. Shortly after birth, the brothers set out to live their own lives and become independent men.

First comes the tale of Mavungu. He learns of the daughter of Nzambi, who is the most beautiful woman in all of Africa. Upon hearing of the woman, he instantly sets out to make her his wife. To that point, she had refused every man that had come to win her heart, regardless of his status or wealth. Since Nzambi refused to see her daughter unhappy, she promises to never marry her off unless it is to a man that she approves of. After a very long journey through many towns, Mavungu arrives at the town of Nzambi. The first thing that he sees when he enters the town is a gorgeous woman working in the garden outside of her hut. The woman’s beauty made Mavungu forget why he had traveled this far in the first place and he began to talk her. After just a few minutes, the two acted as though they had known each other for years. Suddenly, the woman told Mavungu that she must be going. Before he could even ask her where he could see her again, she disappeared.

Remembering why he had journeyed in first place, Mavungu went to the house of Nzambi and asked to meet her daughter. Nzambi warns him that her daughter has rejected every man she has seen so far, but calls for her anyways. Much to Mavungu’s surprise, the woman who appears from a doorway is the very woman he had met previously in the garden. The woman smiles and rushes to Mavungu, hugging him. Nzambi can’t believe her eyes and her daughter says that she has found her husband. A great feast and party is thrown, then the couple gets married and get escorted into a hut of their own to spend the night in.

In the hut, Mavungu notices there is a circle of mirrors, each of which shows the reflection of a different town. There is only one town that Mavungu does not recognize and he tells his new wife that he wants to adventure there. She becomes extremely sad and tells him not to go because nobody has every gone there before and lived to tell the tale. Ignoring his wife’s pleas, Mavungu sets out on his adventure to the mysterious town.

Now fore the tale of Luemba, the brothers had not seen each other since the day of their birth, but Luemba finds himself in much of the same situation as Mavungu. Luemba is happily married to a wife of his own, but has recently heard of a mysterious town. After weeks of traveling, Luemba finally sees the town. He also sees a man about to enter the town and as he gets closer he realizes it’s his twin brother!

They meet just outside the town and begin to catch up with each other for a while, when they meet another curious traveler. The third man steps onto the path that runs through the town and immediately disappears. After seeing this, the brothers decide to halt their adventure and return to their wives. They move into the same town together and stay friends until their deaths.

House of Mirrors.

Author’s Note:

This is a retelling of The Twin Brothers, from the Congo Unit. Most of the original story has been changed because the ending of the original story was pretty depressing. In the readings, Mavungu dies when he enters the town because an old woman kills him. Luemba then seeks out his brother and kills the old woman. Luemba revives Mavungu along with all the other people that have died there. There is then a big fight about who should own the revived people and Mavungu kills Luemba. After being revived, Luemba then kills Mavungu.

Bibliography:

The Twin Brothers from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort, by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

Image Info: House of Mirrors in Czech Republic. Web Source: Wikipedia.

Reading Diary Week 7: Tales from the Congo

This week I am reading The Congo Unit.

How the Wives Restored Their Husband To Life

This story is about a man named Nenpetro, who has 3 wives. The husband goes out hunting for dinner and returns with first an antelope, then a monkey, and then sets out to kill an ox. He kills the ox, but another ox kills him afterwards. One of the wives has a dream he was killed by an ox, one leads them to his body, and the other revives him from the dead. The three wives argue about which one he will want to see first and decide to each cook him food. He decides to eat the food that the wife who revived him cooked.

How Gazelle Got Married

This time it is said that Nenpetro only has 2 wives. He has a child with each of them and agrees to not accept anyone as their husband unless he can guess their names. One man (Nsassi) shows up years later and asks to marry the daughters, but is told that he must guess their names. Knowing it to be impossible, he sets off back home but forgets his dog. The dog hears the daughter’s names the next day and goes to tell his master, but forgets after eating a cat. He then returns back and learns the names again, but forgets them on his journey back home again after drinking some water. The dog ventures back home for a third time and remembers the name, which he tells his master. The man returns to Nenpetro and calls his daughters by name, so he is allowed to marry them.

The Vanishing Wife

Two brothers lived in the same town. Swarmi was married and rich, Buite was single and poor. Buite gets fed up with Swarmi treating him poorly and moves into the jungle. His first night there he has a dream about a beautiful girl. He woke up and tried to relive his dream. It works and he leaves to go fishing and cut the head off at his wifes request, just like in his dream. When he comes back home a huge palace and a woman that he marries is in its place. Buite begins to stop cutting the heads off the fish. When the wife finally sees the head on the fish, the woman and house vanish and he is left with his brother who hates him even more.

Another Vanishing Wife

There were two brothers named Mavungu, who was tiny and miserable, and Luemba, who was handsome. Mavungu was abused by his mother and ran away into the jungle, where he finds a canoe. He eventually comes across a tree where when he pulls a leaf off it turns into a man or woman. One woman becomes his wife and makes him a palace, but tells him to never say where his good fortunes came from. One day when he returns home to see his family, Mavunga accidentally explains where his wife came from and everything he had disappeared.

The Jealous Wife

Yet another man had two wives, each of which had 1 kid. He left them for 6 months to go trading and told them to never leave the children alone. They knew he would be coming back soon so took turns going to catch fish for a meal and watching the two children. The younger wife had a much smarter child, which made the other wife angry. The older wife tries to kill the child that is not hers at night, but accidentally kills her own child. The wife disappears and he husband sets out to find her, when he does he kills her.

Ngomba’s Balloon

Four girls went to go fishing one day, but one of them had sores all over her body and was not allowed to come by the other sisters. So Ngomba goes to fish on her own, where she encounters a murderer. This murderer insists she comes with him, which she does once he promises to cure her sores. He cures her and takes her home, where he marries her. Ngomba grows homesick and wants to return home, but isn’t allowed by her husband. She makes a balloon one day and leaves, when the husband finds out he decides to murder her. She escapes home and when he goes to find her he is tricked into coming into the house for dinner, where he is thrown in a hole and killed.

The Wicked Husband

The story has a husband and his wife, who is demanding him to chop down more pine nuts. He insists that she comes with him, where he cuts off her limbs. The townspeople learn of his actions, find the husband, and kill him.

How Kengi Lost Her Child

Once again, Nenpetro has two wives, Kengi and Gunga. Nenpetro gave them each equal land and crops, but one day Gunga steals from Kengi. They argue but then make peace, until one day when Kengi goes to Gunga’s plantation and has a child while she is there. Gunga then claims the child to be her own. Various people uphold this decision and she keeps the child as her own.

The Twin Brothers

This story is again about the brothers Luemba and Mavungu. The twins are born almost fully-grown. Mavungu sets out to marry the daughter of Nzambi, who had refused all of her suitors so far. After a very long journey, Mavungu arrives and Nzambi’s daughter falls instantly in love with him. They are escorted into a hut, where the spent the night.. This hut had many mirrors, each of which showed a reflection of a town. Mavungu’s wife refuses to let him look into one because whoever adventures there never returns. Mavungu travels there and meets an old woman. Luemba, missing his brother, decides to follow him. This leads him to Nzambi’s town, where everyone thinks he is his brother. He then sees the mirrors and realizes where his brother has gone. Luemba sees the same old woman and kills her. He then sees the bones of his brother and his charm revives them, along with all of the other bones in the city. The brothers then begin to fight about who owns all the people that were revived. Mavungu kills Luemba, but Luemba’s horse revives him. Luemba then kills Mavungu and the townspeople agree he did the right thing.

The Younger Brother Who Knew More Than The Elder

Once again we have a story about 2 brothers, who are arguing. The younger brother leaves town out of anger with his wife. They escape to the woods, where he finds a path that leads to three small huts, where the man there invites the younger brother to live. The brother and the owner of the town go hunting and decide that the brother gets the males and the owner gets the females. The first 5 days a male is caught and the brother shares nothing with the owner. The next day they go to check their hunting trap and find the brothers wife. By random chance, the older brother hears voices in the woods and sees that it’s his younger brother. The older brother tells the man that he is not in the wrong and that the woman in the trap is now his. This causes the man to go into the trap, which makes him the younger brother’s. The man realized he had been tricked and the two brothers return home with the wife.

The Antelope And The Leopard

One day a leopard bets an antelope his life that if he hides, the antelope will never find him. The antelope easily finds him and tells the leopard that he gets his life now, but first the leopard should try to find the antelope. The leopard cannot find him and then has everyone in his town help search. There is a dog that appears out of a nut, but each of the leopard’s 4 wives try to kill it, with the last one succeeding. It then turns into a beautiful woman who the leopard wants to marry, but the woman says he must kill all his other wives first. He does this and then the woman has him remove his claws, teeth, and feet, which he does out of love for her. As the leopard is dying, the woman turns back into an antelope and therefore has the leopard’s life.

How The Spider Won And Lost Nzambi’s Daughter

Nzambi had a daughter who she refused to let marry unless the man could bring her the heavenly fire from Nzambi Mpungu. A spider accepts the challenge and webs a silk strand all the way to heaven. He then has a woodpecker poke a hole through Nzambi Mpungu’s roof, a turtle go down to earth and retrieve bamboo (as requested by Nzambi Mpungu), a rat sit under a fire (as requested by Nzambi Mpungu), and a sand-fly to eavesdrop and learn where the fire is kept. They all return to earth with the fire and all think they deserve the woman. Rather, Nzmabi gives her to none of them.

The Turtle And The Man

A turtle and a man build a town, but have no crops planted. They build a trap and decide to split it in half. In the turtle’s half, an antelope is caught. The turtle then has an ox help him carry the antelope and fetch water, but while the ox is getting leaves to take away his share of the antelope, the turtle takes the whole thing and goes inside his house. The ox is angry and goes to destroy the trap, but gets caught in it. The turtle then gets a leopard to help him with the ox in the same way the ox helped with the antelope. This time, the leopard destroys the trap and acts as though he has been caught in it. The turtle falls for the trick and gets eaten by the leopard, who eats all of the turtle’s meat.

The Gazelle And The Leopard

A gazelle and a leopard run a plantation together, but the gazelle never helps the leopard prepare it or grow the crops or harvest them. When all of the work is done the gazelle goes to the plantation and has a feast with all the animals. The leopard sets a trap for the thieves and catches an antelope, which he kills. This angers the gazelle and he and all of the other animals gang up and kill the leopard. The gazelle sends the leopard’s head back to the wife, which she unknowingly eats.

The Fetish Sunga

This story was told in first person. Basa was the storyteller’s great uncle’s twin brother. Basa would catch lots of fish everyday, but hide them from his family. A fetish then appears to him and tells him to follow her and leads him into a town. They throw him a feast there and give him lots of wine, which the fetish poisoned with something that does not allow Basa to speak anymore, this way he cannot lie.

The Rabbit And The Antelope

A rabbit and an antelope dig a well together because there is a water shortage. The rabbit runs off 3 times to go eat, but tells the antelope that each time he leaves he has to go name a child of his. He tells the antelope they are named uncompleted, half-completed, and completed. The antelope finds out that all the food is gone and that the rabbit ate it, but says he will do him no harm if he just doesn’t use the well that they made together. The antelope learns that the rabbit is using the well anyways and sets out a fake rabbit with sticky material. The next time the rabbit goes to the well, he sees the dummy but thinks its real. He then begins to attack it and gets stuck to it and cannot move, then the antelope kills him.

The Fight Between The Two Fetishes

Lifuma is a fetish of a King who had always been on the sea. The King retires to the coast however, missing his home, Lifuma returns to the sea to get a jar of salt water. On his way back home, he is attacked by the fetish Chimpukela, who takes his jar of water and the posessions he took from the beach. Lifuma then curses everything related to the beach, so Chimpukela’s land no longer has water or a beach.

The Fetish of Chilunga

A fetish named Boio has the voice of a bird. The storyteller’s sister is in the woods one day and hears the voice of a bird. Jokingly, she tells it to be quiet and then finds herself tied up. The storyteller then found his sister in this position and went to the princess who owned the fetish, who then freed his sister. Another day the fetish was being carried in an invisible hammock and some passersby started making fun of the men carrying the hammock, then found themselves tied up. Another time someone was skeptical of the fetish’s ability to make offerings disappear. He sets down presents and they disappear.

The Leopard And The Crocodile

A man who had many wives could not find a way to make them work. The man finds a leopard and cuts him some pine nuts and then the leopard agrees to catch him food in exchange for cutting no-one pine nuts except the leopard. The man makes the same deal with a crocodile. The leopard and the crocodile each want the man to give him a dog, but neither has ever seen one. Knowing this, the man sends them both to the same spot and tells them they will each see a dog there. The animals go to the spot and kill each other, thinking that each other is a dog.

Why The Crocodile Does Not Eat The Hen

A crocodile noticed a hen coming to his water everyday to get food. He goes to eat her but then she calls him brother, which throws him off. He eventually asks a lizard why he is called brother and the lizard explains that it is because they all lay eggs in the water, so all come from the same place and are brothers. Therefore the crocodile does not eat the hen.

The Three Brothers

KaCongo and his mother lived with their family and did not know how to plant. A woman then brings three babies to them and KaCongo does not know what to do with them. The three babies are left in the grass, but grow up to be strong blacksmiths and carpenters. They all get wives and together have their own town. A man (who is the father of the brothers) walking one day hears voices and rushes home to tell his wife. The wife then sets out to find them but collapses from exhaustion. The brothers find her and take them back to their home.