A man living alone on an island discovers a Lolembe—a magical creature—among his fish catch. The Lolembe transforms into a woman, marries him, and they have children. One day, after a quarrel, the man insults her origins. Hurt, she returns to the river as a Lolembe, leaving her family behind. The tale emphasizes kindness and warns against mocking someone’s origins or status.
Source
Among Congo Cannibals
by John H. Weeks
Seeley, Service & Co.,London, 1913
► Themes of the story
Supernatural Beings: The man’s wife is a Lolembe, a magical creature that transforms into a human.
Love and Betrayal: The couple’s relationship is tested when the husband mocks his wife’s origins, leading to her departure.
Divine Punishment: The husband’s insult results in the loss of his wife, serving as retribution for his disrespect.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Bantu peoples
There was a man once who built a house on an island and went fishing in its creeks and pools. He plaited a large number of fish-traps, and set them in good places for catching fish.
One morning he went to look at the traps and found one full of fish, and among the fish was a Lolembe. He took them to his house, and then went to another part of the island to visit some other traps; but on his return he found some food cooked and placed in a saucepan by the fire.
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In his surprise he called out, “Who has cooked this food?” but there was no answer. All night he pondered this wonder in his heart, for he knew he was alone on the island.
The next morning he pretended to go to his traps, but turning back quickly he hid himself behind his house and watched through an opening in the wall. By and by he was amazed to see the Lolembe turn into a woman, who at once began to cook the food, whereupon the man showed himseif to her and said: “Oh, you are the one who cooked my food yesterday!”
“Yes,” she rephed. They were married, and in due time the woman gave birth to two boys and a girl; and they lived with much contentment on the island.
One day the man said to one of his sons: “You come and help me with the fish-traps,” and away they went together to look at the various traps.
The lad was a lazy, disobedient boy who would not listen properly to what was told him, so when the father wanted to empty the water out of the canoe and told him to go to the right side, the boy went straight to the left side, because it was nearer to him than the other side. The father became very vexed, and beating him in his anger, he said: “You are too lazy and too proud to do what you are told. Do you know that your mother came out of one of these fish-traps, for she was only a Lolembe?”
The boy on hearing this went crying to his mother, and told her all his father had said. The mother soothed him, but in her heart she said: “My husband jeers at me because I am only a Lolembe, yet I have been a good wife to him; perhaps some other day he will call me worse names, and when we return to the town everybody will know that I came out of one of his fish-traps. I will return to my own place in the river.”
She thereupon fell into the river, and changing into a Lolembe she swam away. “Therefore,” says the native storyteller, “never taunt a person with being a slave.”
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