Nkengo, son of Libuta, sought eternal life from the Cloud-folk after witnessing widespread death on earth. They required him to stay awake for seven days. Despite enduring six days without sleep, he succumbed on the seventh, angering the Cloud-folk, who banished him back to earth. His failure, mocked by others, marked humanity’s loss of eternal life and the continuation of death in the world.
Source
Among Congo Cannibals
by John H. Weeks
Seeley, Service & Co.,London, 1913
► Themes of the story
Eternal Life and Mortality: Nkengo’s pursuit of immortality and his ultimate failure highlight humanity’s inevitable mortality.
Forbidden Quest: Nkengo’s journey to the Cloud-folk in search of eternal life represents a pursuit beyond human limitations.
Divine Punishment: Nkengo’s inability to complete the task results in the Cloud-folk condemning him and all humanity to mortality.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Bantu peoples
Nkengo was the son of Libuta, and he noticed that the people were dying daily in great numbers. So one day he called out loudly: “You Cloud-folk, throw me down a rope!” The Cloud-folk heard and threw him a rope. Nkengo held on to it and was pulled up to the Cloud-land. When he arrived there Nkengo had to wait one day, and in the morning the Cloud-folk said to him: “You have come here to receive lasting life (lobiku) and escape from death. You cannot make your request for seven days, and in the meantime you must not go to sleep.”
► Continue reading…
Nkengo was able to keep awake for six days, but on the seventh day he nodded and went to sleep. The Cloud-folk woke him up, saying: “You came here to receive lasting life and escape from death. You were able to keep awake six days. Why did you abandon your purpose on the seventh day?” They were so angry with him that they drove him out of Cloud-land and lowered him to the earth.
The people on the earth asked him what had happened up above, and Nkengo replied: “When I reached Cloud-land they told me that in order to gain lasting life I must keep awake for seven days. I did not sleep for six days and six nights; but on the seventh day I nodded in sleep; whereupon they drove me out, saying: “Get away with your dying; you shall not receive lasting life, for every day there shall be death among you! “
His friends laughed at him because he went to receive lasting life and lost it through sleeping. That is the reason why death continues in the world.
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Dreamtime Whispers 