Nyami Nyami, serpent of the Zambezi. Together with his wife Kitapo, Nyami Nyami is worshipped as the spirit of the Zambezi River, Nyami Nyami provided the life that swam within its waters. As one of the Basangu, Nyami Nyami was manifested by the power of the supreme Leza. The exact appearance of Nyami Nyami deviates, most of the time he’s a serpentine beast with the head of a fish, other times he’s more draconic, sometimes he’s even said to be a living whirlpool. Nyami Nyami was said to reside underneath a rock formation called Kariba, boats that sailed to close to it were said to never return. To the Tonga who worshipped him, he provided bountiful sustenance. During times of famine and drought, the Nyami Nyami would arise from the Zambezi and allow the elders to cut off its meat to survive. Nyami Nyami was also the guardian of the underworld, regularly swimming between its depths and reemerging into the Zambezi.
However colonialism reared its head, as the British colony wished to dam the Zambezi. Forcing the Tonga to abandon their ancestral home, the elders warned that the dam would separate Nyami Nyami and his wife from each other. Despite these warnings the construction of the dam continued. Enraged by the treatment of the Tonga and the separation of him and his wife, Nyami Nyami’s fury flared. The dam’s construction was pelted by Nyami Nyami’s floods, storms, typhoons, earthquakes and landslides, killing many of the foreign construction workers. As the corpses of the dead mysteriously vanished, the construction company asked the knowledgeable Tonga elders on how they could retrieve their bodies. The elders advised them to offer a sacrifice Nyami Nyami. The company laughed off the elder’s suggestion at first, but when the family’s of the workers began to pester the company they became desperate and sacrificed a black cow to satiate the river god. The next day the cow had disappeared, and in its place the bodies of the men washed up together on the shore. Nyami Nyami’s wrath against the dam continued, creating even stronger disasters than the ones he caused before. Despite this, the dam was finished, the rising water destroying the Tonga’s old land, the newly minted lake was named after Nyami Nyami’s now submerged home, Kariba lake. The area is now frequently besieged by earthquakes, believed to be Nyami Nyami’s attempts to reunite with his wife. The Tonga still reside by the shore of the Zambezi, some still believing that Nyami Nyami will return to destroy the dam and return the Tonga to their homeland.
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The Nyami Nyami is the most well known figure from Tonga folklore, becoming an icon of the Tonga’s victimization by the hands of colonization. The details of the Tonga’s religious practices before the arrival of colonial rule are sparse and poorly documented, however Nyami Nyami appears to have survived from that era.
Nyami Nyami seems to have been a member the Basangu, nature spirits tied to certain geographical phenomena such as lakes, mountains and rocks, Nyami Nyami himself being the spirit of the Zambezi River. These Basangu were known to be associated with the community, often times called upon by mediums who would be possessed by them and bring upon rain and other beneficial effects. The Basangu would be worshipped and were believed to dwell within sacred places called Malende, with Nyami Nyami’s possibly being the Kariba rock formation. The Basangu were the second highest in the spiritual hierarchy, right under the creator Lenza and above the spirits of the ancestors Mizimu, as such the mediums connected to the Basangu were seen as more influential than those of the Mizimu. The Basangu were heavily conflated with the Tonga supreme god Leza, Nyami Nyami in particular held a special significance, both considered to be one of the most powerful spirits as well as being called the “Creature of Leza”. Leza themselves was seen as the all pervading life force that gave rise to all life, including the Basangu.
The arrival of Christianity with colonization greatly affected the Tonga religious landscape. A majority of the Tonga eventually converted to Christianity, rejecting their earlier practices. Under the Abrahamic lens the Basangu were demonized, sentenced to become demons and fallen angels. Leza however, was synchronized with the Christian God by both the indigenous population and the foreign colonists, in particular the Christian missionaries did so in order to better transition the religious traditions into Christianity. Despite this, when localizing the Bible, they didn’t use the name Leza within the text to refer to God. Despite their previous demonization, some christianized Tonga still revere the Basangu, conflating the Basangu with the Abrahamic angels.
The myth recounting Nyami Nyami’s ire against the Kariba dam accurately reflects the tumultuous history of the dam. The dam was, as the myth states, barraged with numerous unprecedented disasters. In total about 86 workers lost their lives during the construction of the dam, in particular 11 Italian workers were completely submerged in wet concrete when the Zambezi flooded during construction. The Tonga people were forced off their land by colonial authorities for the dam, Tonga opposition who defended their land were violently put down. The government publicly promised to provide the Tonga with fertile land and teach them how to cultivate it while helping to build an infrastructure. Evidently however this was a lie, as the soil where the Tonga had been displaced to was so barren that the land resembled the desert, forcing the Tonga communities to be more vulnerable to societal issues. Already embodying the Zambezi itself, the Nyami Nyami, much like the Toba Kasogonagá, developed to reflect the Tonga’s struggles against colonization in its mythos.
The etymology of Nyami Nyami hasn’t been effectively researched from what I can find, some however have stated that his name is a reflection of the Toba word for meat, Nyama, with some sources claiming that his name supposedly means “meat of the river”. This would relate back to Nyami Nyami being seen as the provider of sustenance and the folklore of him giving his own meat to his famine stricken worshippers. The etymology of his Malende, the Kariba gorge, is more well understood. The name Kariba comes from the word Karinga or Kariva meaning “trap”.
