Bumba

Also Known As: also Mbombo, M’Bombo and M’Bomba; later studies of the Kuba write the creator’s name Mboom or Mbwoom; the Bushongo title for him is chembe, “god”
Region/Culture: Central Africa
Mythos: Bantu/Congo Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: Bumba is the creator god of the Bushongo, the ruling people of the Kuba kingdom in the Congo basin, who brought the sun, moon, stars, animals and humankind out of his own body by vomiting them up.
Role in Mythos: He is the first being, alone in dark water at the start of the world, and the source of the nine first creatures and the first people who went on to finish creation for him.
Relation to Humans: He made people last, taught them to draw fire from wood after the lightning was driven into the sky, and walked through their villages to tell them the world was theirs. Then he withdrew to the heavens and left a man named Loko Yima to stand as god upon the earth.

There was water, and there was dark, and somewhere in the dark there was a stomach ache. The Bushongo account of the beginning of the world opens on a giant alone in black water with nothing to look at and a growing pain in his belly. He strained. He retched. Out came the sun.

Light went everywhere at once. The heat of the new sun began to dry the water, and the edges of the world appeared as sandbanks and reefs, bare and steaming. The giant was still in pain. He vomited again and brought up the moon, and then the stars, so that the night had its own lights too.

The giant is Bumba, and this telling of his work was written down among the Bushongo, the ruling people of the Kuba kingdom between the Kasai and Sankuru rivers in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A Hungarian ethnographer named Emil Torday heard it there in the first decade of the twentieth century and published it in 1910 and 1911. Nearly every version in print since then goes back to his pages. In them Bumba is given the Bushongo title chembe, god, and a description of exactly two points. He was of enormous size, and he was white.

The pain did not stop with the stars. Bumba heaved again, and nine living creatures came out of him one after another. First the leopard, Koy Bumba. Then the crested eagle, Pongo Bumba, and the crocodile, Ganda Bumba, and a small fish called Yo. After them came old Kono Bumba the tortoise, and Tsetse Bumba, quick and deadly and handsome like the leopard, who was the lightning. Then the white heron, Nyanyi Bumba, then a single beetle, then the goat, Budi. Last of all came men. There were many of them, and only one was white like his maker. His name was Loko Yima.

Having made the first of everything, Bumba let his creatures do the rest. The heron made all the birds of the air except the kite. The crocodile made the snakes and the iguana. The goat brought forth every animal with horns, the little fish Yo filled the rivers with fish, and the beetle made the insects. The snakes in their turn made the grasshoppers, and the iguana made the beasts that have no horns. It is a creation by delegation, and it moves quickly.

Three sons of Bumba then came forward and said they would finish the world. The first, Nyonye Ngana, made the white ants, and the effort killed him. The ants were grateful for their lives. They went down into the deep places of the earth, carried up black soil grain by grain, and buried their maker in it, and that is how the barren sand at the surface came to be covered with earth that could grow things. The second son, Chonganda, brought forth a single plant, and from it came every tree, grass and flower. The third, Chedi Bumba, wanted to make something different from all of it. He managed one bird, the kite.

Only one of the first creatures gave trouble. Tsetse, the lightning, did so much damage that Bumba chased her up into the sky. That solved one problem and made another, because people were left without fire. So Bumba showed them how to draw it out of wood, telling them that there is fire in every tree and teaching them the way to bring it out with a fire drill. Tsetse still leaps down now and then, strikes the ground and does harm. Nobody has ever managed to send her back for good.

When the work was finished and the world was quiet, Bumba walked through the villages and spoke to the people. Look at these wonders, he told them. They belong to you. He then went up into the heavens and stayed there, leaving Loko Yima below as god upon the earth. The Bushongo tradition goes on from that point into the history of kings: a woman of the waters named Nchienge lived in the east, and her son Woto became the first king of the Kuba.

His power is plain enough. Everything that exists came out of him or out of something that came out of him, from the sun down to the grasshopper. He needed no tools, no clay and no partner, only his own body and a sickness in it. He could also master what he made, as the lightning found out.

His limits are just as clear in the telling. He creates through pain, not by choice or command, and the world arrives in spasms. He does not finish it himself. The birds, the fish, the soil and the forests are all the work of others, and one of his sons dies making ants. He cannot destroy the lightning, only move her somewhere she does less harm. And once creation is done he leaves. No prayer to him, no shrine and no offering is described in the telling that made him famous. He made the world, said it was a gift, and went.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Bumba?

Bumba is the creator god of the Bushongo, the ruling people of the Kuba kingdom in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is also called Mbombo. In the Bushongo creation story he existed alone in dark water and made the world by vomiting it up.

How did Bumba create the world?

Bumba felt a pain in his stomach and vomited up the sun, then the moon and the stars. He then vomited nine living creatures, including a leopard, an eagle, a crocodile, a fish, a tortoise, the lightning, a heron, a beetle and a goat, and last of all he vomited up men. The creatures and three sons of Bumba made the rest of the living world.

What does Bumba look like?

Bumba has the shape of a man of enormous size and is white in colour. The Bushongo creation story gives no other detail of his appearance. Among the first men he made, only one, Loko Yima, was white like him.

Who are the three sons of Bumba?

The three sons of Bumba are Nyonye Ngana, Chonganda and Chedi Bumba. Nyonye Ngana made the white ants and died from the effort, and the ants buried him in black soil that covered the barren sand. Chonganda made the plant from which all trees, grasses and flowers came, and Chedi Bumba made the kite.

Where does the story of Bumba come from?

The story of Bumba comes from the Bushongo of the Kuba kingdom, between the Kasai and Sankuru rivers in the Congo basin. It was written down by the Hungarian ethnographer Emil Torday, who published it in 1910 and 1911. Nearly every later printed version goes back to his account.