Chonganda

Also Known As: the spelling used by Emil Torday, who wrote the name down; no source explains what it means
Region/Culture: Central Africa
Mythos: Bantu/Congo Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: Chonganda is the second son of the creator Bumba, and he brought out the single first plant from which every tree, grass and flower later came.
Role in Mythos: He is one of three sons who finish their father’s creation, and his share of the work is the whole green covering of the earth.
Relation to Humans: The one telling gives him no dealings with people at all, no prayer, no shrine and no gift asked for. People simply live among what his plant became.

Before there was a leaf anywhere, the ground was bare sand. The water had drawn back, the hills stood up dry, and a new sun beat down on them. Animals already walked there. So did people. Nothing grew.

That is the world Chonganda is born into, in the creation story of the Bushongo, the ruling people of the Kuba kingdom in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The whole record of him comes from one man’s notebook. Emil Torday, a Hungarian ethnographer, travelled in the Congo from 1907 to 1909 and wrote the story down among the Bushongo. He printed it in French in 1910 with T. A. Joyce, in their book on the Bushongo, and in English in 1911 in the journal *Folk-Lore*, under the title “Bushongo Mythology”. Every later telling of Chonganda goes back to those pages.

The story belongs to his father. In the beginning there was only dark and water, and Bumba was alone in it, huge and white. A pain took him in the belly. He was sick, and out came the sun, the moon and the stars. The sun dried the water and the land showed. He was sick again and brought up nine living creatures, among them the leopard, the eagle, the crocodile, a fish, the tortoise, a white heron and a goat, and then people. The creatures went on to make more of their own kinds. The heron made the birds. The crocodile made snakes. The goat made the horned animals.

Then Bumba’s three sons said they would finish the work.

The first, Nyonye Ngana, made the white ants. It was too much for him, and he died of it. The ants were grateful. They went down deep, carried up dark soil, and buried their maker in it, and the black earth they spread covered the dead sand.

Chonganda came second. He brought out one plant. From that plant came every tree, every blade of grass, every flower and every other growing thing in the world. The third brother, Chedi Bumba, wanted to make something new as well, and managed only one bird, the kite.

That is all there is. Chonganda gets one sentence.

The telling does not say how he made the plant, what kind it was, or where it first stood. It gives him no mother, no wife and no children. It does not say whether he lived on afterwards or died as his elder brother did. Nobody prays to him in it. His father, by contrast, has a whole career: he hunts a troublesome creature into the sky, where it becomes lightning, he shows people how to draw fire out of wood, and at the end he walks through the villages telling everyone that all these wonders are theirs.

Still, the order of the brothers makes its own sense. The eldest gives the soil and dies doing it. The second sets one living thing in that soil. The air smells of wet earth for the first time, and then it is green. The forest that the Kuba later cut for raffia, palm wine and carved wood stands, in this story, on a dead brother’s grave and grows from his younger brother’s one plant.

His power is plain and very large. One act of his produces everything that grows. It is also the only act he has. He makes once and is never heard from again, and the story hands the finished world to people and to his father, not to him.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Chonganda?

Chonganda is the second of the three sons of Bumba, the creator in the creation story of the Bushongo, the ruling people of the Kuba kingdom in the Congo. He brought out the first plant, and every tree, grass and flower came from it.

What did Chonganda create?

Chonganda created one plant. In the Bushongo creation story that single plant is the ancestor of all the trees, grasses, flowers and other plants in the world. The story does not say what kind of plant it was or how he made it.

Who were Chonganda’s brothers?

Chonganda’s elder brother was Nyonye Ngana, who made the white ants and died from the effort. His younger brother was Chedi Bumba, who made only one bird, the kite. All three were sons of the creator Bumba.

Where does the story of Chonganda come from?

The story of Chonganda was written down by the ethnographer Emil Torday among the Bushongo of the Congo between 1907 and 1909. He published it in French in 1910 with T. A. Joyce and in English in 1911 in the journal Folk-Lore. Later tellings all go back to Torday’s record.

Was Chonganda worshipped?

The one record of Chonganda does not describe any worship of him. It gives him no prayers, shrines or offerings, and it says nothing about him after he makes the first plant.