Bumba

Darkness and water lie at the beginning of the Boshongo account in Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II. The Boshongo are described as Bantu people of Central Africa, and this creation begins through a god’s own body. Bumba is alone in that world. He feels pain in his stomach and vomits up the sun. Sunlight shines so hard that water starts to dry, leaving land. He then vomits up the moon and the stars, and later produces animals. Many of those animals are named after him: Koy Bumba, the leopard; Ganda Bumba, the crocodile; and Kono Bumba, the tortoise. Humans arrive after the animals. One, Loko Yima, is white like Bumba.

The animals that came from Bumba create other animals: the crocodile makes snakes, the heron makes birds, and others follow. Bumba’s three children also create beings. Then Tsetse, lightning, causes trouble. She is confined to the sky, but from there still strikes her old home at times. Bumba gives the world its first light and land; after that, animals and children continue the work, while Tsetse stays above.