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Today, it is an honor to present selections from “The Heaven Country and the Heaven People” in the book “Myths and Legends of the Bantu,” collected by Alice Werner. The first tale is from the Chaga people who lived in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania, called “The Man who would shoot Iruwa.” It details a man who, in his sadness of losing his children, travels to the end of the Earth and encounters Divine beings. Chapter 4: The Heaven Country and the Heaven People The Man who would shoot Iruwa “A poor man, living somewhere in the Chaga country, on Kilimanjaro mountain, had a number of sons born to him, but lost them all, one after another. He sat down in his desolate house, brooding over his troubles, and at last burst out in wild wrath: ‘Who has been putting it into Iruwa’s head to kill all my boys? I will go and shoot an arrow at Iruwa.’ […]Presently, he saw many men coming towards him, all goodly to look on and shining like fire. Then he was afraid and hid himself in the bushes. Again, he heard these men crying: ‘Clear the way where the King is going to pass!’ They came on, a mighty host, and all at once, in the midst of them, he was aware of the Shining One, bright as flaming fire, and after Him followed another long procession. But suddenly those in front stopped and began asking each other, ‘What is this horrible smell here, as if an Earth-man had passed?’ They hunted all about till they found the man, and seized him and brought him before the King, who asked, ‘Where do you come from, and what brings you to us?’ And the man answered, ‘Nay, my Lord, it was nothing – only sorrow which drove me from home, so that I said to myself, let me go and die in the bush.’ Then said the King, ‘But how about your saying you wanted to shoot me? Go on! Shoot away!’ The man said, ‘O my Lord, I dare not – not now! What do you want of me? You know that without my telling you, O Chief!’ ‘So you want me to give you your children back?’ The King pointed behind him, saying, ‘There they are. Take them home with you!’ The man looked up and saw all his sons gathered in front of him, but they were so beautiful and radiant that he scarcely knew them, and he said, ‘No, O Chief, I cannot take them now. They are yours, and you must keep them.’ So Iruwa told him to go home […]. And he should have other sons in place of those he had lost. […]”The next tale is from the Banyarwanda people near Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s great lakes, which borders Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, called “The Girls who wanted New Teeth,” which details a young girl’s encounter with the Supreme God Imana.
