The Cord of Wisdom among the Lega (Zaïre)

Abstract

Among the Lega, who occupy a vast forest area in the eastern part of Zaïre, we sometimes find a cord suspended in the meeting house of a village. On that cord (mutánga in Lega), such trifle things as a leaf, a charcoal, teeth of a dog, a feather of a cock, miniatures of an ax, a stick, etc. are fastened. We may take them for mere rubbish, but in reality each of them corresponds to a proverb. For example, teeth of a dog are tied to that cord to show the proverb saying “the teeth of a dog shine, but they eat dirty things”. Indeed, a man can not be judged by externals; an amiable person may be black-hearted.
The author, during his stay in Hombo-Otobora area in North and South Kivu Regions in 1989, had opportunities to study this visual way of showing proverbs. The population among whom he made research is called Balega-Bakano. They are said to be of Bahavu origin, seem to speek a genuine Lega, though many of them are bilingual with Tembo.
Analysing the mutánga which an informant made for the author, a total of 48 proverbs are described in this paper. Of the suspended objects, about 70% are natural and the rest are manufactured.
In analysis, we realize how carefully the Lega observe the things, natural or artificial, around them. They see into the nature of a thing, and express it in a proverb by alluding to human affaires.
The Lega can be characterized as a “proverb people”, who assert that one can not speak without knowledge of the proverb. In that point, mutánga which “strings proverbs”, should be an essence of the Lega spiritual world.