Lugbara Tower of Babel

  At the beginning of the world men and God were in a direct relation, and men could move up and down from the sky. Some say they were linked by a rope, others by a bamboo tower, and I have once heard it said it was by a tall tree. This bridge between heaven and earth was broken and men fell down, scattering into their present distinct groups each with its different language; before that all men spoke the same language, said either to have been Lugbara or Kakwa. Since that time all peoples have been separate, their constituent groups having their own ancestors and with them forming traditionally and ideally self-contained spheres of social relations, conceived and structured by agnatic kinship.

Middleton, John, Lugbara Religion: Ritual and Authority among an East African People, London, New York, Toronto: Published for the International African Institute by the Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 270.

Dinosaurs in Cameroon

The Jago-Nini they say is still in the swamps and rivers. Giant diver it means. Comes out of the water and devours people. Old men'll tell you what their grandfathers saw, but they still believe it's there. Same as the Amali I've always taken it to be. I've seen the Amali's footprint. About the size of a good frying pan in circumference and three claws instead o' five. There are some very big lakes behind the Cameroons. Used to be full of nice seal at one time. Manga, they call it. But the Jago-Nini's wiped 'em almost out, the old natives say. [...]

"What but some great creature like the Amali could account for the broken ivories we used to come across in the so-called elephant cemeteries? Fine old green ivory that's valuable for inlaying wood. Snapped right across in the thickest part and left in splinters.[...]

"That amali. I told you I've seen a drawing of him in those Bushman caves. I chiseled one out whole once and gave it to President Grant for a souvenir.

Horn, Alfred Aloysius, Trader Horn, ed. Ethelreda Lewis, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1927, pp. 257-258.

Tracks of a Dinosaur Seen by Missionaries in Africa in as Early as the 1700's

The missionaries have observed in passing along a forest, the track of an animal which they have never seen; but it must be monstrous, the prints of its claws are seen on the earth, and formed an impression on it of about three feet in circumference. In observing the posture and disposition of the footsteps, they concluded that it did not run in this part of its way, and that it carried its claws at the distance of seven or eight feet one from the other.

Proyart, Lievain Bonaventure, History of Loango, Kakongo, and Other Kingdoms in Africa in John Pinkerton, trans., A General Collection of Voyages and Travels, 17 vols., London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1808-1814, v. 16, p. 557.

Les Missionnaires ont observé, en passant le long d'une forêt, la piste d'un animal qu'ils n'ont pas vu; mais qui doit être monstrueux: les traces de ses griffes s'appercevoient sur la terre, & y formoient une empreinte d'environ trois pieds de circonférence. En observant la disposition de ses pas, on a reconnu qu'il ne couroit pas dans cet endroit de son passage, & qu'il portoit ses pattes à la distance de sept à huit pieds les unes des autres.

Proyart, Lievain Bonaventure, Histoire de Loango, Kakongo, et Autres Royaumes d’Afrique, 1776, pp. 38-39.

Apatosaurus in Africa? (1912)

Some years ago I received reports from two quite distinct sources of the existence of an immense and wholly unknown animal, said to inhabit the interior of Rhodesia. Almost identical stories reached me, firstly, through one of my own travellers, and, secondly, through an English gentleman, who had been shooting big-game in Central Africa. The reports were thus quite independent of each other, and, as a matter of fact, the Englishman and my traveller had made their way into Rhodesia from opposite directions, the one from the north-east and the other from the south-west. The natives, it seemed, had told both my informants that in the depth of the great swamps there dwelt a huge monster, half elephant, half dragon. This, however, is not the only evidence for the existence of the animal. It is now several decades ago since Menges, who is of course perfectly reliable, heard a precisely similar story from the negroes; and, still more remarkable, on the walls of certain caverns in Central Africa there are to be found actual drawings of this strange creature. From what I have heard of the animal, it seems to me that it can only be some kind of dinosaur, seemingly akin to the brontosaurus. As the stories come from so many different sources, and all tend to substantiate each other, I am almost convinced that some such reptile must be still in existence.

Hagenbeck, Carl, Beasts and Men, London, New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1912, p. 96.

Pterodactyls in Africa? (1923)

[...] I asked "What is the kongamato?" The answer was, "A bird." "What kind of bird?" "Oh, well it isn't a bird really: it is more like a lizard with membranous wings like a bat." [...]

[...]

Further enquiries disclosed the "facts" that the wing-spread was from 4 to 7 feet across, that the general color was red. It was believed to have no feathers but only skin on its body, and was believed to have teeth in its beak: these last two points no one could be sure of, as no one ever saw a kongamato close and lived to tell the tale. I sent for two books which I had at my house, containing pictures of pterodactyls, and every native present immediately and unhesitatingly picked it out and identified it as a kongamato. Among the natives who did so was a headman (Kanyinga) from the Jiundu country, where the kongamato is supposed to be active, and who is a rather wild and quite unsophisticated native.

The natives assert that this flying reptile still exists, and whether this be so or no it seems to me that there is presumptive evidence that it has existed within memory of man, within comparatively resent days.

Melland, Frank H., In Witch-Bound Africa, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1923, pp. 237-238.