LINDSAY SELBY: The Nyaminyami

The Nyaminyami is a river creature who lived in the Zambezi River and controlled the life in and on the river. It is worshiped by the Tonga people and said to be a dragon-like creature with a snake's torso and the head of a fish. The Tonga claim sightings of this creature in the Kariba lake. The lake is known for the tigerfish that dwell in its waters but there are over 40 fish species that live in the lake including nkupe, chessa, bottlenose, vundu, barbell and several types of bream. So the waters are very fertile and probably enough to feed a dragon!


In 1950 the Kariba Dam project was started. The Tonga people were told they would have to be relocated and they asked the Nyaminyami to protect them. In 1957, when the dam was almost completed, Nyaminyami struck. The worst floods ever known on the Zambezi washed away the partly-built dam and the heavy equipment, killing many of the workers. The next rainy season the Nyaminyami struck again and brought more floods even worse than the previous year. However, the dam builders refused to give in and 1960 the dam was officially opened. The Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam and is one of the largest dams in the world, standing 420 ft(140 metres) high and 1,900 ft (633metres) long. A lake was formed that measured 280 kilometres up stream through the Kariba Gorge and up to 40 kilometres wide.


As the dam closed the water level rose. Swarms of crickets, rodents and snakes emerged from the undergrowth and tried to escape the rising water. The skies above the lake were filled with flocks of birds feasting on the insects. Many animals retreated inland or made for higher ground only to become trapped on temporary islands created by the rising water. A rescue called Operational Noah run by volunteers and game wardens rescued as much of the wildlife as possible.


The Tonga still live on the shores of Lake Kariba, and still believe that one day Nyaminyami will destroy the dam and they will be able to return to their homes on the banks of the river. They believe that Nyaminyami and his wife were separated by the wall across the river, and the frequent earth tremors felt in the area since the wall was built are caused by the creature trying to reach his wife. Kariba is subjected to unexpected earth tremors. Some have registered over 5 on the Ritchter Scale. The lake also experiences violent and expected storms and squalls that can quickly turn the surface into a dangerous place.


The resettlement of the Tonga people is said to be the worst dam-resettlement disaster in African history. Anthropologist Thayer Scudder, who has studied the people of the area since the late 1950s, described them 'development refugees.' Many live in areas, some of which have been so seriously degraded within the last generation that they resemble lands on the edge of the Sahara Desert. So no wonder they hope for the dam to be destroyed.


The locals and tourists of Kariba look forward to September each year as the Nyaminyami Festivals are held to venerate the river god.


So the question is what could the Nyaminyami be if it was a living creature? Could it be a giant eel? A snake’s torso and the head of a fish maybe fit the description but what about a giant catfish? They have large fish heads and often taper to a narrow end to the body. It is quite possible that some large fish or eel did live in the river many years ago, which gave rise to the legends and the fact there are claims (none I could find documented) that it is still seen in the lake, could point to a large fish. The lake is well stocked with fish of all kinds so a predator large fish or eel would have lots of food. It is a great story and I just wish it had a happier ending for the Tonga people.

Some links of interest:

http://www.safariafrica.co.za/tourist-attractions/nyaminyami.htm

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23153:kariba-once-a-tonga-playground&catid=32&Itemid=34

LINDSAY SELBY: An early tale of Chipekwe

When the early travellers reached the Victoria Falls, and for long afterwards, there were no natives living within sixty miles of the place. They feared an evil spirit, they said, which haunted the falls. Cataract Island, on the lip of the falls, was once known as Devil's Island, and Coillard the missionary said of it: "The natives believe it is haunted by a malevolent and cruel divinity, and they make it offerings to conciliate its favour, a bead necklace, a bracelet or some other object, which they fling into the abyss, bursting into lugubrious incantations, quite in harmony with their dread and horror."

Many white men believe in a Victoria Falls monster that lives at the foot of the falls. Captain Reynard, the curator I have mentioned, told me that three men whose word he could not doubt had seen this creature.

Livingstone mentioned a serpent in these waters and it is part of the Barotse folklore. Natives assured Livingstone that it was large enough to hold a canoe and prevent the paddlers from moving in any direction. According to fairly recent accounts it is thirty feet long with a small slate-grey head and thick black body, which it exhibits in fold after fold.

Mr V. Pare, for many years in charge of boats on the Zambesi, climbed down to the bottom of the Victoria Falls gorge in 1925, when the water was at the lowest ebb in living memory. That was the first time he set eyes on the monster. It was a serpent-like creature, and when it saw Pare it reared up and then vanished into a deep cavern. Pare reported seeing it again, years afterwards, at the foot of the Devil's Cataract.

Natives call the monster Chipique and say that it came up from the ocean a thousand miles away. Native fishermen are so afraid of it that they will not venture out at night. "Chipique rules the river in the dark hours," point out the fishermen.

Mr J. W. Soper, who has trapped and shot a great many crocodiles round about the falls, has heard native reports of very large specimens. But it is unlikely that Mr Pare would have failed to identify a crocodile. It may be a large python, of course, like the legendary great snake of the Orange River.

From page 114. The book is called There's a Secret Hid away by Lawrence Green, and it is about tales of southern Africa. Printed by Howard Timmins, Cape Town. Lawrence Green died in 1973. This copy of the book was reprinted in 1981. The original was printed in 1956. I got this on loan from the British library but you can still get second hand copies of the books from dealers

List of his books http://www.booksofzimbabwe.com/page5LGG.html

GLEN VAUDREY: River Ribble Monster

There are many exotic places in the world where rivers are associated with monsters, but would you ever have put Lancashire's River Ribble amongst that lot? Okay, rumour has it certain parts of Preston can be very exotic of a weekend, but what’s all this talk of mystery water monsters, I hear you ask?

It was during a fine day in 1994 that a brother and sister out walking their dogs along the banks of the Ribble spotted something odd in the water. Rather than observing the usual discarded shopping trolley they spotted some way up ahead a tall thin object sticking up out of the water. They estimated that it stood some four feet above the water. On seeing the object, one of them commented "look, the Loch Ness monster." It's fair to say it was far too far south for a start (that’s just a light-hearted comment before you point out the many, many reasons it isn’t).

Initially thinking that the object was nothing more than a branch stuck in the river bed and partly protruding above the water, you can imagine their surprise when, as they got closer, the object then submerged into the river; and that it appears was the last time that anyone caught sight of the mystery monster of the River Ribble.

Of course, if anyone knows of more sightings I am sure that many of us would like to hear about them.

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES:WISCONSIN RIVER MONSTER AND CAT-RABBIT HYBRID

Hi folks!

Today I am looking at two cryptids: one river monster and an alleged hybrid between a cat and a rabbit. The water monster is from 1904 in Wisconsin and the Californian “rabbit-cat” example from 1907 at a show in a place called Chutes Park (in or near Los Angeles?) is the first case I have ever read about. I am not familiar with the literature on the subject of “rabbit-cats.”

New Wisconsin Fish Story

A strange creature resembling a long-haired dog with six webbed feet and fins like a fish was caught in the river near La Crosse, Wis,the other day by Millard (?) a clam fish man. The animal was equiped with the tail of a fish and had a head shaped much like a walrus. The species is unknown to local scientists. Nothing like it has ever been seen before.(1)

Note – La Crosse is an inland town by a river about 200 miles west of Lake Michigan

Freak Graces Show.

A pair of rabbit cats bred by Frank T. Cantara are another freak exhibit of the show. These strange creatures have the haunches of a rabbit and the short stubby tail of that animal, but their bodies and heads are those of a cat. At places on their bodies the cat hair gives place to rabbit fur. These strange quadrupeds hop about like a rabbit and eat grass. Mr Cantara produced them by crossing a male rabbit and a female cat. The original litter contained seven little ones, but Jack and Tootsie are the only ones left.

An accident to one of the exhibitors who was viewing the sights at the Chutes was the occasion for the creating of another class of cats yesterday. While a young man, who desires his name to be kept quiet, was leaning over the railing watching the sea lion disporting in the icy water he noticed some animals swinging around in the pool. Crawling over the rail to get a closer view he fell into the pond. He then observed that the creatures he had seen were also a variety of cats, called cat-fish. (2)

1. The Richmond Climax June 8th 1904
2. Los Angeles Herald January 18th 1907 p.9

Devo – Beautiful World

It`s a Beautiful World We Live In
A Sweet Romatic Place
Beautiful People Everywhere
The Way They Show They Care
Makes Me Want To Say

It`s A Beautiful World (x3)
For You (x3)

It`s A Wonderful Time To Be Here,
It`s Nice To Be Alive,
Wonderful People Everywhere,
The Way They Comb Their Hair
Makes Me Want To Say,

It`s A Wonderful Place (x3)
For You (x3)……

LINDSAY SELBY: Florida River Monster

Florida is often said to be a place of high strangeness with sightings of the Skunk Ape etc. There is also a story a bout a river monster.

Between 1955 and 1961 there were reports in Florida newspapers of a creature in the St. Johns River. The reports came from a variety of people: from fishermen who made their living there and from visitors and new residents. They all reported seeing a large creature but some said it was like a dinosaur; some, like a giant manatee. Most sightings occurred between Astor Park and Lake Monroe, the majority at Blue Spring (this is important to note; you will see why at the end of the posting).

One Lake County man claimed to have seen the monster on land, grazing on plants. He reported that the monster left a beaten-down path through the bushes. The animal's skin was described as elephant-like and grey-coloured. Two bass fisherman claimed that the monster had almost tipped over their boat.

In 1975 five people in a fishing boat were frightened on the morning of May 10 on St. Johns River near Jacksonville. They claimed to have seen a dragon-like creature that reared its head from the river then disappeared into the deep water. It was described as having a head like a giant snail, with two horns. This is the testimony of two of them:

“We saw it had a neck about 3 feet long,” Mrs. Dorothy Abram reported. “It had two little horns on top of the head like a snail.” She described the head as about the size of a human head. Mrs. Brenda Langley had a better view of the creature than Mrs. Abram had. “It was about three or four feet out of the water and about the color - a pinkish color - like boiled shrimp,” she said. “It had a real ugly looking face on it. It had snail like horns, and it had this little jagged thing going down its back. ...The head turned on it. It just turned and looked around at us.”

It is not the first story about strange marine creatures in that area. In 1885 a ship's anchor brought up the carcass of a long-necked creature that resembled an extinct plesiosaur, from the New River Inlet. It may have been the corpse of a basking shark or it may have been an unknown creature. There was no DNA testing in those days. There is apparently an 1891 newspaper report of a sea serpent chasing bathers from the ocean on Jacksonville beach (I couldn’t trace it, unfortunately). The creature was reported to have had a dog-like head and a long thin neck. There is also another story, but it may be an urban myth, said to be reported by some scuba divers in 1962, off the Gulf coast near Pensacola. A monster apparently attacked the divers and overturned their boat, and supposedly killed all but one of the men. The surviving victim claimed that the creature had a long, ten-foot neck (3.3 metres) like a telephone pole. The head had small eyes, but a very wide mouth and whipped about like a large snake.

Before we get over-excited I should point out that the largest spring on the St. Johns River, Blue Spring, is a Manatee Refuge and the winter home to a population of West Indian Manatees. So some sightings could be manatees as often people don’t realise how big they can be or what they really look like. What is interesting is that the 1975 description said it had horns. There have been lots of other sightings, including in Loch Ness, where people mention horns or eyes on stalks. The colour is also intriguing - bright red/pink - and I am sure someone can come up with a list of marine creatures that colour that could be responsible for a misidentification. Something to spend your Sunday afternoon researching if you are bored!