Introduction

Summary

According to the accounts of Kanyok storytellers, the two most important tales in their history describe emotions and aspirations, not actions. The one tale chronicles the feelings of Citend, a seventeenth-century Kanyok princess humiliated by the verbal abuse of her companions at the court of the Luba Mulopwe. Filled with anger and sorrow, she set off on a lonely journey to the land of her Kanyok grandfather, a man she had never seen, a relative she hoped would welcome her with kindness. Arriving in Kanyok territory, Citend lifted the spirits of the people who rejoiced at the prospect of a true princess in their midst. Expressing deep sentiments of loyalty, the people proclaimed her chief and, for the first time in their history, they felt secure. And for the first time in her life, Citend felt truly content. Everyone's happiness increased even more when Citend invited her people to a feast. The joy was dashed, however, when the feast failed because Citend's ill-timed menstrual cycle prevented her from offering food to her beloved Kanyok children. With sorrow, Citend turned the feast and her chiefdom over to her infant son Shimat, whose name means contentment and security.

The second Kanyok tale describes the bitter anger of Citend's nineteenth-century descendant Ilung a Cibang. Proud at the prospect of becoming Mwen a Kanyok (supreme chief of all the Kanyok), Ilung eagerly journeyed to the Luba Mulopwe's capital where he would perform a ritual dance, the tomboka, and then be invested in office by the Luba potentate. Although Ilung came as a chief, he was humiliated by the Luba lord who treated his Kanyok nephew with contempt and treachery.