The River Spirit from the Back of Beyond
Nyaminyami The Spirit of the Mighty Zambezi River will be at WAFA World Flower Show in Boston MA at Seaport World Trade Center June 15-19 2011
River Spirit from the Back of Beyond Enters the World Flower Show at the World Trade Center in Boston.
Nyaminyami the BaTonga Spirit of the Zambezi River with the head of a fish and the body of a serpent ruled peacefully for centuries from Mosi-0-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders) (Victoria Falls) all the way downstream to Kariba Gorge (the Trap) until…
River Spirit from the Back of Beyond Enters the World Flower Show in Boston.
Damn it! Yes, the white man came in 1955. They wanted to dam it. Not just a small dam, but the largest dam in the world was proposed in the remotest part of Africa. The Batonga said Nyaminyami would be angry. He would not allow it.
The BaTonga people were forced to resettle. Nyaminyami was separated from his wife trapped on the other side of Kariba dam wall. The BaTonga warned Nyaminyami was enraged.
Raging floods, roared down the Zambezi River destroying the dam’s foundations, equipment and road access and took the lives of eighteen men. The bodies of the five white men were only recovered after sacrifice on the river of a white calf to appease Nyaminyami.
The experts agreed it was a once in a thousand year flood. Construction resumed.
Again, the following year unprecedented floods, the water rising six meters in one day, destroyed access bridges, the cofferdam and parts of the main wall.
Again, construction resumed. The dam wall was completed. The valley forest drowned. Hilltops turned into ever decreasing islands. The sky was black with birds as they gorged on swarms of insects, rats and snakes flushed from their burrows. Animals of all kinds were marooned. Seven thousand animals were rescued ranging from bush babies to rhinoceros in ground breaking Operation Noah.
Nyaminyami was appeased. In 1960 the mighty generators were switched on. Hydroelectric power from Kariba Dam lights Central Africa today. A statue of Nyaminyami overlooks the lake that stretches 280 km (174 miles) upstream of the gorge, and 40 km(25miles) at its widest point.
But, earth tremors felt since the wall was built portend that Nyaminyami and his wife will one day be reunited and the BaTonga returned to the valley…
A totem is a natural object or animal believed by a particular society to have spiritual significance and adopted by it as an emblem.
Nyaminyami, spirit of the Zambezi River, tangled in drowned wood and flame lilies, the national flower of Zimbabwe, will be a totem entry in Class Two, Beast at the World Flower Show, themed This Glorious Earth in Boston, on June 15-19th at the Seaport World Trade Center.
Please join us there if you can! If not I’ll report back on how Nyaminyami fared next week and post a picture of my entry.
Then seriously, its back to writing, with sincere apologies to Andrew for the diversion.