Kariba, Zimbabwe-Zambia border (folk belief)

Nyami Nyami: River God of the Zambezi

Folklore — not a documented case

According to Tonga belief, the serpent-bodied god of the Zambezi, Nyami Nyami, was angered when the Kariba Dam separated him from his wife, and sent floods in the 1950s.

The Zambezi is one of Africa's greatest rivers and forms part of the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Kariba Dam, built across the river at Kariba Gorge, created what was then one of the largest artificial lakes in the world. But the story of this huge project is bound up with the beliefs of the region's indigenous people, the Tonga.

The stories in this section are folk tales and legends; they are not verified, real events and should not be confused with the rest of the archive.

From the same region