the First Human

Kamangundu, also recorded simply as Mangundu, is the first human being of Aawambo (Ovambo) origin tradition. One strand holds that the supreme being Kalunga created Mangundu and a spouse at the beginning of the world; another, shared with the neighbouring Ovaherero, has Kamangundu emerge from the great Omumborombonga (leadwood) tree of life. Oral tradition does not preserve whether Mangundu was male or female, only that Mangundu was the parent of Nangombe and Kathu, from whom the Aawambo and Ovaherero peoples respectively descend.

Parentage

• parent: the Creator of Life and Death

Children

• the Ancestor of the Ovaherero
• the Ancestor of the Aawambo

Domains

• first humanity

Powers

• to beget the ancestral lineages of humankind

Relations

• mother of: the Ancestor of the AawamboNangombe is remembered as a child of Mangundu, though tradition does not preserve whether Mangundu was father or mother.Frieda-Nela Williams, Precolonial Communities of Southwestern Africa: A History of Owambo Kingdoms 1600–1920, 1991 (secondary)
• mother of: the Ancestor of the OvahereroKathu, ancestor of the Ovaherero, is likewise a child of Mangundu in the shared origin tradition.Frieda-Nela Williams, Precolonial Communities of Southwestern Africa: A History of Owambo Kingdoms 1600–1920, 1991 (secondary)

Sources

• Kamangundu (Mangundu) is the first human of Ovambo origin tradition, created by the supreme being Kalunga (or emerging from the Omumborombonga tree) and parent of the ancestral brothers Nangombe and Kathu.: Frieda-Nela Williams, Precolonial Communities of Southwestern Africa: A History of Owambo Kingdoms 1600–1920, National Archives of Namibia, 1991 (secondary); Harold Scheub, A Dictionary of African Mythology: The Mythmaker as Storyteller, Oxford University Press, 2000 (secondary)