the Ancestor of the Aawambo
Ovambo · mortal · primordial · Recorded classification
Nangombe ya Mangundu is the founding ancestor of the Aawambo (Ovambo) people in the shared Owambo-Herero origin tradition. A son of Mangundu, he migrated from the east (traditionally from the region of the great lakes) with his brother Kathu; at the great Omumborombonga tree in the Ondonga area the brothers separated, Kathu leading the pastoral Ovaherero onward while Nangombe and his followers settled the fertile Cuvelai floodplains of Ovamboland. His name, built on the word for cattle, reflects the pastoral wealth of his descendants, and the Owambo kingdoms traced their clans back to him.
Parentage
- parent: the First Human
Domains
- ancestry and cattle
Powers
- to found the lineages and settlements of the Aawambo people
Epithets
- Nangombe yaMangunduFrieda-Nela Williams, Precolonial Communities of Southwestern Africa: A History of Owambo Kingdoms 1600–1920, 1991 (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: the Ancestor of the OvahereroNangombe and Kathu were brothers who migrated together from the east before parting at the Omumborombonga tree.Alice Werner, Myths and Legends of the Bantu, George G. Harrap, 1933, ch. II (secondary)
Sources
- Nangombe ya Mangundu is the eponymous ancestral founder of the Aawambo (Ovambo) people, who settled the Ovamboland floodplain after parting from his brother Kathu at the Omumborombonga tree.: Frieda-Nela Williams, Precolonial Communities of Southwestern Africa: A History of Owambo Kingdoms 1600–1920, National Archives of Namibia, 1991 (secondary); Alice Werner, Myths and Legends of the Bantu, George G. Harrap, 1933 (secondary)