Zimbabwean legends

The Legend of the Matsheumhlope Crocodile

Today the Matsheumhlope River meanders lazily past Bulawayo in modern-day Zimbabwe.

But every year in the time when the area was known as Monomatapa it was a raging torrent, rushing into the larger Umzingwane River, a tributary of the great Limpopo further south.

In a kraal on the banks of the Matsheumhlope lived a boy named Ndhlovu, and one day as he took his daily bathe in the river an enormous crocodile appeared and sunk his teeth into Ndhlovu’s legs and dragged him into deeper water.

It was not an entirely unusual occurrence; many of those living near the river were taken by crocodiles. But the events that followed were very unusual indeed.

As Ndhlovu struggled vainly to free himself, a giant falcon swooped down out of the sky and began harrying the crocodile. Ndhlovu, even with the aid of the falcon, was no match for the monstrous creature but just as he was on the verge of giving up he saw the falcon dive at the crocodile’s head and pluck an eye out with its razor-sharp beak.

The crocodile thrashed its tail about wildly, making the water appear to boil and in its agony released its grip on Ndhlovu’s leg. The falcon made another dive for the crocodile’s other eye but it disappeared under the water and Ndhlovu struggled weakly to the bank and dragged himself out of the river.

Both Ndhlovu’s legs had been severed and he fell unconscious as the falcon circled overhead. Fortunately a member of the tribe had seen the falcon doing the unusual manoeuvres over the river and had come down to see what was happening. They found Ndhlovu and took him to the nyanga who tended his wounds and in time Ndhlovu recovered his health.

He never got his legs back of course, and could no longer work alongside the other men of the tribe. So he spent his time telling the story of his ordeal and the heroic deeds of the falcon which was never seen again.

The story, and Ndhlovu, became something of a legend and children from other tribes along the river and further afield came to listen to his story.

Ndhlovu became an accomplished orator but something he could never describe to his own satisfaction was what the falcon actually looked like. So he began to sculpt figurines of the bird from the soft sandstone that was so plentiful in the area.

He made many of these figurines and they became very popular with the children who had heard his story. Every child who came to Ndhlovu’s kraal had to have a figurine to take home, and the legend spread.

Ndhlovu grew old and eventually passed away but the stone birds carried the magic of the legendary falcon on, and they were made by many entrepreneuring villagers who saw a profit to be made from them. Hundreds of the birds were made of sandstone but some were chiseled from hard stone.

Many decades later the legend had almost been forgotten, but some of the great stone birds survived. The bird had become a symbol of the area that had seen many wars and a great deal of bloodshed through the years and still today the bird is an icon and even appears on the Zimbabwe flag.