Ubantu history is easily divided into three phases: Uhenga - ancient history, Zamatumbo - the timeless period in the
belly of the beast, and Kisasa - modern times. It is worthwhile to note how the Kikoka language treats these three words as
different types of things: the "U" in "Uhenga" makes it an abstraction, like "Uhuru", "peace". "Zamatumbo" lacks a prefix, and is
linguistically treated as a foreign word, something alien. The "ki" in "kisasa" indicates a tool, an artifact made by humans, added
to "sasa", "now".
Uhenga is the legendary past, true mythohistory, shrouded by the mists of time. The historians of Ubantu are aware of this, and
regard all tales from this period as allegorical. Ancestors who actually experienced Uhenga are no longer available, having long
since faded in the host of Vinyamkela. The existing stories start with the first man, Unkulunkintu, and his descendents as they
fought against the Amazimu. After some centuries, when the cannibals had been defeated, Humans created four great cities; Bassa Ngo,
Embo, Great Zimbabwe and Vungu. The cities grew powerful and proud and eventually warred against each other. Some say the sorcerors
of these great cities used Kodumodumo as weapons, others say they were sent as punishment, but for whatever reason, each of the
three cities was swallowed and vanished from the land. The cannibals returned in a great horde, and the few humans left fled and
hid.
It is not clear how many monsters existed, for they seem to share a stomach, that is, everything that they swallow went to the
same place. It is wide verdant valley surrounded by mountains that fuse into a gray sky. This era is called Zamatumbo, the
Belly-Time, a word used in modern Kikoka to mean "endless". During the Zamatumbo, the people did not experience hunger, nor did they
sleep or grow old. All of the victims seem to have arrived at the same time - they remember being swallowed, then waking up in
Utumbo, surrounded by thousands of other people and the ruins of cities and villages. There were also animals, herds of cattle and
sheep and other domesticates, along with many elephants, but these continued to slumber.
The peoples were able to develop a pidgin language, but the only magic that worked in Utumbo was that of the Vungu priests from
the Kongo, whose Prenda cauldrons where able to open gates to other worlds. Contact with their ancestors, however, was of no use
until the Embo princess, Untombine, began to show her pregnancy. The child, Ditaolane, spoke to the people from the womb, urging
them to build a scaffold so that when he was born, he would fall directly into the boiling Prenda. This was done and Ditaolane,
scalded and newborn, (eventually) crawled out from the anus of the Kodumodumo. The Legend of Ditaolane croncles his times in Kuzimu
and how he found his way back to the mortal realm.
The Kodumodumo, bloated and torpid from its (their?) reign of terror, was slaughtered by Ditaolane, causing its hyperspatial
stomachs to evacuate into real space. In gratitude the people made Ditaolane their king and Untombine their Queenmother, and he
lead them in the rebuilding of their civilization. He named his people Waokoka, the rescued. During their time in the belly of the
beast they started to use the word "Ubantu," the land of the people, to refer to the world outside.
At first, the Waokoka were in a difficult situation. They accepted Ditaolane's Peace, but they represented dozens of cultures
and languages, bound together only by the necessities of survival. There undoubtablely would have been famine had it not been for
the intervention of the Wakonyingo, the Heavenpeople, who came down riding on clouds and gave the people magical calabashes that are
always full of milk (more like soymilk, the Wakonyingo are vegans) Nevertheless, there were still far too many people clustered
together in one place. The leaders and elders met in council and decided split the people into ten tribes, nine of which would
leave. The tribes who left would get the majority of the calabashes and also the herds of cattle. There was, of course, a natural
tendency for peoples with similar lifestyles and ethnic origins to follow the same leader. The leaders were: Mugombe, Langwa,
Komoga, Ngumbi, Chomba, Tsima, Sakara, Dingiswayo, Kayesa, these also being the names of the tribes. Each of the Founders received a
ancestral jawbone, brought back from Kuzimu by Ditaolane. The Wakonyingo carried the newly founded tribes to far lands on their
magical Clouds, then retreated back to the Mountains of God.
The city built from the tumbled ruins of half a dozen towns was called "Siyathemba" or "we hope". It lasted for 400 years and
urshed in a golden age of invention, discovery and expansion. To help unify the people, King Ditaolane directed Zimbanje, the
wisest surviving sorceror, to use the magic of written langauge to record the Mfuradi ya Majina Mengi (the Verse of the Many Names).
This capitalized on the common element in all the various traditions, that of a High God that is removed from humanity. Zimbanje is
usually credited with inventing written language, though this is unlikely, but he did set the trend of recording myths and hymns
and the enduring idea of syncretism.
The Ditaolane dynasty is fully recorded, and each of the kings accomplished great things.
The Ditaolane dynasty lasted until 312, when a king whose names is so reviled he is called only "Ijina" - the unnamed, fell to
an Njama plot. In a single night all of the royal family where Opened to possession, which then spread like a plague to the city
guards, who sealed the gates. What followed resembled a modern "living dead" movie, and there were precious few escapees to tell the
tale.
The Witchking of Mjimfu reigned for five years before the clan armies beat back his monsterous forces and sealed them inside the
city. The seige lasted for another year before the Banjovu clan enlisted the aid of their totem-allies, who came a thousand strong
and formed a circles around the cursed walls, truck to tail, circling it for five days and nights before the Njama was defeated and
banished from Ubantu.
Siyathemba expands, Irimu defeated, subkingdoms founded
