Did you know African folklore had dragons? "Here be dragons" is a fanciful cartographers’ annotation that has been historically used to indicate territory that remains as yet unmapped or unexplored.
When early Dutch settlers laid eyes on South Africa’s famous mountain range, they would name it the Drakensberge (dragon mountains). However, the Zulu name for it is uKhahlamba, which translates instead to mean “barrier of spears”.
If you’ve ever seen an early morning’s mist rolling over the mountains, it becomes easy to see why people recalled vivid images of great, majestic reptiles that could have been flying over its peaks. This is the Drakensberg and this is where mythology hides in every cave, stream, meadow and mountain top.
South African dragons are strongly rooted in stories of water snakes, which served their purpose first as mythical tales, but also maintained their presence as practical warnings against real reptiles lurking in the water.
Let's delve into the rich tapestry of South African dragon lore, exploring its origins, diverse forms, and enduring presence in the cultural landscape.
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South African readers perhaps encounter their first dragon in the most unlikely place: from translations of the Holy Bible (first in 1933), where the sea dragon called the leviathan is mentioned as something to fear in Job, Psalms and Revelation.
Outside of the feared biblical leviathan, South Africans are likely to remember the more adorable Sarel Seamonster, created by cartoonist Johan Roos in the 1970s. Younger readers - especially ones who grew up with respiratory problems or house smokers - will remember the novel You can do it, Desmond Dragon!. Published in the 1990s and later translated to become Danie for Afrikaans readers, the story’s dragon visits a wizard - and instead of gold, it gets gifted an inhaler to keep up with his fire-breathing family.
The years of the dragon - with events happening both in 2012 and 2024 - seemed to put draconian fiction both cute and serious back into the spotlight. LitNet launched a unique writing competition seeking dragon fables to mark the dragon year; this was won by author Elza Smal. The dragon princes (Die draakprinse) by Elrien Scheepers appeared via Oxford University Press (2012), becoming absorbed into Afrikaans language studies for seventh grade.
The Afrikaans expression translated as “poking the dragon” means to mess with someone intentionally, and is a saying that was eventually translated from its Dutch equivalent.
Origins and Influences
The roots of local dragon stories go further back, being traced to legends of the grootslang or “big snake” that reportedly dwells in a Richtersveld cave. Stories that would eventually spread from verbal ones to written tales say that the reptile guards the area’s diamond deposits.
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Travel throughout Africa has meant that local tales have been at least somewhat influenced by other tales from elsewhere on the continent.
Interestingly, Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and might have taken at least some of his inspiration from the continent. Beowulf is cited in works as one of the earliest appearances of the classic European, fire-breathing dragon, and is also one of Tolkien’s known inspirations.
Myths tend to change gradually. You can look at these little changes in the same way you’d look at mutations in an organism, and the long-term drift of story elements in the same way as evolution. Adaptation in the face of a changing cultural environment.
According to d’Huy and his research team, the first dragon story was likely being told as long as 75,000 years ago in South Africa.
At this point, the dragon was a giant snake, usually possessing the head of a second species, with ears, horns, scales, and sometimes human hair.
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Key Dragon Figures in South African Folklore
Let's explore some prominent dragon figures in South African folklore, each with unique characteristics and roles:
- The Great Water Serpent of Augrabies: This massive snake has been depicted in Khoisan rock drawings for thousands of years and is believed to live in the depths of the raging Augrabies waterfall on the border between South Africa and Namibia however, depictions of the snake have been found all along the Orange River which originates in the Drakensberg and flows through much of South Africa.
- Monyohe: The Basotho people of Lesotho and South Africa have the story of Monyohe, who had a human head and a snake’s body.
- Nanabolele: The Basuto people had another dragon-like being called the nanabolele. These looked somewhat like crocodiles that glowed in the moonlight. They traveled in a great cloud of red dust and were super fierce.
- Grootslang: The great snake or Grootslang is believed to live under the earth in South Africa, deep in caves.
Not all African Mythology is about wicked creatures and monsters. The first people of this land who found solitude in the deserts all over Southern Africa had countless tales about their beautiful gods. Rain married the man who created the earth, he was called Flame. The children soon passed a village full of good people and bad people and were invited to spend the night there.
Welcome to episode 16, and the second episode we’ll be spending exploring the dragons of Africa though the southern part of Africa, to be precise.
Let’s move onto a story that is even more heartwarming, shall we?
Masingi the healer is from the Shangaan people in South Africa. According to his story, he lived in a deep hole outside of the village and it was said he could bring anyone back to health.
But, let’s stay more or less in the area for the next one. The Basotho people of Lesotho and South Africa have the story of Monyohe, who had a human head and a snake’s body.
Koji can’t resist her cryptids, so she was a bit excited when she came across Mokele-mbembe as a potential dino-cryptid living in the Congo River Basin.
Mokele-mbembe is supposed to be a huge, long-necked dinosaur that lives in the river banks and marshlands. Basically a vague sauropod, but instead of being an herbivore, it feeds on elephants, hippos, and other large animals.
There’s a few variations on this story, in which the chief is alive or not and had one son or two. Either way, the chief did have a daughter, Thakane, and at least one son. When the son was circumcised, he refused to leave the circumcision hut unless he was given a shield, clothes, shoes, and a spear made of nanabolele skin.
Thakane and the Nanabolele
One notable tale features Thákane, the daughter of a chief, who undertakes a perilous quest to obtain nanabolele skin for her lazy brothers. Here's a summary of the story:
- Thákane was the daughter of a great chief. After said chief died, she was unfortunately saddled with the responsibility of raising her two lazy brothers.
- After months of Thákane taking them to warrior school way up in the mountains, then preparing their clothes, shields, and weapons for graduation, they refused to leave.
- These lazy bozos were like, “since we’re the sons of a great chief, we should be wearing something better than everyone else. We’re not leaving this training hut until we have a blanket, a cap, and a shield all made out of nanabolele skin.
- In Basotho mythology, a nanabolele is a water-dwelling dragon. They are horrible creatures who give off light in the dark, and always arrive in a cloud of red smoke.
- Thákane gathered up people to help. So a huge group of the bravest Basotho left the village, hunting for nanabolele. But they didn’t know where to find them.
- They went to a broad stream, tossed in some ox meat, and Thákane sang a diss song, trying to taunt the nanabolele out of the stream. They threw increasing quantities of meat into the river, until, when they tossed in an entire ox, the river started bubbling.
- The old lady took them down underneath the water (where they seemed to have no problems breathing), to her deserted village. The nanabolele, she explained, had eaten everyone there, except the old lady, whose skin was too tough from working too hard all her life (yeah!). So they left her alive, and she had to take care of them.
- She hid the Basotho party in a deep hole, and soon the herd of nanabolele came back. They stomped around the village, looking for the humans they smelled, but unable to find them (and rather tired from hunting all day), they gave up and went to sleep.
- As soon as they were asleep, Thákane snuck up to the biggest one and slaughtered it. The Basotho turned to leave, but the old lady stopped them and handed over a small ironstone pebble.
- “The nanabolele are gonna be pissed when they wake up, y’all. I’m not even kidding,” she said. “Um, okay,” said the Basotho. “Thanks! “Sure,” said the old lady.
- In the morning, the surviving nanabolele came flying after the Basotho hunting party, trailing a cloud of red smoke. Thákane threw down the magic pebble, and it instantly grew into a mountain.
- After much flailing and gnashing of teeth, the nanabolele, unable to climb the mountain, gave up and went home. The mountain thankfully downsized itself back to a pebble, and the Basotho continued on their way.
- When they got to the village and the nanabolele came for revenge, Thákane released the village dogs on them. This, the nanabolele did not expect, and this time left for good.
- And so Thákane had a guy make shields, blankets, hats, hip clothes, and shoes out of the nanabolele - it was a big mo’fo apparently - and gave them to her brothers.
- Delighted at having unique glow-in-the-dark bling, the two left their grass huts to show off to everyone else at warrior school.
Thakane, with nothing else to do, set out to actually go out to slay a nanabolele. She traveled until she found their lake, and in there, an old woman came out and told Thakane that the nanabolele had taken her village, leaving only herself alive. The old woman agreed to help Thakane. Together they went to the empty village under the water and the old woman buried Thakane in a deep hole.
The old woman helped Thakane choose the biggest nanabolele, which they skinned. She then sent Thakane off with a stone, which would grow into a mountain when Thakane sat on it. The nanabolele chased Thakane, but when they got too close, she would simply sit on the mountain until they went away. Eventually they got too tired and left her. She was able to bring the nanabolele skin back to her brother and have the fine clothes made from it.
Dragons in Ancient Egypt
The dragons from ancient Egyptian tradition were similar to the ones from ancient Greece, consisting predominantly of fantastical serpents and composite hybrid monsters. The most notable dragon in Egyptian mythology is the serpent Apep or Apophis, enemy of Ra.
When the sun sets in the evening, it must travel under the earth throughout the night: this underworld is home to a vast dark sea where Apep waits to leap out and swallow the sun, along with Ra (guardian of the sun). Another notable draconic creature is Denwen, a serpentine monster composed entirely of fire who dates back 2,000 years before the rise of Christianity.
His firery nature was so impactful that it's said he almost destroyed the Egyptian pantheon as part of causing a great fire. The Akhekh is a mythological hybrid believed to be an ally or incarnation of the god Set, earning it an association with darkness and water.
One god with draconic attributes in Egyptian mythology is Nehebkau. Nehebkau is a serpent god depicted as a serpent but with human arms and legs. He guards the entrance to the underworld and serves Ra, his position making him a useful ally for Ra in his eternal battle with Apep. The serpent god appears to be massive in iconography, being so big that it's suggested the entire world rested upon him.
The uraeus is a fantastical winged serpent of which are associated with royalty and the winged cobra goddess Wadjet. Wadjet is a light deity representing the power of the Eye of Ra who shares with the vulture goddess Nekhbet the title of "The Two Ladies", who serve as the divine protectors of the pharaoh.
According to Swedish natural historian Conrad Genser, the Roman author Aelainus witnessed a period of time where the Egyptians had given refuge to a dragon which garnered a cult, the dragon being given its own towers, temple, and servants who provided it food. Interestingly, the dragon was rarely seen by either its venerators or servants, the latter of which would put his food at his room entrance which would be gone by the next day.
When one servant wished to see the dragon and forcefully entered the dragon's room, the dragon became enraged and backed off.
West African Vodun traditions include worship of rainbow serpents, specifically Aido-Hwedo. Aido-Hwedo has many roles in many different versions of vodunism; for example, in Dahomean religion (precursor to modern Vodun) she carried the creator spirit Mawu-Lisa (formed by the energies of Mawu and Lisa, twins born from Nana-Buluku, the greater goddess) in her mouth.
Mawu-Lisa populated the land with life while Aido-Hwedo carved out valleys in the landscape with her sinous serpentine movements, forming mountains and hills with her dung.
Many European Bestiaries and Geographies place dragons in Africa and India: these dragons are large, elephant eating serpents.
The rage of dragons is a Xhosa-inspired fantasy novel, originally self-published in 2017 and later named one of the best 100 fantasy novels by Time.
Author Jaco Jacobs wrote Waldo and the dragon with the green tongue, introducing a fantastical sleuthing tale that begins with an object stolen from an antique shop. Jacobs also translated Nicola Kinnear’s novel Dragons don’t share into Afrikaans, continuing the tradition of the powerful and evocative dragon character myth.
While South Africa has a rich history of African storytelling with many native cultures, tribes, languages and beliefs, there are also mythology and myth that was brought to the country with colonial expansion. With the Cape playing host to Dutch and English occupation close to 400 years ago, some myths and legends were exchanged on the docks and in the pubs with the tale of the Devil and Van Hunks being a local favourite.
Legend has it that Jan van Hunks, a retired seafarer, was smoking a pipe in his house on the slopes of Table Mountain when his wife finally had enough of the stench of smoke in their home. Furious, she told him to go smoke outside and so he went for a walk up the mountain to smoke his pipe in peace.
As he sat and smoked his pipe, a strange figure appeared wearing a hat and cloak and challenged Van Hunks to a pipe-smoking contest. Van Hunks and the stranger puffed away and created an enormous cloud of smoke that covered the entire mountain. A sudden gust of wind blew the strangers’ hat off his head and Van Hunks was surprised to find that he was smoking with non-other than the Devil himself.
An African Dragon by artist Airaly.
Dragons in African folklore have evolved independantly from the dragons in European and Asian folklore and religions, and therefore do not share too many similarities with them. However, myths of giant, supernatural serpentine or reptilian creatures persevere even in environments where real 'dragons' exist (pythons and crocodiles) and so this page will serve as a brief overview of dragons found throughout the continent of Africa.
Most cryptid stories, interestingly, have two potential origins. The first are born out of local legends. The second form is when an outsider comes to visit and tries to explain something they’ve seen. While not as great as a local legend, these can still be a pretty interesting way of seeing the layering of cultural explanation.
In 1909 Carl Hagenbeck published Beasts and Men, in which he claimed to have heard about a creature described by natives as “half elephant, half dragon.” Except later sources then say Hagenbeck, a known showman, was probably taking advantage of the dinosaur craze and the misinformed idea that Africa was less biologically developed than the rest of the world.
In other words, people thought that Africa was a wilderness caught back in time. Now, we know this is nonsense. But it goes to show how some cryptid stories can come not from simple cultural misunderstandings, but from imperialism and willful ignorance.
Interpretations of rock art from Lesotho, in southern Africa, seem to corroborate this story.
From here, the dragon made its way back towards the near east and up into Siberia losing many of its features and becoming more snake-like by around 50, 000 years ago. Meanwhile, the Chinese dragon myth headed down into Oceania but not quite all the way to Australia until the Younger Dryas event only 12, 000 years ago.
Not long after, around 10, 000 years ago, the dragon myth crossed the Pacific Ocean to reach Mesoamerica.
Around 8, 000 years ago, we see the Proto-Indo-European expansion, influencing Europe, India, western Asia, and North Africa (particularly the Nile region).
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