#Sotho mythology | bestiarium (2024)

The Khodumodumo [Sotho mythology]

The Sotho people are an ethnic group that lives mainly in Lesotho, and South-Africa, the nation that surrounds that country. These people have a story about a horrible, gigantic monster that wreaked destruction upon the land. It was called Khodumodumo, and it was a terrible being with many tongues that ended in sharp points, which the monster used to impale its victims. If it didn’t have to fight, however, Khodumodumo preferred to swallow its prey whole. As such, the beast had swallowed many animals and humans. Entire villages disappeared into its gaping maw when the monster came across them.

As the story goes, a pregnant woman had learned that the beast hunted by smell rather than sight, so when the monster found her village she successfully hid from Khodumodumo by hiding on a pile of manure. The beast did not notice her during its rampage, and when everyone in the village had been swallowed alive, it retreated to a nearby mountain to rest.

Soon after, the woman gave birth to a boy. Fearing that the monster might return, she left the infant alone and went out in search of more manure for the pile. But when the woman returned, she found that her child was gone and a man was sitting in its place, dressed in animal hides. When she asked him where her son was, he replied that he was the baby she had left earlier that day. His name was Senkatona, and he had matured in a very short time (small note: I am uncertain why the child grew up in a single day but assume the story was not meant to be taken literally, or perhaps we should assume that the gods blessed Senkatona because the people were in need of a hero). He then asked his mother what happened to the other villagers, for the entire town was empty, and she replied that they were all swallowed by the terrible Khodumodumo. ‘Tell me where this monster is’, said Senkatona. The woman showed her son how he could get to the mountain where the beast was resting, and so Senkatona grabbed his spear and began his ascent.

(as a small sidenote: the weapon used by the hero in this story is an assegai, a short spear with a cutting edge. Senkatana wielded two of them.)

Eventually, the hero stood in front of the gigantic Khodumodumo. The beast tried to impale him with his tongues, but Senkatona cut them all off. Cunning as he was, Senkatona ran around the monster, for he knew the beast was heavy and bloated from his recent meal. As he had predicted, Khodumodumo was unable to turn around quickly enough to react, and Senkatona cut the beast open with his spears. Since all of the townspeople were only recently eaten and they were all swallowed whole, they were still alive and hadn’t been digested yet. Upon being freed, the townspeople were all thankful and Senkatona went on to become chief of the village.

However, one of the villagers was ungrateful. When Senkatona cut open the stomach of Khodumodumo, he had accidentally injured one man with the tip of his spear. This man bore a grudge towards the hero and swore vengeance upon him. So one day, the man rallied his family and they tried to kill Senkatona.

As Senkatona was a great warrior, fighting him would normally be a difficult task. But he had grown tired of mankind’s ingratitude and did not fight back. And so, the hero was slain by his assailants.

Interestingly, many Bantu cultures have some variation of this story about a ‘swallowing monster’, such as the Xhosa and the Zulu. I do not know which one came first, but these stories are thought to be very old. As a closing note: the name ‘Khodumodumo’ is an onomatopoeic word for loud noises, and can be roughly translated to ‘great noise’. I also wonder whether the story was meant to convey a moral? Perhaps it was a cautionary tale about ingratitude. That’s just speculation on my part, though.

Sources:Douglas, T. and Temilola, A., 2019, African Religions: Beliefs and Practices through History, ABC-CLIO, 438 pp.Dseagu, S. A., 2021, The Swallowing Monster in Southern African folklore: Need for Morphological Investigation, Academia Letters, Article 1963.(image source 1: Feig Felipe Pérez on Artstation; illustration for the Mitos y Leyendas trading card game)(image source 2: WillOBrien on Deviantart; illustration for ‘Tome of Beasts 2’)