Isiququmadevu

Isiququmadevu Category Neodinosaur Proposed scientific names Other names Ing'ondotuya, lengolengole, lingongole Country reported Zambia First reported 1924 Prominent investigators • William Hichens • Bernard Heuvelmans

The isiququmadevu or lingongole was a cryptid reported from Zambia's Zambezi Basin Wetlands, particularly in and around the Lozi Kingdom of Barotseland and the vicinity of Victoria Falls. It is a long-necked neodinosaur often compared to the mokele-mbembe, and is reported from further south than many other cryptids of its type.

Attestations

David Livingstone's mention of the Barotse belief in "a tremendous monster" which, like the kongamato, was believed to hide underwater "catch a canoe and hold it fast and motionless," may have been a reference to the isiququmadevu. Livingstone suggested that stories such as these were "the vestiges of traditions of animals which no longer exist".

The first true account of the isiququmadevu, King Lewanika's famous sighting, was published by naturalist John Guille Millais (1865 – 1931) in Far Away Up the Nile (1924). Millais, who based his account on what he considered to be authoritative sources, did not give the name of the animal, but Captain William Hichens made inquiries and found that local people called it the isiququmadevu.

Later, unpublished accounts by Europeans described a 10' or 11' long serpentine animal, with a thick body and a large, bulldog-like head, living around Victoria Falls. The Rhodesian press later reported that a similar animal was called the lingongole.

Description

The isiququmadevu was described as being of colossal size, taller than a man, with a snake's head on a long neck, and gigantic lizard-like legs. The furrow seen by King Lewanika was about as wide as a Boer wagon with the wheels removed, i.e. about 4'6''. It was amphibious and dwelled in swamps and rivers, moving on its belly when on land, and was sometimes said to drown canoe occupants and tear out the riverbanks near villages, flooding them.

Sightings

Undated

According to Millais, sometime in the late 19^th or early 20^th Century prior to the years 1899—~1901, King Lewanika of Barotseland (1842 — 1916; r. 1878 — 1916), who took a keen interest in the fauna of his kingdom, was frequently told about an elephantine marsh animal by his subjects, and ordered that, the next time one was seen, he should be informed immediately, so he could see it for himself. The next year...

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[...] three men rushed into his court house one day in a great state of excitement, and said they had just seen the monster lying on the edge of the marsh, and that on viewing them it had retreated on its belly, and slid into the deep water. The beast was said to be of colossal size, with legs like a gigantic lizard, and possessing a long neck. It was also said to be taller than a man, and had a head like a snake. Lewaniki at once rode to the spot and saw a large space where the reeds had been flattened down, and a broad path, with water flowing into the recently disturbed mud, made to the water's edge. He described the channel made by the body of the supposed monster to Colonel Hardinge [sic—Colonel Colin Harding], the British Resident [1899—~1901], 'as large as a full-sized wagon from which the wheels had been removed'.

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In 1919, animal collector John Daniel Hamlyn (1858 — 1922) reported that, while travelling in the Transvaal fifteen years previously, a Rhodesian police officer patrolling near Barotseland gave him an account of "a half-beast, half-snake monster". The officer claimed to have come across the animal sleeping on the edge of a swamp, and described it as a 100' long beast of strange appearance. It moved quickly but quietly into the swamp before the man could raise his rifle.

1925

According to a June 1963 report in the French magazine Atlas, a serpentine animal was observed in the Zambezi during a drought in 1925, by river transport manager V. Pare. The river having fallen significantly, Pare had been carefully exploring the gorges at the base of Victoria Falls, when, a few meters ahead of him, he noticed what appeared to be a slowly-swaying row of stones. He quickly realised that the stones were in fact "a huge serpent, ten to twelve meters long, with conspicuous rings, and a slate grey head". The snake suddenly moved inside a deep cave.

1960

E. C. Saunders, Director of the Katombora Reformatory, claimed to have seen a serpentine animal in the Zambezi, some fifty miles downstream from Victoria Falls, at around 11:00 AM in January 1960. He was supervising the construction of a causeway near the Reformatory when he noticed what he initially took for a long tree trunk near some rapids in the river. Observing it, Saunders first noticed that the object was moving against the current, and was clearly undulating, before it rose erect out of the water for several seconds, before sinking again. Saunders estimated that the animal had been between 9'' and 12'' in diameter. After some time, two cobra-like heads, thinner than the body had been, emerged 18'' from the water for a minute or two. Saunders believed the whole animal could have been between 20' and 25' long, and reported that eight of his workmen had claimed to have seen larger specimens of the same animals.

Theories

The isiququmadevu's reported belly-sliding may point to a lizard identity, similar to the Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus).

The African rock python (Python sebae) could explain Saunders' sighting (Source).

The isiququmadevu is frequently equated or connected with neodinosaurs such as the mokele-mbembe, badigui, mbilintu, and n'yamala, all of which are often speculated to be sauropod dinosaurs (~215—66 MYA). An alternative theory is that they may be long-necked monitor lizards, and Bernard Heuvelmans pointed out that the isiququmadevu's "long neck" "might indeed be only relatively long, like a monitor's compared with a crocodile's". Nevertheless, Heuvelmans felt that Lewanika's animal and the lizard-monster reported by Hamlyn were some of the few African neodinosaurs which genuinely resembled sauropod dinosaurs, and, conseuquently, he considered the Zambezi one of only three regions where such animals could have been found, if only historically.

The sightings of Pare and Saunders are generally considered to have been cases of mistaken identity. When Saunders' sighting was reported, a number of naturalists gave their opinion on what his animal could have been. Barrie Reynolds of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum's Ethnography Department suggested it could have been simply a very large rock python (Python sebae), although Saunders insisted that the animal was unlike any python he had ever seen. Another scientist from the same museum, Clayton Holliday, felt that Saunders and his workmen could have seen two large crocodiles in the act of mating, although he did not discount the possible existence of a large undiscovered water-snake. Heuvelmans felt that a combination of Barrie's and Holliday's theories, a pair of large rock pythons seen in coitus, was a better explanation, and that a python could also explain Pare's sighting.

A hunter named Togo Keynes suggested that Saunders had seen a row of otters swimming, an explanation which Heuvelmans found extremely implausible given Saunders' claim that the animal had stood erect out of the water for several seconds. Unlike pinnipeds, otters are not capable of "standing" in deep water. However, Heuvelmans felt that an otter could explain the bulldog-headed animal sometimes reported.