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The n'yamala ("nya mala", Fang: "mother of canoes") is a neodinosaurian cryptid reported from Gabon's Ogowe and Ngounie Rivers.[1][2][3] It is described as a dinosaur-like animal, and has been equated with the mokele-mbembe, as well as Gabon's own amali,[4] although it is alternatively described as a mammalian predator.[5]
Attestations[]
The retired West Coast trader Alfred Aloysius Smith (1861 – 1931), better known as Trader Horn, may have referred to the n'yamala in his ghostwritten biography Trader Horn (1927).
| “ | I've seen the amali's footprint. About the size of a good frying pan in circumference and three claws instead o' five ... What but some great creature like the amali could account for the broken ivories we used to come across in the so-called elephant cemeteries? ... I've seen a drawing of him in those Bushman caves. I chiseled one out whole once and gave it to President Grant for a souvenir.
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Although Smith did not give a detailed description of the amali, which he believed was synonymous with the jago-nini, James Powell and Roy P. Mackal argue that the name amali may have been his rendering of n'yamala.[4] However, according to Bernard Heuvelmans, amali is an Mpongwé, not Fang, name.[3]
James Powell learned of the n'yamala in Lambaréné, Gabon, while carrying out field research on crocodiles during the 1970s. Powell was showing Fang witch doctor Michael Obiang pictures of animals – including a bear, which he could not identify – and, when he produced a drawing of Diplodocus, Obiang identified it as an n'yamala, an animal found in remote jungle lakes. He described the animal to Powell, and, without being prompted, added that it feed on "jungle chocolate," a variety of fruiting liana. Powell, who was familiar with early accounts of the mokele-mbembe, expected the animal to have a horn, but, no matter how hard he pressed Obiang on this point, he insisted that the n'yamala did not have a horn. Using pictures here and in other villages, Powell received the same results: the sauropod and plesiosaur were identified as n'yamala and the pterosaur as a bat, while the tyrannosaur, stegosaur, and ceratopsian were unknown. Powell returned to Gabon for further research in 1979, finding that people further upriver did not known what the n'yamala looked like, and could not identify his sauropod and plesiosaur pictures.[4]
A different description of the n'yamala was given to Bernard Heuvelmans by his Gabonese correspondent Anne Avaro, who had received her information from the Orungu people, who inhabited Gabon before the Fang.[5]
Telecommunications engineer Michel Marchand, who has investigated various cryptids in remote parts of Gabon, has identified a region in the northeast of the country, around Lope National Park, from which several recent n'yamala reports have emanated. Marchand and Michell Ballot intend to explore this area in January and August 2022.[6]
Description[]
According to the Fang people, the n'yamala is an animal with a long neck and tail (it has been identified with images of sauropods and plesiosaurs), about ten metres long from the tip of its snout to the tip of its tail, and weighing as much as an elephant: it is reputed to be as strong as a caterpillar tractor. It is also reputed to have "fillets," thread-like filaments, on the back of its head and neck, and a pair of pouches around its shoulders, in which it stores nuts and fruits. It is said to be a very rare animal found only in remote lakes deep in the jungle, which is only ever seen by the greatest hunters. It has no horn, and, like the mokele-mbembe, feeds on malombo lianas. It is said to remain in the water during the day, and come out at night, between midnight and about five in the morning, to feed. An n'yamala supposedly "never dies," and is never killed by hunters. Despite its herbivorous behaviour, it, like many Central African cryptids, is said to have a great hatred of hippopotamuses, which it kills.[4]
According to the Orungu people, the n'yamala resembles a big hairy lion or dog, with its feet turned inwards, and, according to two eyewitnesses, a ventral pocket or pouch. It is a very rare animal, inhabiting great lakes and forests in the hilly regions, and hides in lakes and rivers to ambush animals which go down to the water to drink or cross. However, is is also reputed to be a herbivore, as it is believed to arrange mangoes and nuts into piles, alerting hunters to its presence. It is considered a dangerous animal because it has no fear of man, but is seen only rarely; its powerful, carrying call is heard more often. The ugliness of the n'yamala is proverbial among the Orungu, leading to the expression "ugly as an n'yamala".[5]
Sightings[]
~1946[]
Michel Obiang, a Fang witch-doctor, claimed to have seen an n'yamala when he was twenty-six years old, which would have been in around 1946. He observed it emerging from the water in the early morning hours at the spot where the Ikoy River diverges from the N'Gounie River, where he was camped. When he returned to the area with James Powell, Obiang seemed genuinely frightened.[4]
Theories[]
- See also: Mokele-mbembe§Theories and water lion§Theories
Several Fang people interviewed by James Powell identified illustrations of Diplodocus and Plesiosaurus as the n'yamala, after being unable to identiy a picture of a bear, which are not native to Gabon. They were also unable to identify pictures of Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops.[4] N'yamala is widely regarded as a regional name for the mokele-mbembe.[1][2] Roy P. Mackal theorised that the n'yamala was simply a Fang folk memory of the mokele-mbembe — their path of migration to Gabon crossed the regions from which that cryptid is reported — and that the animal itself is not actually found in Gabon.[1]
Heuvelmans speculated that the n'yamala, as described by the Orungu, could be a Gabonese water lion, which he theorised are sabre-toothed cats adapted to an amphibious lifestyle. These animals, which have been compared to lions, have several features in common with the Orungu's version of the n'yamala, including shape, predatory aquatic habits, a very loud roar, and no fear of man. Heuvelmans suggested that the supposed pouch of the n'yamala is simply a fold of skin, which is common in mammals, especially aquatic ones.[5]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mackal, Roy P. (1987) A Living Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-Mbembe, Brill, ISBN 978-9004085435
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Heuvelmans, Bernard (1978) Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique, Plon, ISBN 978-2259003872
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Mackal, Roy P. (1980) Searching for Hidden Animals: An Inquiry Into Zoological Mysteries, Cadogan Books, ISBN 978-0946313051
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Heuvelmans, Bernard & Rivera, Jean-Luc & Barloy, Jean-Jacques (2007) Les Félins Encore Inconnus d’Afrique, Les Editions de l'Oeil du Sphinx, ISBN 978-2914405430
- ↑ Latest News on a New Gabon Expedition and Upcoming Expeditions to Find Canadian Lake Monsters (2021) — Online