The Heaven Country: From the Bantu People of Africa, Part 2 of 2

Let us continue with the tale “The Girls who wanted New Teeth,” which details a young girl’s encounter with the Supreme God Imana from the Banyarwanda people near Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s great lakes, which borders Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Chapter 4: The Heaven Country and the Heaven People

The Girls who wanted New Teeth

“[…] Again, a baby was born – this time a bonny little girl. When she was about three years old, her mother one evening took her on her back and went out to the bush where the two little bodies had been laid long ago. There, in her great trouble, she cried to Imana, ‘Yee, baba wee! O my Father! O Imana, Lord of Rwanda, I have never once disobeyed you; will you not save this little one?’ She looked up, and, behold! There was Imana standing before her, looking as kind as when she had first seen Him, and He said, ‘Come here and see your children. I have brought them back to life. You may smile at them now.’

And so she did, and they ran to her, crying, ‘Mother! Mother!’ Then Imana touched her poor, worn face, and her eyes dimmed with crying, and her bowed shoulders, and she was young again, tall and straight and more beautiful than ever. He gave her a beautiful cloth and beads to wear […]. Then He went with them to their home. The husband saw them coming and could not believe his eyes – he was too much astonished to speak. He brought out the one stool which every hut contains, and offered it to the guest, but Imana would not sit down yet. He said, ‘Send out for four more stools.’ So the man sent and borrowed them from the neighbors, and they all sat down, he and his wife and the two boys, and Imana in the place of honor.

Then Imana said, ‘Now look at your wife and your children. You have got to make them happy and live comfortably with them. You will soon enough see her smiling at you and at them. It was I who forbade her to laugh, and then some wicked people went and set the children on to try to make her do so, and they died. Now I have brought them back to life. Here they are with their mother. Now see that you live happily together.’ […]”