The Nyanga language (native name ''Kinyanga'') is a language spoken by the Nyanga people in

Kivu Kivu was the name for a large "region" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko that bordered Lake Kivu. It included three "Sub-Regions" ("Sous-Régions" in French): Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Maniema, correspon ...

province, north-eastern

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. Speaker estimates range from 27,000 (Biebuyck & Matheene 1970) to 150,000 (1994 census). Many of the Nyanga speak

Congo Swahili Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili ...

, the dominant regional lingua franca, as a second language. Nyanga is a

Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. T ...

. Most of the (scarce) linguistic research conducted on Nyanga has been based on the materials published by Biebuyck and Mateene. Nyanga literature is best known for the tales recorded by Daniel Biebuyck in 1956 and published in 1969 and 1970, including the

Mwindo epic The ''Mwindo'' epic is an oral tale from the Congo told by the Nyanga people. The origins and creation of the Mwindo epic are mostly unknown since the story is only passed down orally. A version of the story was recorded by Kahombo Mateene and Dan ...

. This epic is titled after the main hero, ''Mwindo'', a miraculously born Pygmy-like human being who possesses not only a magical sceptre but also the power of the word. It centers around Mwindo's travels and encounters during the search for his father. In other Nyanga tales, the dog often plays an important role as a mythical animal, reflecting the importance of hunting dogs in Nyanga society.

References

*Biebuyck, Daniel P. and Kahombo C. Mateene (ed. and transl.) (1969) ''The Mwindo epic from the Banyanga (Congo Republic)''. Berkeley: University of California Press. *Biebuyck, Daniel P. and Kahombo C. Mateene (1970) ''Anthologie de la littérature orale nyanga''. Brussels: Classe des Sciences Morales et Politiques. *Kerremans, Richard (1980a) 'Réflexes bantous en Nyanga', ''Études linguistiques'', 2, 1, 93-110. *Kerremans, Richard (1980b) 'Contribution du Nyanga a l'etablissement de cinq reconstructions tonales et a l'etude lexicale des langues de la zone J', in L. Bourquiaux (ed.) ''L'expansion bantoue'', Actes du Colloque international du CNRS Viviers (France) - 4-16 avril 1977; vol. II, 415–420. *Matheene, Kahombo C. and Komwami Mateene (1994) 'Vocabulaire fondamental nyanga', ''Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere'', 39, 5-54. Nyanga-Buyi languages Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{Bantu-lang-stub