#Likouala

[prof-marvolius]

Críptido del día: Ndendecki

Descripción: La Ndendecki es una tortuga gigante vista en el río Likouala aux Herbes en Dem. Congo. Los criptozoólogos creen que la criatura es una tortuga de caparazón blando, aunque mucho más grande. Suele contarse junto con otros críptidos africanos, como Mokele-Mbembe y Kongamato.

[cryptid-quest]

Cryptid of the Day: Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu

Description: The Likouala swamp is known internationally for supposedly harboring the Mokele-mbembe, but there could be a second dinosaur swimming through the swamps of the Republic of the Congo, the Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu. Said to resemble a Stegosaurus, sightings were collected in the 1980s by Roy Mackal from indigenous people.

[thegenxorcist]

The Emela-ntouka

The same Likouala swamp region of the Congo which is supposed to be home to the Mokele-mbembe may also contain another living dinosaurian: the Emela-ntouka (literally “killer of elephants”). This stout, rhinoceros-like creature is reputed to have a penchant for killing elephants with its single prominent horn.

Lucien Blancou, chief game inspector in French Equatorial Africa in the 1950s wrote of a ferocious creature in the Congo, larger than a buffalo, that was considered the most dangerous animal by the Kelle pygmies: “…the presence of a beast which sometimes disembowels elephants is also known, but it does not seem to be prevalent there now as in the preceding districts. A specimen was supposed to have been killed twenty years ago at Dongou, but on the left of the Ubangi and in the Belgian Congo...”

The “Emela-ntouka” of the Congo

[godzilla-and-aang-monsters]

Suwa

Altura: 540 metros

Longitud: 1,080 metros

Peso: 300,000 toneladas

Primer Avistamiento: Monte Roraima [Tierra: Teratoverso]

Controles: Tierra Control [Cola de latigo y Camuflaje] Agua Control [Veneno dermico]

Guarida: Pantano Likouala [Tierra:Teratoverso] Jungla Iridiscente y poblados aledaños [Avatarverso]

Aspecto: Argentinosaurus + Dreadnougthus

Aliados:

Humanos: Aang, Katara, Soka, Iroh, Zuko

Kaijus y otras bestias: Anguirus, Baragon, Behemoth, Mothra, Rodan, Godzilla

Enemigos:

Humanos: Ozai y Azula

Kaijus y otras bestias: King Ghidorah

[bestcryptids]

The Ndendecki is a large cryptid turtle from the Republic of the Congo. It was reported in the Likouala aux Herbes River and was about 15 feet or 4.5 meters wide and round in shape. According to eyewitnesses, it was harmless and fed on vegetation at the bottom of the river.

[briery]

Likouala-aux-Herbes River near Epena, Likouala Region, Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).

[stochasticplanet]

1.384414°N, 17.102660°E Epena district, Likouala department, Republic of the Congo photo by alborbola — Lake Tele lies in the middle of the West Congolian Swamp Forest, one of the least explored regions of the world due to sheer difficulty in traversing a thickly vegetated, meters-deep swamp that, according to Wondermondo, is full of "fierce bees, other venom spitting insects, leeches and countless other vermins". The lake is of unknown origin, as it has no inflows or outflows; the water is more acidic than grapefruit juice, and is so full of organic matter that it permits less than ten centimeters of visibility. I am guessing that the guy in the center of the frame is wearing Houston Rockets shorts in honor of Dikembe Mutombo, the Congolese hall-of-famer who had just wrapped up his fourth season with the Rockets at the time this photo was taken. Though I guess it's possible he was really into Brent Barry.

[dragoncreator312]

[mecthology]

Mokele-mbembe, the living Dinosaur.

There have been many sightings in the Congo and Cameroon. Its meat is apparently poisonous, as a group of villagers once killed one and everybody who ate the meat died shortly afterwards. Besides the Sasquatch, Loch Ness Monster, and Mothman, this is one of the most well-known cryptids.

In the jungle of central Africa countries of Congo, Cameroon, and Gabon there were reports of an animal with a long neck, a long tail, and rounded shape tracks with three claws. The closest known animal that has these characteristics is a sauropod dinosaur. When some of the local people of the Likouala region would draw in the dirt or sand a representation of Mokèlé-mbèmbé they drew the shape of a sauropod dinosaur. Then when they were shown a picture of a sauropod dinosaur they said that picture is Mokèlé-mbèmbé.

Its body size is somewhere between the size of a hippopotamus and an elephant. Its length has been reported to be between 5 to 10 meters. The length of the neck is between 1.6 to 3.3 meters. The length of the tail is between 1.6 to 3.3 meters. The reports out of Cameroon have reported Mokèlé-mbèmbé to be up to 75 feet in length. There have also been reports of a frill on the back of the head and a single tooth, sometimes said to be a horn. The frill is like the comb found on a male chicken.

The pygmies of the Likouala swamp region report that the essential diet of Mokèlé-mbèmbé consists of the Malombo plant. Since it only eats plants then Mokèlé-mbèmbé is classified as a herbivore. Mokèlé-mbèmbé lives most of the time underwater except when it eats or travels to another part of the swamp. It has as been reported that Mokèlé-mbèmbé does not like hippopotamuses and will kill them on sight, but it does not eat them. Hippopotamuses cannot be found where Mokèlé-mbèmbé lives. It has as been reported that Mokèlé-mbèmbé will overturn boats and kill the people from the boats by biting them and hitting them with its tail, but it does not eat the people.

Follow @mecthology for more cryptid lores and legends. DM for pic credit or removal. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbkdsehpzof/?utm_medium=tumblr

[draconesmundi]

So the african cryptids were removed, but do you have the art/entries for them saved somewhere? It’d be interesting to see, and might work as a sort of “sneak peak” without revealing any actual book content

Art and bio entry were done on paper, but I do have the mythology entry recycled into the makara/grootslang chapter (as this animal has a range covering South Asia, West Asia and Africa) and it looks a little like this:

Cryptozoology in the Congo Basin:

The Congo Basin in Central Africa contains one of the largest areas of undisturbed rainforest in the world. It is home to both pygmy civilisations and tribes from the Bantu language groups. Europeans will often use the Congo rainforest as an imagined home for all sorts of monsters; the pseudoscience of cryptozoology (the study of ‘hidden animals’) places many terrifying reptiles in this area.

Many of these imagined creatures, or ‘cryptids’ have features of both elephants and reptiles, and therefore may be inspired by the makara, who has been known to live in that part of Africa.

The most famous of these cryptids is mokele-mbembe – a cryptid loosely based on local words of the Bangala people. The cryptid was first reported by Carl Hagenbeck in 1909 as a mysterious ‘half elephant half dragon’. In 1913  Ludwig Freiherr von Stein was the first to report the name Mokele Mbembe, and added that it was brownish grey in colour, the size of an elephant, a long neck, a single long tooth or horn. The animal was known to attack boats but leave its victims dead and uneaten. Since 1913 there have been 12 more expeditions into the Likouala swamp region specifically in search of the Mokele-Mbembe, with results ranging from rare sightings to just broken twigs.

German adventurer Lt Paul Gratz in 1911 reported a crocodile-like creature with scale-less skin and clawed toes in Lake Bangweulu, and named it Nsanga.

Alfred Aloysious Smith’s 1927 memoir about exploring the Congo mentions the discovery of a giant pan-sized footprint with three claws – he named the owner of this footprint Amali. He also mentions the Jago-Nini or ‘giant diver’, who was known to emerge from the water to eat people.

While many of these monsters can silently sneak up on people, the Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu is known for its loud ‘mbielu’ call, and is named for it. Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu is a large reptile with ‘planks’ or wedge-shaped plates coming out of its back in the Likouala region of the Republic of Congo, reported by the people living in the villages of Bounila and Ebolo.

Another creature, the Nguma-monene was sighted near the Dongu-Mataba river, with a low slung belly, and triangular dorsal plates similar in appearance but smaller than those found on the Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu; another large and dangerous reptilian animal first sighted by a European but barely mentioned in local mythology, reported by Joseph Ellis in 1961 and in 1971.

The Emela-ntouka (or ‘killer of elephants’, also called Aseka-moke or Ngamba-namae) is a large brown animal possessing a single horn or tusk, lacking dorsal plates or ridges (a common feature in many Congo lake monsters) and has the overall appearance of a reptilian rhinoceros with elephant ears. One of the earliest descriptions of this animal was in 1954 by Lucien Blancou – a game inspector for Likouala game reserve. Two expeditions were made in 1980 and 1981 by Dr Roy P Mackal.

The Badigui or Ngakoula-ngou is described as giant snakelike animal, while the Chipekwe is a giant lizard that preys on hippos, elephants and rhinos. The Irizima, said to live in Lake Edward, is black, larger than a hippopotamus, horned, and breathes so heavily it can cause large waves in the water.

All these creatures are reptilian, some are serpentine, and many have the ears of an elephant, suggesting there is some connection with them and the makara. The only other large reptiles in the Congo Basin are the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus), the West African slender snouted crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus), the African rock python (Python sebae), none of which are so monstrously huge that they could tackle rhinos and elephants.

Some notes

As this was lifted from a list of notes I have on world mythology, the prose in itself is almost list-like. I know a few people who are better at sentence structure than I am, and will get notes from them in the next edit.

Also the ‘makara’ is a creature from Indian mythology. I have a dragon with elephantine features (which are always changing, so I’m not posting the biology bio yet until I have this down to a point!) and I am using the ‘elephant dragon’ chapter to talk about the Makara in Indian mythology, the Grootslang in South African and sometimes Benin mythology, a brief overview of cryptids in the Congo and some links to ‘Mesopotamian Chaos Serpents’ - these are huge aquatic serpents with vast ranges, and therefore dwell in a variety of locations. In my 2020 rewrite I might make the Indian, West Asian and African ‘elephant faced dragons’ into different species or subspecies, or I will keep them all as one very diverse species. Who knows?

Sharing My Work

Obviously I need to share more stuff, but for things with complete bios AND complete images, I need to go back to 2017, or I would need to show current works in progress - the former option shows outdated words and art, the latter option shows things which are in constant change.

When I complete a full 2020 rewrite of a chapter, should I put the 2018 version of the chapter somewhere on my blog for easy access? I was planning to have a gallery of 2017 artworks and maybe the 2018 artworks as well if I replace them all with new art, but would art+writing be appreciated?

[prof-marvolius]

Críptido del día: Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu.

Descripción: El nombre significa "el animal con tablas que crecen en su espalda" cuando se traduce, es un  críptido de base acuática por lo que antiguamente se creía que era pariente cercano del  Stegosaurio o del Kentrosaurio que vive en la región de Likouala en la República del Congo. Actualmente algunos criptozóologos creen que esta relacionado con el muhuru avistado en Kenia. La mayoría de los avistamientos sólo han sido reportados por aldeanos locales en los pueblos de Bunila y Ebolo, afirmando que la criatura tiene algas verdes en la parte expuesta de su cuerpo cuando sale a la superficie del agua. No dan una descripción precisa de los pies de Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu, diciendo que la criatura fue vista cuando estaba sumergida en las aguas.

[cryptid-quest]

Cryptid of the Day: Ndendecki

Description: The Ndendecki is a giant turtle seen in the Likouala aux Herbes River in the Dem. Congo. Cryptozoologists believe the creature to be a soft-shell turtle, though much bigger. It is usually discussed along with other African cryptids, such as Mokele-Mbembe & Kongamato. 

[lpbestiary]

Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu is a cryptid thought to dwell in the Likouala Department of the Republic of the Congo. It has been described as a large, dinosaur-like creature with plank-like armoured plates on its back. In this way, it resembles the Stegosaurus.

Local villages claim that Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu spends much of its time in the water. It is often said to have green algae growing on its body. It is said to be herbivorous.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Suggest a spook.

[godzilla-and-aang-monsters]

Mokele Mbembe

Altura: 200 metros

Longitud: 550 metros

Peso: 135,000 toneladas

Primer Avistamiento: Selva del Congo [Tierra: Teratoverso]

Controles: Tierra Control [Cola de latigo y Camuflaje] Agua Control [Veneno dermico]

Guarida: Pantano Likouala [Tierra:Teratoverso] Pantano Brumoso [Avatarverso]

Aspecto: Apatosaurus + Platybelodon

Aliados:

Humanos: Aang, Katara, Soka, Iroh, Zuko

Kaijus y otras bestias: Anguirus, Baragon, Behemoth, Mothra, Rodan, Godzilla

Enemigos:

Humanos: Ozai y Azula

Kaijus y otras bestias: King Ghidorah

[travelwag]

Summary - The Foreign and Commonwealth Officer (FCO) advise against all travel to within 50km of the border with the Central African Republic in Likouala region; the FCO advise against all but essential travel to the Boko, Kindamba, Kinkala, Mayama, and Mindouli districts of the Pool region and the Mouyondzi district of Bouenza region with the exception of the region and city of Brazzaville Read more at The Foreign Office

[lupitovi]

Arthur H et Nicolas Repac - Cahier d’un retour au pays natale

Et je me dis Bordeaux et Nantes et Liverpool et New York et San Francisco 

pas un bout de ce monde qui ne porte mon empreinte digitale et mon calcanéum sur le dos des gratte-ciel et ma crasse dans le scintillement des gemmes ! Qui peut se vanter d’avoir mieux que moi ? Virginie, Tennessee, Géorgie, Alabama Putréfactions monstrueuses de révoltes inopérantes Marais de sang putrides 

Qui et quels nous sommes ? Admirable question ! A force de regarder les arbres je suis devenu un arbre et mes longs pieds d'arbre ont creusé dans le sol de larges sacs à venin de hautes villes d'ossements à force de penser au Congo je suis devenu un Congo bruissant de forêts et de fleuves où le fouet claque comme un grand étendard l'étendard du prophète où l'eau fait likouala-likouala où l'éclair de la colère lance sa hache verdâtre et force les sangliers de la putréfaction dans la belle orée violente des narines. Au bout du petit matin le soleil qui toussote et crache ses poumons Au bout du petit matin un petit train de sable un petit train de mousseline un petit train de grains de maïs Au bout du petit matin un grand galop de pollen un grand galop d'un petit train de petites filles un grand galop de colibris un grand galop de dagues pour défoncer la poitrine de la terre douaniers anges qui montez aux portes de l'écume la garde des prohibitions je déclare mes crimes et qu'il n'y a rien à dire pour ma défense. Danses. Idoles. Relaps. Moi aussi J'ai assassiné Dieu de ma paresse de mes paroles de mes gestes de mes chansons obscènes J'apporté des plumes de perroquet des dépouilles de chat musqué J'ai lassé la patience des missionnaires insulté les bienfaiteurs de l'humanité. Défié Tyr. Défié Sidon. Adoré le Zambèze. L'étendue de ma perversité me confond! Mais pourquoi brousse impénétrable encore cacher le vif zéro de ma mendicité et par un souci de noblesse apprise ne pas entonner l'horrible bond de ma laideur pahouine ? 

voum rooh oh voum rooh oh à charmer les serpents à conjurer les morts voum rooh oh à contraindre la pluie à contrarier les raz-de-marée voum rooh oh à empêcher que ne tourne l'ombre voum rooh oh que mes cieux à moi s'ouvrent - moi sur une route, enfant, mâchant une racine de canne à sucre -traîné homme sur une route sanglante une corde au cou -debout au milieu d'un cirque immense, sur mon front noir une couronne de daturas 

voum rooh s'envoler plus haut que le frisson plus haut que les sorcières vers d'autres étoiles exaltation féroce de forêts et de montagnes déracinées à l'heure où nul n'y pense les îles liées pour mille ans !

ô lumière amicale ô fraîche source de la lumière ceux qui n'ont inventé ni la poudre ni la boussole ceux qui n'ont jamais su dompter la vapeur ni l'électricité ceux qui n'ont exploré ni les mers ni le ciel mais ceux sans qui la terre ne serait pas la terre 

gibbosité d'autant plus bienfaisante que la terre déserte davantage la terre silo où se préserve et mûrit ce que la terre a de plus terre ma négritude n'est pas une pierre, sa surdité ruée contre la clameur du jour ma négritude n'est pas une taie d'eau morte sur l'œil mort de la terre ma négritude n'est ni une tour ni une cathédrale 

elle plonge dans la chair rouge du sol elle plonge dans la chair ardente du ciel elle troue l'accablement opaque de sa droite patience. Eia pour le Kaïlcédrat royal ! Eia pour ceux qui n'ont jamais rien inventé pour ceux qui n'ont jamais rien exploré pour ceux qui n'ont jamais rien dompté 

mais ils s'abandonnent, saisis, à l'essence de toute chose ignorants des surfaces mais saisis par le mouvement de toute chose insoucieux de dompter, mais jouant le jeu du monde 

véritablement les fils aînés du monde poreux à tous les souffles du monde aire fraternelle de tous les souffles du monde lit sans drain de toutes les eaux du monde étincelle du feu sacré du monde chair de la chair du monde palpitant du mouvement même du monde !           Tiède petit matin de vertus ancestrales Sang ! Sang ! tout notre sang ému par le cœur mâle du soleil ceux qui savent la féminité de la lune au corps d'huile l'exaltation réconciliée de l'antilope et de l'étoile ceux dont la survie chemine en la germination de l'herbe ! Eia parfait cercle du monde et close concordance !