The Oracle of the Ngongo Rainmakers
JOURNAL ENTRY 002Coordinates: Sankuru District, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic of Congo
Ethnographic Group: Ngongo (Bantu)
Today, I observed the tail end of a rainmaking ritual conducted by the Ngongo, led by an elder known as Mukalenga wa Nzolo — "Chief of Thunder." In the ceremonial grove stood a giant Ironwood (Milicia excelsa), the base of which hosted the glowing mutombo wa lola, or “tree of seeing.” The term refers not to the tree itself but to the bioluminescent bracket fungus growing on its base. The species is likely Panellus stipticus or a related genus known for faint luminescence (Desjardin et al., 2008).
The fungus is believed to glow only under "true rain", that is, rain summoned through proper ritual and ancestral alignment. Mukalenga demonstrated a kind of fungal divination: after the invocation chants, if the mushroom glows, the ancestors have accepted the call and rains will be fruitful and timely. If not, there is disharmony in the lineage or ritual fault.
In darkness, I too saw the faint greenish halo from the fungus, more perceptible through peripheral vision. But the glow is not just a light; it is a sign, a verdict from the cosmological court of Nzambi, the sky god. The community treats the fungi like barometers of spiritual health.
To understand this, one must grasp the Ngongo cosmology where light, especially subtle light, is a medium of divine approval. Light emitted without fire; the cool, green shimmer of mutombo wa lola is ancestral, not earthly.
There’s an ecological explanation here: humidity and specific temperatures enhance bioluminescence. But this isn't how the knowledge is organized or lived. The fungus is not a data point; it is a node in a cosmological feedback system. It is deeply participatory, the people chant, the forest responds. Ritual creates real-time ecological monitoring.
What concerns me is that such knowledge, if abstracted or extracted into Western frameworks, loses its relational essence. If we treat mutombo wa lola as merely a bioluminescent species rather than a being that responds to human conduct, we amputate its meaning.
Desjardin, D. E., Oliveira, A. G., & Stevani, C. V. (2008). Fungi bioluminescence revisited. Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences, 7(2), 170–182.
