Fumo Liyongo or Liongo was a Swahili writer and chieftain on the northern part of the coast of East Africasomewhere between the 9th and 13th centuries. He is celebrated as a hero, warrior, and poet in traditional poems, stories, and songs of the Swahili people, many associated with wedding rituals and gungu dances. Liongo himself is credited with many such songs and poems. Oral tradition is generally coherent in describing Liongo as a king or prince of Pate Island. Several towns on the Tanzanian coast claim to be Liongo's birthplace. He is supposedly buried at Ozi.
Many elements of the epics of Liongo appear to relate to the transition of the East African coastal society from matrilinear, Bantu organization to a new patrilinear Islamic model. Liongo is sometimes described as a follower of traditional African beliefs and sometimes as a Muslim. This had led some scholars to suggest that he could have lived around the 13th century, when Arabs and Persians began creating settlements in East Africa and the Swahili culture began to take shape.
Character
Traditional stories of Liongo have many common traits with those of European heroes such as Achilles, Sigurd, and Robin Hood. A strict prince and a mighty warrior, he was incredibly tall and almost invulnerable. The best known part of his life is his fall from grace, either a consequence of the people's anger at his strictness or of a war of succession with his brother, sometimes called Hemedi. As a consequence of his fall, Liongo was put in chains but began singing; his songs were also disguised messages to his mother. All the people began to dance and, amid the confusion, Liongo managed to escape. As is the case with Sigurd, Liongo was killed because of a betrayal. He was betrayed by his son, who had unveiled the secret of Liongo's invulnerability. The only thing that could kill him was a copper nail or pin piercing his navel, a secret only known to Liongo himself and his mother Mbowe. Some sources report that when Liongo was killed by the copper pin he knelt, leaning against his bow, to die so that his death would not be seen.
