Tradition / Region: Basotho Mythology, Lesotho Mythology, South African Mythology
Alternate Names: Kholumolumo; Kgodumodumo
Category: Mountain dweller
The Myth
Long ago, in the valleys and mountains of the Basotho, there arose a monstrous being called Khanyapa.
It had no fixed shape. It was vast, bloated, and ever-growing. Its hunger knew no limit. As it roamed from village to village, it swallowed everything in its path—men, women, children, cattle, wild beasts. The more it devoured, the larger it became. From its body lashed multiple sharp tongues, which it wielded like weapons. Its voice was so terrible that it made the rocks tremble.
Soon there were no towns left standing. The valleys were silent. Humanity had vanished.
Only one woman survived. She had hidden herself in ashes, masking her scent and appearance, and so the monster did not detect her. When Khanyapa had eaten all it could find, its swollen body dragged itself into a mountain pass and became wedged there, too distended to move further.
Alone in the emptied world, the woman wept and prayed that humankind should not end. The gods heard her plea. She conceived and bore a son in an abandoned stable.
When she looked upon the child, she saw around his neck a necklace of divining charms. She named him Ditaolane—the Diviner.
But Ditaolane was no ordinary child. In the time it took his mother to prepare straw for his bed, he had already grown into a full man, wise in speech. Seeing the desolation around him, he asked why the earth lay empty. His mother told him of the monster whose hunger had devoured the world. She pointed to the mountain pass where the great body of Khanyapa lay.
Though she warned him, Ditaolane took up a knife and went alone to confront the devourer.
Khanyapa swallowed him as it had swallowed all others.
But Ditaolane did not die.
Inside the monster’s vast belly, among the swallowed multitudes, he drew his knife and began to cut. He tore at the entrails of Khanyapa. The monster roared, shaking the earth, but at last it collapsed and died.
Still trapped inside, Ditaolane cut his way outward. As the blade pierced flesh, thousands of voices cried out—those who had been swallowed alive. He opened a great wound, and through it poured the nations of the earth, restored to life.
The people rejoiced at first, but soon suspicion took root in their hearts. Who was this man who had survived the beast? What power did he possess? Fearing him, they plotted his death.
But Ditaolane would not be taken. He escaped them by turning himself into stone.
And so the world was freed from the devouring monster, yet the savior who restored humanity withdrew from it, leaving behind the memory of the time when all living things were swallowed and reborn from the belly of Khanyapa.
Gallery
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Kamappa. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 14, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamappa
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The Khanyapa