Mwambu and Sela

Long ago, Wele Khakaba, the creator, lived on Mount Elgon, the mountain the Luhya call Masaba.

Wele made the sky, and set the sun and the moon in it: the sun to shine by day, the moon by night.

Then Wele made the first man, Mwambu. In Luhya, the sky is likulu.

Mwambu walked the forests alone, and the forests were full of wild beasts.

In a clearing he found a house on tall stilts, above the reach of the beasts. In Luhya, a house is enju.

Inside lived Sela, the first woman. She lowered a ladder, and Mwambu climbed up.

Mwambu and Sela made their home there, and they had children.

Their children came down to the land below Masaba, and spread across the hills of western Kenya.

Those children became the Luhya, who still tell of Mwambu and Sela, the first of their people.