Case file · Sacred site
Lake Fundudzi, the sacred lake
The Venda regard Lake Fundudzi in the Soutpansberg as sacred, home of a python god of fertility and of ancestral spirits; visitors are expected to greet the lake turned away from it.
1931 CE · -22.85, 30.31 · status: legend
The account
Tradition says its waters do not mix with the rivers that feed it, and that a white crocodile guards it. The lake formed when an ancient landslide dammed the Mutale River. The year is the publication of Hugh Stayt's ethnography The Bavenda, one of the first written descriptions.