The epic comprises songs, anecdotes, and narratives centered on Liyongo, with other characters including his brother Daudi Mringwari, his mother, the slave girl Saada, the forest-dwelling Sanye and Dahalo. In Pokomo tradition, figures such as Sango Vere appear. The hero is generally known as Liyongo Fumo or Fumo Liyongo. Historical records confirm that a prominent Liyongo lived more than a thousand years ago, though there seems to have been another figure with that name. One ruled Ozi and fought Pate (Shariff 1991), but here the focus is on the poet-hero.

From the late nineteenth century, scholars and poets began recording the tradition in Arabic and Roman script, focusing on the Swahili versions. Early texts include “Mashairi ya Liongo” and “Hadithi ya Liongo” (Steere 1870), Utenzi wa Fumo Liyongo (Kijumwa 1913), and “The Story of Liongo Fumo” (Werner 1933; rpt. 1968). Kijumwa’s work is significant because he composed it directly from oral tradition, much as Elias Lönnrot assembled the Kalevala from Finnish and Karelian songs.

The portrayals differ. Kijumwa’s Utenzi presents Liyongo as a loyal citizen, while Steere depicts him as a cruel oppressor, recalling Gilgamesh. Yet all versions agree he was physically imposing. In Kijumwa’s telling, when Daudi Mringwari invites Liyongo to meet feared Orma visitors, Liyongo’s presence terrifies them. The Pokomo tradition recounts his victory over their hero Sango Vere. The Swahili also remember him as a great singer and composer whose performances enchanted listeners.

At the heart of the epic is the conflict between Liyongo and Daudi Mringwari, who repeatedly tries to kill his brother. Motives vary. One version says their father had two sons: Liyongo, older but born of a concubine, and Daudi, legitimate. When the king died, factions split over succession; Daudi became king, but both brothers remained suspicious of each other. Eventually, Liyongo is killed by his own son, who, bribed by enemies, learns that his father’s only vulnerability is a copper needle through the navel. He betrays him while Liyongo sleeps.

The epic is not a single continuous narrative but a cycle of episodes, anecdotes, and songs, some performed independently. This makes it a cyclic epic, comparable to The Book of Dede Korkut, and suggests scholars should analyze it by episodes, themes, and characters rather than as a unified story. Several episodes are especially notable. Early in Kijumwa’s Utenzi, the Orma, impressed yet fearful of Liyongo, even propose marriage with one of their women so his strength might pass to their descendants. Another cluster of stories recounts Daudi Mringwari’s attempts to kill Liyongo and the latter’s repeated escapes. One famous episode tells how, imprisoned and chained, Liyongo communicated with his mother through Saada, the slave girl. In a song carrying a hidden message, he asked her to conceal a file inside a loaf of bread. Using the file, he cut his chains during a singing performance that distracted the guards, and escaped. Afterwards, Liyongo lived with the Sanye and Dahalo in the wilderness. At Daudi Mringwari’s urging, they plotted to kill him by arranging that he climb a palm tree for fruit, intending to shoot him. But Liyongo used his bow to bring down many fruits without climbing, thereby outwitting the scheme. Finally, his enemies resorted to exploiting his son’s betrayal.

The account of Liyongo’s death resonates with wider epic traditions. Like Achilles in Greek mythology or Sumanguru in Sunjata, Liyongo possessed a hidden weakness. When stabbed with the copper needle, he staggered to the town well, where he died kneeling with bow in hand. Townspeople, too afraid to approach, went without water until his mother came and discovered he was dead, and all mourned him.

Another approach to the Liyongo epic would be to focus on the songs. These include hunting songs, lullabies, and wedding songs. Each song encapsulates a particular episode or dimension of the epic. Different versions of songs are available in printed sources such as Four Centuries of Swahili Verse: A Literary History and Anthology (Knappert 1979) and Liyongo Songs: Poems Attributed to Fumo Liyongo (Miehe 2004).

The Liyongo epic also serves ideological purposes, articulating Swahili identity and their relations with outsiders. In Kijumwa’s text, Liyongo’s intimidation of the Orma symbolized the Swahili hope of triumphing over them, reflecting memories of sixteenth-century invasions. The Pokomo, conversely, explained their subordination to the Swahili through the story. As Alice Werner has noted, Pokomo fishermen told how Liyongo conquered them and imposed a “tribute of heads”—children from each village—reportedly paid into the nineteenth century (Werner 1927, 48). Thus, the epic legitimized social hierarchies and political memories.

Importantly, the Liyongo epic continues to flourish outside written texts. Scholars still have opportunities to record oral versions from rural communities, fishermen, and traders. During research visits to the Kenya coast, for example, I heard stories not found in the written record. An elderly woman at Witu, Mwana Ntiti, described how baby Liyongo drank increasing amounts of milk daily, forcing his father to work harder to keep up. In Lamu, I was told he walked in the ocean, catching fish with his bare hands and drying them on his head. Such oral accounts reveal the epic’s vitality and show how much remains to be learned.