Legend of Tadi-mothwana: a myth unpacked

Though not everything said in ancient times can, of course, be taken literally, many researchers, myself included, have seen more to these tales than meets the eye – especially where Sumerian, Egyptian, European and American versions are corroborated by African versions of the same tales. One such ‘myth’ is the Setswana belief that lightning – called Tadi or Tladi – is caused by a bird that lays an explosive egg while in the air! 

Last week, we demonstrated that the ‘monster’ in the Legend of Godumo-dumo was actually the god Ninurta’s transport plane, called the IM.DU.GUD in Sumerian. According to Zecharia Sitchin in The Wars of Gods and Men, this flying contraption is perhaps best described in the second tablet of thirteen in a long epic known as Lugal e Ud Melam-bi, translated by Samuel Geller. Now, IM.DU.GUD is typically rendered “Great Storm Bird” by translators…but we will soon see that this best fits another ‘bird’ of lore – the Tadi – which we unpack this week.