View source for Mokele-mbembe

{{Short description|Water-dwelling entity that supposedly lives in the Congo River Basin}}
{{for|the Cameroonian political theorist|Achille Mbembe}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Cryptidbox
|image = Mokele-mbembe ill artlibre jnl.png
|image_caption = Mokèlé-mbèmbé drawing
|parent = [[Sauropoda]]
|taxon = Mokele-mbembe
|first_sighting = 1776{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}}
|subivision_ranks = 
|subivisions =
}}

In several [[Bantu religion|Bantu mythologies]], '''mokele-mbembe''' (also written as "'''mokèlé-mbèmbé'''") is a mythical water-dwelling entity that is believed to exist in the [[Congo Basin|Congo River Basin]]. It is variously described as a reptilian creature, a spirit, or a member of the extinct lineage of [[Sauropoda|sauropods]].

In the early to mid-20th century, the entity became a point of focus among adherents of [[cryptozoology]] and [[young Earth creationism]], resulting in numerous expeditions led by cryptozoologists and often funded by young Earth creationists and other groups with the objective to find evidence that invalidates or contradicts the scientific consensus regarding [[evolution]]. Paleontologist [[Donald Prothero]] remarks that "the quest for Mokele-Mbembe ... is part of the effort by creationists to overthrow the theory of evolution and teaching of science by any means possible".{{sfnp|Loxton|Prothero|2013|pages=262–295}} Additionally, Prothero noted that "the only people looking for mokele-mbembe are creationist ministers, not wildlife biologists."{{sfnp|Prothero|2015|pp=233–235}}

However, in the 1940s, Roy Mackal, a microbiologist from the University of Chicago, conducted multiple expeditions to locate the animal and eyewitness testimony described it:

"The head was distinctly snake-like, a long thin tail, and a body approximating the size of an elephant, or at least that of a hippopotamus. The legs are short, with the hind legs possessing three claws. The animals are a reddish brown in color, and have a rooster-like frill running from the top of the head down the back of the neck."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-03 |title=Mokele-Mbembe: The "Living Dinosaurs" People Thought Lived In The Congo |url=https://www.iflscience.com/mokele-mbembe-the-living-dinosaurs-people-thought-lived-in-the-congo-70121 |access-date=2025-10-18 |website=IFLScience |language=en |first1=Rachael |last1=Funnell}}</ref> However, no expeditions have found evidence of the animal other than eyewitness testimonies.

Most mainstream experts believe that mokele-mbembe, as reported by Congolese natives, was probably inspired by the [[black rhinoceros]], which once thrived in the region. Historian Edward Guimont has argued that the mokele-mbembe myth grows out of earlier [[Pseudohistory|pseudohistorical]] claims about [[Great Zimbabwe]], and in turn influenced the later [[reptilian conspiracy theory]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Guimont|first1=Edward|title=Hunting Dinosaurs in Central Africa|url=https://contingentmag.org/2019/03/18/hunting-dinosaurs-africa/ |website=Contingent Magazine|access-date=9 August 2020 |language=en |date=18 March 2019}}</ref>

==History==
===20th century===
Source:<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Mokele Mbembe And Expeditions To Africa |url=http://thedailyjournalist.com/the-historian/history-of-mokele-mbembe-and-expeditions-to-africa/ |website=The Daily Journalist|date=29 March 2017 }}</ref>

The first report of the mokele-mbembe comes from German Captain {{Interlanguage link|Ludwig Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz|de}}, as described by [[Willy Ley]] in the book ''The Lungfish and the Unicorn'' (1941). Von Stein was ordered to conduct a survey of [[List of former German colonies|German colonies]] in what is now [[Cameroon]] in 1913. He heard stories of an enormous reptile called "Mokele-mbembe" alleged to live in the jungles, and included a description in his official report. According to Ley, "von Stein worded his report with utmost caution," knowing it might be seen as unbelievable.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ley |first=Willy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MwpHAAAAYAAJ |title=The Lungfish and the Unicorn |year=1941 |pages=138–139 |publisher=Modern age books}}</ref> Nonetheless, von Stein thought the tales were credible: trusted native guides had related the tales to him, and the stories were related to him by independent sources, yet featured many of the same details. Though von Stein's report was never formally published, Ley quoted von Stein as writing:

<blockquote>The animal is said to be of a brownish-gray color with a smooth skin, its size is approximately that of an [[elephant]]; at least that of a [[hippopotamus]]. It is said to have a long and very flexible neck and only one tooth but a very long one; ''some say it is a horn''. A few spoke about a long, muscular tail like that of an [[alligator]]. Canoes coming near it are said to be doomed; the animal is said to attack the vessels at once and to kill the crews but without eating the bodies. The creature is said to live in the caves that have been washed out by the river in the clay of its shores at sharp bends. It is said to climb the shores even at daytime in search of food; its diet is said to be entirely vegetable. This feature disagrees with a possible explanation as a myth. The preferred plant was shown to me, it is a kind of [[liana]] with large white blossoms, with a milky [[sap]] and [[apple]]-like fruits. At the Ssombo River I was shown a path said to have been made by this animal in order to get at its food. The path was fresh and there were plants of the described type nearby. But since there were too many tracks of elephants, hippos, and other large mammals it was impossible to make out a particular spoor with any amount of certainty.</blockquote>

However, according to [[Brian Dunning (author)|Brian Dunning]], in a 1929 German book by science author Wilhelm Bölsche called ''Dragons: Legend and Science'', Bölsche wrote that von Stein clearly believed that the creature described was not an actual animal, but instead was nothing more than local folklore.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dunning |first1=Brian |title=Hunting the Mokele-Mbembe |url=https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4727 |website=skeptoid.com |publisher=Skeptoid Media, Inc. |access-date=21 July 2023 |date=12 May 2020}}</ref> 
According to German adventurer Lt. Paul Gratz's account from 1911:<blockquote>The crocodile is found only in very isolated specimens in [[Lake Bangweulu]], except in the mouths of the large rivers at the north. In the swamp lives the ''nsanga'', much feared by the natives, a degenerate [[saurian]] which one might well confuse with the crocodile were it not that its skin has no scales and its toes are armed with claws. I did not succeed in shooting a ''nsanga'', but on the island of Mbawala I came by some strips of its skin.<ref>{{cite book | last=Ley | first=Willy |title=Exotic Zoology| url=https://archive.org/details/exoticzoology00leyw?q=Exotic+Zoology|year=1959|page=70| publisher=New York, Viking Press }}</ref></blockquote>

Tales of entities like mokele-mbembe, living saurians or large scientifically unidentified creatures walking around the African rain forest, are not rare; there have been multiple tales of large, smooth-skinned quadrupeds with long necks that fed on large prey still living in central Africa.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Guimont|first=Edward|date=2019-03-18|title=Hunting Dinosaurs in Central Africa|url=https://contingentmagazine.org/2019/03/18/hunting-dinosaurs-africa/|access-date=2021-07-07|website=CONTINGENT|language=en-US}}</ref> It was only after the description of the mokele-mbembe surfaced that the rest of the world started interpreting those legends as possessing a dinosaur-like body structure. A notable example would be the emela-ntouka, an elephant-sized creature that shares a lot of similarities with the mokele-mbembe. It is described as having smooth skin, a strong and muscular tail, and a "horn" or "tooth".<ref>{{Cite book|last=MacKal|first=Roy P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdQUAAAAIAAJ&dq=Roy+P.+Mackal+%281987%29.+A+Living+Dinosaur%3F+In+Search+of+Mokele-Mbembe.+New+York%3A+E.J.+Brill.&pg=PR3|title=A Living Dinosaur?: In Search of Mokele-Mbembe|date=1987|publisher=Brill Archive|isbn=978-90-04-08543-5|language=en}}</ref> Another similar creature, the ''jago-nini'', was described by [[Alfred Aloysius Smith]], who had worked for a British trading company in what is now [[Gabon]] in the late 19th  century, who briefly mentions it in his 1927 memoir.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Horn|first1=Trader|url=https://archive.org/details/traderhornbeingl00horn|title=Trader Horn : being the life and works of Alfred Aloysius Horn|last2=Lewis|first2=Ethelreda|date=1927|publisher=New York : Simon and Schuster|others=Internet Archive}}</ref>

[[Image:Pasta-Brontosaurus.jpg|thumb|Outdated 1897 restoration of a submerged ''[[Brontosaurus]]'' by [[Charles R. Knight]]; depictions like this may have influenced the myth]]
Reports of entities described to be dinosaur-like in Africa caused a minor sensation in the [[mass media]], and newspapers in Europe and North America carried many articles on the subject in the early 1910s; some took the reports at face value, while others were more skeptical. It is notable that Western Europe and the Americas were going through a pop cultural interest in dinosaurs, of which the [[Brontosaurus]] was one of the most popular. This cultural trend could have contributed to both the reports as well as the tendency for newspapers to claim the reported beast was a [[sauropod]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Naish |first1=Darren |title=Misreading the Mokele-Mbembe (the Mokele-Mbembe, Part 1) |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/misreading-the-mokele-mbembe-the-mokele-mbembe-part-1/ |website=Scientific American Blog Network |language=en |date=8 June 2018}}</ref>

Several expeditions, of varying scientific credibility, were undertaken in the 20th century to search for mokele-mbembe or interview claimed eyewitnesses. In 1980 and again in 1981, explorer Henry Powell and biologist [[Roy Mackal]] visited the Congo region and interviewed native residents. They did not find any direct physical evidence, but nonetheless argued consistent statements from claimed eyewitnesses tended to support the creature's existence. Mackal published a book in 1987 detailing his expeditions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mackal |first1=Roy P. |author1-link=Roy Mackal |title=A living dinosaur? In search of Mokele-Mbembe |date=1987 |publisher=E. J. Brill |location=New York |isbn=90-04-08543-2 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/A_Living_Dinosaur/kOT7EAAAQBAJ}}</ref> Mackal admitted his investigation was "tinged with some romanticism", but also insisted he had serious scientific intent.<ref>{{cite book |title=American men & women of science : a biographical directory of today's leaders in physical, biological, and related sciences |date=2003 |publisher=Gale Group |location=Detroit |isbn=9780787665289 |pages=85 |edition=21. |url=https://archive.org/details/americanmenwomen0005unse_y9l0/page/n7/mode/2up|volume=5}}</ref> Prothero argues the Powell-Mackall expedition almost single-handedly popularized the modern concept of mokele-mbembe to Westerners, yet was seriously flawed. Mackal's training was in virology, which arguably did not qualify him to search for a large, exotic creature; and Mackal seemed to uncritically accept eyewitness statements without considering the possibility people might lie or exaggerate for financial gain, for attention, or to impress an American visitor. Furthermore, Mackal was dismissive of Africans who "denied knowledge of mokele-mbeme" or who asserted the creature did not exist.{{sfnp|Loxton|Prothero|2013}} In 1981, explorer Herman Regusters and his expedition team traveled to Lake Tele, where Regusters claimed he took a photograph of the dinosaur as well as recorded its sound. Roy Mackal was skeptical of Regusters and his team.<ref>https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/12/22/An-aerospace-engineer-claimed-Tuesday-he-and-his-wife/5155377845200/</ref>

Zoologist Marcellin Agnagna said he took a film of mokele-mbeme in 1983 but the footage did not develop properly. Prothero describes the story as "suspicious", noting critical details of Agnagna's account have changed and none of it was supported by other witnesses. Scottish explorer William "Billy" Gibbons led two expeditions in 1985 and 1992, though Prothero question his motives as a creationist and describes Gibbons as not following even basic scientific principles.{{sfnp|Loxton|Prothero|2013|page=284}} Journalist [[Rory Nugent]]'s book ''Drums Along The Congo: On The Trail Of Mokele-Mbembe, the Last Living Dinosaur'' was published in 1993 by Houghton Mifflin. Nugent's book included a photograph he claimed was possibly mokele-mbembe, but which Prothero argues was more likely a floating log.{{sfnp|Loxton|Prothero|2013|page=284}}

===21st century===
In 2001, BBC's [[Congo (BBC TV series)|''Congo'']], a television documentary series on the natural history of the region, included an interview with the [[Aka people|Biaka]] people who identified the mokele-mbembe as a [[rhinoceros]] while looking at an illustrated manual of wildlife.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074mrf|title=Spirits of the Forest – min 45:00|publisher=BBC}}</ref> However, neither species of African rhinoceros is common in the Congo Basin, so the mokele-mbembe may be a mixture of [[mythology]] and [[folk memory]] from a time when rhinoceroses were found in the area.

In 2016, a travel documentary crew from [[South Africa]] made a documentary about searching for mokele-mbembe, which they later sold to Discovery Africa.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cowen |first1=Nick |title=Backpacking into the Unknown |url=https://citizen.co.za/lifestyle/lifestyle-travel/1994625/backpacking-into-the-unknown/ |website=The Citizen |date=24 August 2018 |access-date=4 October 2019 |ref=10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1= |first1= |date=7 August 2018 |title=New on TV Today: Tuesday 7 August |url=https://www.tvsa.co.za/user/blogs/viewblogpost.aspx?blogpostid=49777 |access-date=4 October 2019 |website=TVSA |language=en-ZA |ref=11}}</ref> The team spent roughly four weeks in the [[Likouala Department|Likuoala]] swamp region visiting various Aka (pygmy) villages, collecting stories of the creature's existence. They pointed out the difficulty of differentiating between a mokele-mbembe's metaphysical and physical existence. While they interviewed people who believed in its presence, others stated it died at least a decade ago.<ref>{{cite web |last1=hitched |first1=Congo |title=hitched.congo Webseries |url=https://www.hitchedseries.co.za |website=hitched series |publisher=Tomfoolery TV |access-date=4 October 2019 |ref=15}}{{Dead link|date=November 2025}}</ref>

In 2018, [[Lensgreve]] of [[Knuthenborg]], Adam Christoffer Knuth, along with a film crew from [[Danish Radio]] and a DNA scientist, traveled to [[Lake Tele]] in Congo, in search of the mokele-mbembe. They did not find the cryptid; however, they found a new species of [[green algae]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Almbjerg |first1=Sarah Iben |title=Uimodståelig Dino-jagt på DR2 |url=https://www.berlingske.dk/kultur/uimodstaaelig-dino-jagt-paa-dr2 |website=Berlingske  |access-date=2 December 2018 |language=da |date=28 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Madsen |first1=Fie West |title=Lensgreve Christoffer Knuth har brugt kæmpe summer på vild dinosaur-jagt: 'Vi fandt noget, som ingen har set før' |url=https://www.bt.dk/film-tv-og-streaming/lensgreve-christoffer-knuth-har-brugt-kaempe-summer-paa-vild-dinosaur |website=BT.dk |publisher=Berlingske Media A/S |access-date=2 December 2018 |language=da |date=28 November 2018}}</ref>

==Theories==
The lack of physical evidence and the conflicting witnesses have made the existence of the entity doubted by the large majority of scientists and historians.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=2011-12-28|title=The hunt for Mokele-mbembe: Congo's Loch Ness Monster|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16306902|access-date=2021-07-07|last1=Hebblethwaite|first1=Cordelia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Naish|first=Darren|title=Hunting Monsters: Cryptozoology and the Reality Behind the Myths|date=2016-01-06|isbn=978-1-78428-191-5|publisher=Arcturus Publishing|url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=mN2oCwAAQBAJ}}</ref> The most reasonable and agreed upon explanation is that the mokele-mbembe is a legend based on the [[black rhinoceros]], a species once common to central Africa, where the stories of the mokele-mbembe originated. According to [[scientific skeptic|skeptic]] [[Ben Radford]], the origin of the creature can be traced back to a 1909 book by zoologist [[Carl Hagenbeck]] called ''Beasts and Men''.  Based on recently discovered dinosaur bones, Hagenbeck speculated that sauropods may still live in Africa.  Although he offered no evidence other than legends, the claims were circulated by the press, including ''[[The Washington Post]]''. [[Daniel Loxton]] and [[Donald Prothero]] claimed it "launched what would become the modern cryptozoological legend of mokele-mbembe". They concluded that the reports of the monster were not result of hard evidence or genuine first-hand accounts of native encounters with the creature, but rather a "distillation of many creatively varied stories from widely separated regions.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Radford |first1=Benjamin |title=Mokele-Mbembe: The Search for a Living Dinosaur |url=https://www.livescience.com/38871-mokele-mbembe.html |website=livescience.com |date=13 August 2013 |publisher=Future US Inc |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref> The absence of evidence supporting the creature's existence, despite several centuries of Western contact with the region, numerous expeditions in search of the animal, and periodic aerial and satellite surveillance, all of which have detected elephants and other large animals - but no sauropods - all serve to argue against the existence of mokele-mbembe.

== In popular culture ==
* A rather disadvantageous line of the [[chess opening]] [[Alekhine's Defence]] is named after the creature: the "mokele'''-'''mbembe variation".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=John L. |last2=Schiller |first2=Eric |title=The big book of busts |date=1995 |publisher=Hypermodern Press |location=San Francisco |isbn=9781886040137 |pages=120 & 121 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Big_Book_of_Busts/lFP4AAAACAAJ}}</ref>
* The mokele-mbembe was featured in ''[[The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs]]'' episode "Earnest." It is among the creatures that have been caught by Earnest Anyway.
* In the 1985 film ''[[Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend]]'', rumors of a sighting of mokele-mbembe lead the main characters to a family of live sauropods.
* In 1989 [[The Punisher]]/[[Wolverine (character)|Wolverine]] ''African Saga'' (''On the Track of Unknown Animals''/''Endangered Species'', ''[[The Punisher War Journal]]'' #6-#7) by [[Carl Potts]] and [[Jim Lee]], the two mentioned superheroes stop a band of poachers who tried to hunt mokele-mbembe.
* In the 1994 video game ''[[Uncharted Waters: New Horizons]]'', the mokele-mbembe can be discovered in the Congo River.
* In the 2010 video game ''[[Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker]]'', Mokele-mbembe is one of the cryptids said to be dinosaurs that the character Chico tells Big Boss about.
* In May 2013 the Norwegian experimental music outfit [[Sturle Dagsland]] released a song entitled "mokele-mbembe".
* The [[Roland Smith]] novel ''[[Cryptid Hunters]]'' revolves around a search for the mokele-mbembe and successful recovery of two of its eggs (the only known adult specimens having died beforehand) from the jungles of the Congo.
* Mokele-mbembe is one of six cryptids sought by comedian and journalist [[Dom Joly]] in his travel book ''Scary Monsters and Super Creeps''.
* The American artist [[David Choe]] claimed on an episode of ''[[The Joe Rogan Experience]]'' that as a young man he travelled to the Congo in search of mokele-mbembe after reading about it in a magazine while he was living in Israel.
* In the ''[[World of Darkness#Classic World of Darkness (cWoD)|World of Darkness]]'' universe by [[White Wolf Publishing]], the Mokole are a breed of were-reptiles who serve as the "memory" of [[Gaia]].
* The 2019 film ''[[Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019 film)|Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'' mentions a Titan dubbed Mokele-mbembe, though it is not seen in the film. But the creature's figure was seen in its misty and foggy containment in Outpost 75 [[Jebel Barkal|Jebel Barkal, Sudan]] while it arises and escapes after being awoken by [[King Ghidorah]] alongside the other 17 titans. The creature is featured more prominently in the film's novelization. 
* In the [[SCP Foundation]], mokele-mbembe is what a village of Mbochi people call a specimen of SCP-1265, specifically a ''[[Camarasaurus]]''. They also mention [[Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu]] also being a part of SCP-1265, with it being a ''[[Kentrosaurus]]''.
* In the book ''[[Mortal Engines]]'', Captain Khora's airship is named Mokele Mbembe.
* In the second season of the ''[[Goblin Slayer]]'' anime, the adventurers encounter a large creature referred to as "Mokele Mubenbe", a huge sauropod-like creature with purple crystals protruding from its hide.

== See also ==
* [[Altamaha-ha]]
* [[Mušḫuššu]]
* [[Cryptid]]
* [[Human–dinosaur coexistence]]
* [[Living dinosaur (disambiguation)|Living dinosaur]]
* [[Loch Ness Monster]]
* [[Lariosauro]]
* [[Nahuelito]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography & further reading==
* {{cite book|last1=Loxton |first1=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Loxton |last2=Prothero |first2=Donald R. |author-link2=Donald R. Prothero |title=Abominable Science: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and other Famous Cryptids|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kTsgAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA290 |year=2013 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-52681-4}}
* {{cite book|last=Prothero|first=Donald R.|title=The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonders of Evolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QjkjBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA234|year=2015|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-53942-5}}
* {{Skeptoid | id= 4727| number= 727| title= Hunting the Mokele-Mbembe| date=12 May 2020 }}

[[Category:Mokele-mbembe| ]]
[[Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1941]]
[[Category:Central African legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Aquatic cryptids]]
[[Category:Pygmy mythology]]
[[Category:Young Earth creationism]]
[[Category:Mythological aquatic creatures]]
[[Category:Rhinoceroses in popular culture]]
[[Category:Black rhinoceros]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs in popular culture]]