Nande (Yira) is a Bantu language spoken in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the territories of Beni and Lubero.
The Yira are subdivided into 14 clans including the Baswagha, Basu (Basukali for female), Bamate (just a family name), Bahira, Bakira, Bahambo, Bito, Batangi, Basongora, Bakumbule, Batike, Babinga, Balhumba and Balegha.
Dance in Olhuyira: “amasata, amavina, amahotole” is a gesture par excellence reflecting the various feelings of man developing both as a rhythm in time and in space.
We distinguish among the Yira: Popular celebration dances: Omunde, Amalembo, Amangudu, Amatakiyo, Ebwaya, Ekila, Endara, Enduku and Erisole.
Recreational or entertainment dances: Akasambi, Akasayi, Dahudahu, Ekibaliya, Ekidali, Ekimbati, Ekimbakisi, Ekipulenge, Ekituta, Ekiyamba, Ekururu, Emikalihyo, Enanga, Endeku, Epuli, Eriduku, Erikembe, Olusengo, Oluveve, Omughoviro, Omusayi and Ovurwani.
Each was seated in his royal E'ndeve (chair) and inhaled the scent of O'Bhukwa incense; to see each other in this darkness God Nyamuhanga had given Kisi and Nyabhandu an o'bhulhengekania (consciousness) and bio-efflorescent hair that shone like the firefly (e'ngununu).
Thus, according to the mythology transmitted from father to son, the nande crossed the Semliki river, on the back of the dragon to reach the other bank in the Congo.
It is these stone points that have been compared to the scaly back of the dragon that the narrative tradition conveys from father to son as a mythology, with an underlying religious idea.
This mysterious crossing was made possible thanks to the intervention of the spirit Katulikanzira, who preceded the convoy of immigrants and settled them in the place of his choice.
The Yira tradition relates that one day on the hill of creation, the Creator God O'Muhangitshi answered the prayer of the Nande who were threatened with famine due to a very incendiary drought.
The Kapipi Spirit, the Master of the forest and of the initiation to wisdom, was in the last row surrounded by his pack of seventy-seven sacred dogs of the hunt.
As the Providence Hangi was walking very fast, the Spirit Muhima the Great Celestial Seer, claimed that he alone carried the Ruwenzori Mountain.
He reconciled all the members of the procession by inviting them to dialogue where everyone was given the floor by the Spirit Mulhekya the Peacemaker, happy to have been refreshed by the celestial shower.
When it was the turn of the animals to speak, the smallest of the dogs of the last pack of the deity Kapipi addressed this famous word to the Great Seer Muhima: "you have to know how to count on others".
This is the reason why all the rites of reconciliation between the clans begin with the gestures of sprinkling the shoulders and ablution of the feet and the hand with water drawn from the Ruwenzori glacier or Tsithwa -tsya-Nzururu which means the big hill with eternal snow in the local language Kinande.