ABSTRACT
Some years ago, Luc de Heusch criticized Vansina and others for their somewhat overconfident use of legendary chronicles, such as those relating to the first Luba kings, as sources of historical information (de Heusch, 1972: pp. 15-18; 1975: pp. 363-7). If it were only overconfidence de Heusch was reacting to, there would be little cause for disagreement, for it is commonly recognized that Africanist historians have not always been sufficiently critical in their use of oral traditions, but de Heusch’s criticism implied considerably more than that. Its tenor was, first, that these chronicles contained little or no historical information, since they were to be considered as no more than the transposition in pseudohistorical terms of a pre-existing body of myth (de Heusch, 1975: p. 364); and second, that the only valid approach would be to treat them as myths, that is, as statements about the cosmic order. Even seemingly historical events were in principle to be treated as cosmological metaphors (de Heusch, 1975: pp. 365-6).
