My friend from Nguluni told me there was a church carved out of the rock at Koma. I’d already spied the grotesque statue of Mary and Jesus on the hill from the road. Last weekend we headed out with a few extras who invited themselves on the trip.
It’s about 17 km to Koma rock I think. We went by a variety of vehicles: two mountain bikes, a chinese bike with passenger sitting side-saddle and a motor bike with passenger.
I’m told that the name is another case of Mzungu mis-heading. The story goes that some Mzungu asked a local lady what the rock was called. The lady was carrying a baby (whose name was Loku or something like that) who wouldn’t stop crying. “Koma Loku” said the woman, which means ‘Sleep Loku’. And the Mzungu took that as the name of the hill.
On the climb to the statue we were given grave warnings.
It must be a place of miracles: these paintings come alive!
In the lap of the gods.
On the loincloth of the Lord.
Also on the rumor list is that the place used to be used for scarefice and the invading Christians built a shrine there to drive out the sacrificial practises in the name of the one perfect sacrefice. Whatever the story, the ugly statue of Jesus and his Mama was put up only in 2002. It’s made of concrete and correguted iron! But there’s a nice view from the top!
There is also a church which kinda backs into the rock but it’s not really carved out.
Still, we had a grand day out (Gromit) and got thoroughly sunburned.
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