According to East African folklore, Wakonyingo are a mythical people of dwarfs with great, misshapen heads, who live on Mount Kilimanjaro.

They are dwarfs with great, misshapen heads, who have retreated before the advancing tribes and taken refuge on the inaccessible height. They are called Wadarimba or Wakonyingo. They have a kind of ladders, like the rafters in the roof of a native hut, fixed against the rocks, by which people can climb up to them, and which do not stop short there but reach straight up into the sky. These dwarfs, too, take pity on those in trouble as is related in many legends. The bits of meat which they lay out in the banana-groves when sacrificing to their ancestors, roll down the slopes of the mountains and turn into ravens.

Bruno Gutmann "Dichten und Denken der Dschagganeger: Beiträge zur ostafrikanischen Volkskunde", 1909 (1477: p.266)

Perhaps this is an attempt to account for the fact that the white-necked raven, fairly common on Kilimanjaro, is seldom, if ever, seen as high as the snow-limit.

The Wakonyingo are said to be no larger than human children, but to have enormous heads. They never lie down to sleep, but sit, leaning against the wall of the hut, for if they were to lie down, they could never get up again, being so topheavy. If one of them falls, he has to wait for his friends to help him up, and therefore every Mkonyingo carries a horn at his belt, so that he can blow it to call for aid, if necessary.

They tell a story of the Wakonyingo, somewhat to the following effect:

There was a poor man with two sons, Mkunare and Kanyanga. As they had not even one cow, Mkunare said: «I will go up to Kibo. They say that a chief dwells there who has pity on the poor». He took food with him and went up the mountain. First he came to an old woman sitting by the wayside, whose eyes were so sore that she could not see out of them. He greeted her, and she thanked him, saying: «What brings you up here?» He told her, and she said: «Lick my eyes clean first, and then I will tell you how to reach the chief». He could not bring himself to do this and went on till he came to the Wakonyingo and found all the men sitting at the Chief’s kraal. None of them was bigger than a little boy who herds the goats (which the youngest do, before they are considered capable of going with the cattle). So he took them for children and said: «Good-day, youngsters. Just show me the way to your fathers and big brothers!» The Wakonyingo answered: «Just wait till they come!» He waited, but no grown men appeared, and, as the evening fell, the Little Ones drove in the cattle and killed a beast for supper; but they gave him no meat, only saying: «Wait till our fathers and brothers come!» So he had to go away hungry, and, when he reached the old woman once more, she would answer no questions. He lost his way and wandered about for a month before getting home, where he reported that a great tribe with many cattle lived on the top of Kibo, but they were inhospitable and would give nothing to strangers. But as their case continued desperate, the younger brother, Kanyanga, resolved to try his fortune. He set out, found the old woman and performed the charitable office requested of him. The grateful old woman then said: «Go straight on, and you will come to the Chief’s green, where you will find men no bigger than the goat-boys. But you must not think they are children, but greet them respectfully, as the Chief’s councillors». Kanyanga did as he was directed, and the Wakonyingo welcomed him and took him to the chief, who, on hearing his story, at once supplied him with food and shelter. In return for this generosity, Kanyanga taught the Wakonyingo the proper charms for protecting their crops against insect and other pests and also those for «closing the roads» so that no enemy could enter their country. This is remarkable, as showing that certain kinds of magic may have been known to the later comers and not to the aborigines. These dwarfs were so delighted that each of them gave Kanyanga a beast and he returned home in triumph, driving his cattle before him.

So Kanyanga grew rich and restored the fallen fortunes of his clan. But the people made a song about his brother, which is sung to this day:

O Mkunare, wait till the fathers come!

What right have you to despise the Little Folk!

Here we find the Wakonyingo less aggressively sensitive about their small size than the Abatwa, and less extreme in their retaliation, though by no means disposed to overlook slights. Another story, partly to the same effect, describes their country as reached by a gateway — no doubt like those which lead to the fortified kayas of the Wanyika. Near the top of Kibo are two doors side by side, one giving access to the Wakonyingo’s ladders, the other leading downwards. Any one ill-advised enough to go through the latter would perish miserably, for those who come down again perceive what they were unable to see when going up — ghosts and a great fire. This story also describes the Wakonyingo women going down the mountan to cut grass, each with a gourd of cream tied to her back, to be shaken up as she walked, which was their method of churning.

It thus appears that, if the Wakonyingo are not actually Heaven-dwellers, yet they resemble them in some respects. But the Thonga^*, as we have seen, believe in dwarfs actually living in the sky, who sometimes come down in thunderstorms (1477: p.266-269).