AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY
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Africa is very wide: three times bigger than Europe, and comprises the 22% of the total mass of the emersed earths of the globe; anyway it host only the 12% of the world population.
We know that probably the first human beings lived in Africa millions of years ago, but actually we don’t know nothing about what the most primitive people thought: we can only suppose it from the development of the languages in the historic ages and from some religions.
Africa’s miths, that cames to use from very far ages, give us a sort of idea of a very ancient way to see the reality.
Many people of the tropical and meridional Africa accept the idea of a “God who stay in the sky” or a celestial deity often associated with lightnings and thunders; the Earth, the Sun and the Moon are the main deities. Among the west tribes are worshipped sea deities. Gods in general are good, although sometimes they have a double role: they give life, but they bring also sufference and death.
Earth is a feminine deities who favours the ones who worship her, but punish implacably the ones who disobey or neglected her.
The Forest is a misterious deity, elusive and naughty; many people of central Africa consider the forest as the residence of the Gods, the other world where the spirits live, for this who desire to enter must take particular precautions and follow particular rituals.
The Story Tellers
In Africa, where the electricity reach only the cities, the ability to tell stories is considered one of the most important art and to have in the community a good story teller still also in these days a huge luck; the story teller is expert in many things and is considered someone who saw or heard stupefying events; he knows the habits of the tribe and the importance of the trasmission through generations the facts and the traditional values; he knows the spirits’ power and the animals’ habits (that often are the main character of their stories and that often are in reality human beings in disguise).
It’s not easy to discover the original religions of Africa, since many of them have been shadowed by Christianity and Islamism; about some more deep-rooted beliefs it’s not possible to talk, theless to strangers and there are few well structured records (like Greek and Roman myths). Thanks to the story tellers anyway the myths and legends from the most ancient times still transmitted as important events in the African story.
Different Mythologies
In this lesson we will have a closer look to some important African tribes mythology.
Akamba
The Kamba (Mukamba in singular, Akamba in the plural) are an ethnic group who live in the semi-arid Eastern Province of Kenya. Naming is an important aspect of the Akamba people. Children are often affectionately called Musumbi (meaning "king"), and Muthoki/Nthoki (meaning "long awaited one"). Akamba children are named for/after time or events surrounding their birth (for example, Nduku is a name given to a baby girl born at night and Mutuku to a baby boy born at night). Children are also named after a living or departed ancestor, depending on the parents' relationship with the person.
Like the Maasai, the Akamba believe in a monotheistic, invisible and transcendental God Ngai, who lives up in the sky. The most venerable name of God is Asa, or the Father. He is also known as Ngai Mulungu, Mumbi, or Mwatuangi. He is perceived as the omnipotent creator of life on earth and as a merciful, if distant, entity. The traditional Akamba perceive the spirits of their departed ones, the 'aimu', as the intercessors between themselves and Ngai Asa. They are remembered in family rituals and offerings at individual altars.
Ashanti
The Ashanti people of Ghana in West Africa are known for their colorful folktales and mythology.
The most important god in the pantheon of the Ashanti is Nyame (also Nyankopon), the omniscient, omnipotent sky god. His wife is Asase Yaa and they have two children, Bia and Tano. Asase Yaa is an earth goddess of fertility.
Tano is one of the most important and famous gods of Ashanti. All the other gods of the Ashanti, especially the river gods, are believed to be the children of Tano. The Ashanti therefore believe that the gods are the children of Nyame and serve as intermediaries between humans and Nyame.
Anansi the Spider is a folk hero who plays no role in Ashanti mythology. He is, however, prominent in Ashanti folktales where he is depicted as a trickster.
Bambuti
Bambuti mythology is the mythology of the African Bambuti Pygmies.
The most important god of the Bambuti pantheon is Khonvoum, a god of the hunt who wields a bow made from two snakes that together appear to humans as a rainbow. After sunset every day, Khonvoum gathers fragments of the stars and throws them into the sun to revitalize it for the next day. He occasionally contacts mortals through Gor (a thunder god who is also an elephant) or a chameleon. Khonvoum created mankind from clay. Black people were made from black clay, white people came from white clay, and the Pygmies themselves came from red clay. He also creates the animals that are needed by hunters.
Arebati is a lunar deity and Sky Father. In some sources, he was said to have created humanity from clay, instead of Khonvoum.
Tore is a god of the forests who supplies animals to hunters. He is also a thunder god who appears as a storm and hides in rainbows. Most importantly, Tore appears as a leopard in the initiation rites. The first Pygmies stole fire from Tore; he chased them but could not catch them, and when he returned home, his mother had died. As punishment, he decreed that humans would also die, and he thus became the death god.
Masai
The Masai people are an ethnic group of Kenya.
The supreme being and creator is Enkai (also called Engai) guardian over rain, fertility, the sun and love who gave cattle to the Masai people. Some sources Neiterkob "that which began the earth" may also be a reference to Enkai. Neiterkob is a minor deity, known as the mediator between God and man. Olapa, goddess of the moon, is wed to Enkai.
Zulu
Zulu are a sud african ethnic group. Their mythology contains numerous deities, commonly associated with animals or general classes of natural phenomena.
Unkulunkulu is the highest God and is the creator of humanity. Unkulunkulu ("the greatest one") was created in Uhlanga , a huge swamp of reeds, before he came to Earth. Unkulunkulu is sometimes conflated with the Sky Father Umvelinqangi (meaning "He who was in the very beginning"), god of thunder and earthquakes.
Other deities include Mamlambo, the goddess of rivers, and Nokhubulwane, sometimes called the Zulu Demeter, who is a goddess of the rainbow, agriculture, rain and beer (which she invented).
Unwabu is a chameleon who was sent to humanity to grant them immortality. Unwabu was too slow, leading to the current mortality of humanity. The chameleon's color changes from green to brown because it is mourning Unwabu's sloth.
One of the most visible signs of Zulu mythology in South
Africa is the fact that most people, even in urban areas, will sleep with their
beds raised on bricks in order to avoid the Tokoloshe. The Tokoloshe is a
small mischievous creature that fights people, usually killing them; if he
loses, he will teach the human magic and healing.
The full moon Prince
Long before other kings sovereign on the Basotho people, arrived a king with the moon on his chest; the big disk was so bright that when the king walked in night time, people could see and could work They called him Khoedi-Sefubeng, that means “moon in the chest”. Nodoby challenge his right to reign, and he had ten wives, and this doesn’t surprise because he was certainly a God: can the earthly beings emitt light in the dark?
One day the king, who knows the future, announced that each of his wives was going to give him a child, but only one was going to resemble him: with the moon in the chest; the others was going to have only stars or half moons. Actually all his wives soon were pregnant, and when the moment arrived, all gave birth to male children, and each boy had a star or an half moon on the chest, but only one had a full moon that filled with light his mother Morongoe’s hut. Of course the other mothers were filled with jealousy, and one of them corrupted the midwife: the little prince of moon was hide under some mats in the hut and in his place was put a little dog. When this evil wife said to the king that Morongoe gave birth to a dog, the king repudiates her and made her become a servant.
The evil wife was happy because she thought that the prince would soon be dead, but he survived: he was fed by the mice that lived in the king’s house and that had lot of food; they brought him crumbs wet with milk, and so the prince grew up.
Time after the evil wife (who was became the king’s favourite) was walking in the evening, when she saw a moon ray came from Morongoe’s hut. The woman get angry, understanding that the prince was not dead, so she went to the king and asked him to burn the hut that was ugly and dirty. The king agreed, but a mouse under his throne heard everything, and with its friends run to save the prince. They brought him in the enclosure of a cow and they told it the story, praying the cow to take care of the prince.
Months later, in a dark night, the evil wife went again to walk and saw a ray that seamed moon. The woman cam closer to the light and saw the little prince sucking the cow’s milk and was grown more than the other royal children. Furious she ran to the king and told him that the cow’s enclosure was too old and ugly and that she want to burn it. The king agreed, but luckily the mouse still under the throne to hear everything, and he ran to warn the cow. The cow said to the prince (that was already able to walk) to mount on its back and brought him to the lake where the crabs lived. The cow told to the crabs the little prince’s story, and they agreed to take care of him.
Months passed and one night the evil wife went to walk near the lake and saw a silver light on the shore; she came closer and saw the sleeping prince and all the crabs around who were guarding him. The evil wife was afraid to came closer, so she ran to the king and said that she was ill and that the sorcerer said to her that she could be healed eating the crabs of the lake. The king said that the day after he would have captured all the crabs in the lake. Luckily the mouse still under the throne. He warned the crabs. The crabs brought the little prince to a merchant who lived in the opposite part of the lake. The merchant was surprised, but agreed on take care of the prince until he would have grown up enough. He offered hide also to the crabs. In this way the boy grew up and learnt the work of the merchant.
Years passed and the evil wife calmed down. One day the king heard that there was a merchant who sold a new drink called tea. He desired to taste it, so he sent a messenger to buy it. When the messenger arrived saw a guy who was having a bath and that had a big bright disc on his chest, similar to the moon. He bought the tea and ran back to the king and told him what he saw, adding that he never believed to the story told by the evil wife about Morongoe and the dog. The king went to the merchant and saw the guy: he was tall, he had a noble walking and he was wearing a white shirt. This was strange because usually guy wear only a girdle. The king asked the boy where was he from, and the boy, who didn’t know that he was talking to the king, told him all his story, from when the mice saved him the first time. The king asked him to take off his shirt, and when the guy did so and the king saw the full moon on his chest, he understood the evil wife’s trick.
The king came back with his son, the merchant was rewarded and became official supplying of the Royal House, the evil wife was exiliated and Morongoe became back queen, and they lived happily ever after with all their animal friends.