African Myths
African folklore, legends, and mythology are rich traditions that weave together the spiritual, historical, and cultural identities of diverse African communities. These stories often feature powerful deities, ancestral spirits, trickster figures like Anansi the spider, and heroic humans who interact with the natural and supernatural worlds. Passed down orally through generations, they serve not only as entertainment but also as tools for teaching moral lessons, preserving history, and explaining natural phenomena. For college students, exploring African mythology offers a deeper understanding of Africa’s vast cultural landscape and its influence on literature, art, and philosophy around the world.
African mythology is deeply diverse, but several common themes appear across regions and cultures:
1. Creation and Origin Stories
Many African myths explain the origins of the world, humanity, and natural phenomena.
- Example: In the Yoruba tradition, the god Obatala is sent by the supreme deity Olodumare to create the earth, forming land from a handful of sand and a chicken.
2. Trickster Figures
Tricksters are clever, mischievous characters who challenge norms and often teach lessons through their antics.
- Example: Anansi the Spider from West African folklore is a famous trickster who uses wit to outsmart others, often representing the power of intelligence over strength.
3. Duality and Balance
Themes of balance between good and evil, life and death, or chaos and order are common.
- Example: In Zulu mythology, Unkulunkulu is both the creator and destroyer, embodying the dual nature of existence.
4. Ancestors and Spirits
Reverence for ancestors and belief in spirits is central. Ancestors are seen as guides and protectors.
- Example: In many Bantu cultures, ancestral spirits are consulted through rituals and are believed to influence daily life and fortune.
5. Nature and Animals
Nature is sacred, and animals often have symbolic or spiritual significance.
- Example: In San mythology, the Eland antelope is a sacred animal linked to rainmaking and spiritual power.
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African Folklore: An Encyclopedia
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780415939331Publication Date: 2003-12-08This work offers comprehensive coverage of folklore throughout the African continent. Over 350 entries provide in-depth examinations of individual African countries, ethnic groups, religious practices, artistic genres, and numerous other concepts related to folklore. -
A Dictionary of African Mythology: The Mythmaker as Storyteller
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Call Number: BL2400 .S24 2000ISBN: 9780195124569Publication Date: 2000-02-24In this marvelous collection of hundreds of fascinating, mysterious, and revealing tales, Harold Scheub captures the immense sweep and diversity of African mythology. Scheub offers an unprecedented collection of 400 stories, arranged alphabetically, that touch on virtually every aspect of religious belief. Here are gods and goddesses, epic heroes and divine tricksters, along with epics of the world's origins, the struggle between the human and the divine, and much more. -
The Drunken King, or, the Origin of the State
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780253318329Publication Date: 1982-07-22" . . . de Heusch has achieved a significant advance over Lévi-Strauss's formulations. . . . [A] landmark contribution to anthropological theory, historical methodology, structural analysis, and African studies." --Choice A major work that modifies and extends Lévi-Straussian myth analysis in profound and exciting ways. Roy Willis's masterful translation makes technical terms accessible to the general reader. -
Mystique. A Collection of Lake Myths : A Collection of Lake Myths
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9789956558216Publication Date: 2009-07-01In Cameroon and Africa, lakes are sacred and often secret places. They fascinate curiosity and have often served as repositories of local histories, memories and dreams. In Mystique, Bime offers the reader a rich and seductive menu of reflection on the significance of legends and myths on and around lakes in Cameroon, Ghana, Benin and Tanzania. -
The Origins of the World's Mythologies
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Call Number: BL312 .W58 2012ISBN: 9780195367461Publication Date: 2013-01-04This remarkable book is the most ambitious work on mythology since that of the renowned Mircea Eliade, who all but single-handedly invented the modern study of myth and religion. Focusing on the oldest available texts, buttressed by data from archeology, comparative linguistics and human population genetics, Michael Witzel reconstructs a single original African source for our collective myths, dating back some 100,000 years. -
Voices of the Ancestors: African Myth
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Call Number: BL2400 .V65 1999ISBN: 9780705436434Publication Date: 1999-09-01Myth and Mankind is a world history like no other. Every book in this series is filled with the strange stories, mystic rites, angry gods, vision quests and magic symbols that are at the heart of all cultures but are left out of most history books. -
Wisdom and Initiation in Gabon: A Philosophical Analysis of Fang Tales, Myths, and Legends
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780739181447Publication Date: 2013-12-05Wisdom and Initiation in Gabon: A Philosophical Analysis of Fang Tales, Myths, and Legends is a study of the philosophical significance of Fang mythology and the rituals of Initiation that lead to Wisdom. Bonaventure Mvé Ondo argues that Fang tales, myths, and legends are components of the foundation of a worldview that sustains and protects a unique, historical Fang identity.
Legends and Legacy: The Soul of African Storytelling
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Legends and Legacy: The Soul of African StorytellingThis program delves into the cultural significance of oral traditions and tracks the evolution of African storytelling from creation myths and animal fables to trickster tales and stories of heroes.
Myths from the Yoruba
According to Yoruba mythology, the universe and all of the forces therein were created by a single supreme being, most often known as Olofin. Also known as Olorun or Olodamare, this genderless creator god is all-knowing, all-powerful and eternal. Nov 9, 2022
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From Myths of Ife, Yoruba Creation Myth - Yoruba Creation Myth - From Myths of Ife (1921)The Yoruba Creation Myth from Myths of Ife (1921) by John Wyndham from Internet Archives.