Zulu Mythology

In keeping with my rainbow theme, the first goddess of Zulu mythology would be Nokhubulwane (Mbaba Mwana Waresa). Besides being the goddess of rainbows, Nokhubulwane is also the creator of beer and the goddess who presides over agriculture and rain.

Unkulunkulu, the greatest one also the Ancient One, is the creator of humans. He was born in a swamp of reeds and then came to earth. He is the First Man, and is in everything that he created.
He created everything that is the inanimate to the living. He also taught the Zulu all of their skills from fire to hunting and growing food.

Unkulunku is sometimes a combined personage with Umvelinqangi (uKqili), the sky god, also god of earthquakes and thunders. Umvelingangi has been there since the beginning of time. According to Zulu myth, humans are mortal because of a very slow chameleon named Unwaba. The chameleon’s color changes from green to brown because it is mourning the sloth that lost humans their immortality.

Another prominent deity is the goddess of the rivers, Mamlambo. She is variously described as a large snake-like aquatic creature or as a half-fish, half-horse monster. She has a hypnotic gaze and glows in the dark. Mamlambo drowns her victims. She loves thunderstorms.

More fun Zulu cryptozoology includes:

Tikoloshe is described both as a dwarf-like water spirit or as a dwarf with only half a body. It fights humans and usually kills them. It is often used to scare children into behaving. If a human somehow manages to defeat it, the Tikoloshe will teach them its powers.

If one sleeps to close to the ground, a Tokeloshe will strangle them in the night. This is given as the reason most Zulus sleep on beds raised on 3 or 4 bricks at each post.

My favorite Zulu Proverb – “No sun sets without its histories.”

~lisa

Zulu cryptozoology http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Category:Zulu_mythology#ixzz34WjIIcCb
Zulu creation myth http://www.realalternativesite.com/zulu-creator-myth-belief-unkulunkulu-a-1329.html
More about Nokhubulwane, the goddess of rainbows http://www.mythicjourneys.org/bigmyth/myths/english/eng_zulu_pantheon.htm
Everything one could ever want to know about Tokoloshe http://www.vanhunks.com/tokoloshe1.html
Zulu Proverbs http://www.proverbs-and-quotes.com/zulu_proverbs.htm

 “He was kicked by a horse in the chest.” – refers to one who gossips and cannot keep a secret.

Yoruba Mythology

The Yoruba people have an amazingly rich mythology and a fantastic history that dates back to powerful city-states that flourished in the 15th century. The Yoruba were known for their mastery of the arts.

Yorubaland is in a region in Southwest Nigeria and also in adjoining Benin and Togo. Before an 1820 invasion, the Yoruba resided in powerful city-states with a very advanced culture in all the arts. Due to the slave trade, many people of African descent in the Americas trace their lineage to the Yoruba.

Now on to the Yoruba myth. (There is far too much to cover, but there are some great resources listed at the end of this post).

Itan is a collection of all Yoruba myths, songs, and histories. Itan is accepted as fact and is often used to settle disputes.

There is a strong belief in pursuing a constant quest to better one’s Iwa (moral character and behavior). Each person is responsible for making all aspects of himself better. This quest leads to transcendence and finding one’s destiny.

The belief is that each person has a destiny and each person will one day become one in spirit with Olodumare, the divine creator and source of all energy.

If becoming one with Olodumare is not one’s destiny then maybe it is to come back as a new member of the family. The Yoruba believe in reincarnation within the family.

After Olodumare, there are a multitude of deities known as Orisa (Orisha). The Orisas are both manifestations of Olodumare and are intermediaries between man and the supernatural. The Orisas have control over elements and nature.

One of the most important of the Orisa is the god Ogun. Ogun is the god of war, the hunt, contracts and iron working. The followers of Ogun would swear to tell the truth by kissing a machete sacred to Ogun.

Shango, once a king of the Yoruba, is the Sky Father and god of thunder. Shango creates thunder and lightning by casting thunder stones to down to earth. Priests search for the thunder stone which contains great powers. – This is so cool.

The Yoruba trickster god is called Eshu and he is well-respected by the other Orisas. The Yoruba think rather highly of him. Since I love almost all trickster characters I will be colleting Eshu stories to share in later posts.

The Yoruba are a large population with a strong oral tradition. All of these myths may vary from village to village by name and even by the gender of the gods.

If you experience a storm, then I wish you both a beautiful rainbow and a thunder stone as a souvenir.
~ lisa

A Must-Read – Best Site on Nigerian Mythology, complete with a great list of Orishas http://darkmythology-dark234.blogspot.com/2011/05/nigeria-mythology.html
Excellent rendition of a Yoruba Creation Myth http://www.gateway-africa.com/stories/Yoruba_Creation_Myth.html
A very good listing of Orishas http://www.fact-index.com/y/yo/yoruba_mythology.html
http://www.nairaland.com/781645/yoruba-mythology
http://africlectic.com/nigerian-mythology-the-orisha/
http://www.mythicjourneys.org/bigmyth/myths/english/eng_yoruba_pantheon.htm
http://postcolonialweb.org/nigeria/yorubarel.html
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Yoruba_People

Ashanti Mythology

Today I will look at the mythology of the Ashanti tribe of Ghana.

As I mentioned before the Anansi stories are traced back to the Ashanti. If you want to know more about Anansi see the blog post Anansi of June 12th.

The animist side of the ancient Ashanti religion is a belief that all trees and animals have souls.

The supernatural side of the same tradition believes in witches and monsters.

The Ashanti also practice ancestor worship known as Nsamanfo.

Spirits receive their power from the supreme god Nyame and are usually a part of nature such as trees, streams, ocean sprites etc.

Nyame “the one who knows and sees everything” is the Supreme Being in the Ashanti pantheon.

Nyame is not only omniscient, but is also an omnipotent sky god. Despite his omnipotence he suffered some misuse in human hands and he now remains aloof and lets the lower gods assist humans on earth.

Nyame is married to an earth goddess by the name of Asase Ya. She is a goddess of earth and fertility. They have two children: Bia and Anansi. The eldest son, Bia, is overshadowed by his younger brother Anansi.

Anansi the spider and trickster god is well-known around the world. Does anyone have information on what Bia does in the Ashanti pantheon?

I will come back to the Ashanti in future posts.

~lisa

A brief history of the Ashanti people http://buzzghana.com/ashanti/
Another historical resource http://www.lotusmasks.com/category/ashanti-tribe-ghana.html
http://www.thefullwiki.org/Ashanti_mythology
An overview of all the tribes of Ghana and religion from traditional to present day http://easytrackghana.com/cultural-overview-ghana_tribes-rastas-religions.php

Besides the Ashanti majority, Ghana is also home to tribes such as Ewe, Fante, Ga, and Dagomba. I am ambitious enough to think that perhaps someday I will be able to cover and do justice to the mythologies of all the tribes

Anansi

Anansi is perhaps the best known mythological figure out of Africa. He is a spider trickster god who can appear in any form he wishes, but most often his alternate form is that of a man.

His origins are said to be in the Ashanti tribe of West Africa in what is now Ghana, but he has become a common figure of folklore anywhere connected to where the slave trade went.

If you now hear a rapidly beating heart, and shallow breathing that is simply me trying to get through my Arachnophobia.

I’m not alone for it is one of the most common phobias, but knowing I’m one of a crowd doesn’t make it any easier.

Arachnophobia is an irrational and persistent fear of spiders, or in my case pictures of spiders, or mention of spiders or…

As I was saying Anansi is the most well-known figure of African folktales and myths. I cannot skip him.

Unfortunately, most cultures seem to have spider myths so I will be repeating this exercise in the future with Aunt Nancy, Spider Woman, Anasazi, Arachne, Nareau, Neith, Tsuchigumo, and Jorōgumo.

There are also giant fictional spiders such as Shelob (Tolkien) and Aragog (Rowling) and a number of these creatures in other popular stories such as Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web and the spider from Little Miss Muffet.

 Sorry, there will be spider pictures in this post.

Back to Anansi.

In this post I’m only writing about the Ashanti Anansi. The stories of the Ashanti oral tradition are known as Anansesem or “Spider Tales”.

Once there were no stories in the world. Anansi’s father the Sky-God Nyame had them all of them. When Anansi asked for them, he was set the task of capturing 4 dangerous and elusive creatures (python, leopard, hornet, and dwarf).

Anansi tricked all of four and brought them to the Nyame. Nyame rewarded him by making him the god of all stories. Since then all stories have been dubbed “Spider Tales”.

Anansi is also known for trying to keep all of the wisdom of the world sealed in a pot, but he worried it was not safe enough so he tried to take it up a tree. He was not having much success and his son made fun of him and told Anansi how to actually get his hoard of wisdom up the tree.

Anansi dropped the pot and it shattered and spilt the wisdom into a stream and the stream took it to the sea. From the sea, the wisdom spread all around the world, so that there is now a little of it in everyone. I like that sentiment – “a little bit of wisdom in everyone”.

While he is an unpredictable trickster, Anansi is also responsible for creating the sun, the stars and the moon, as well as teaching mankind the techniques of agriculture.

The best one paragraph description of Anansi I have found is from Myths Encyclopedia – “West Africans originally considered Anansi to be the creator of the world. He often acted as a go-between for humans in their dealings with the sky god Nyame, and he supposedly persuaded Nyame to give both rain and the night to people. In most stories, however, Anansi is a crafty and cunning trickster who makes life more enjoyable for himself (or more difficult for others) by fooling humans, other animals, and even the gods themselves, often using his cleverness and knowledge of his victims’ ways of thinking to trick them and achieve his purpose.” – http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Am-Ar/Anansi.html

One of my all-time favorite sources for Anansi and his tales (and you know it’s good if I can appreciate reading about a spider) http://www.angelfire.com/planet/mythguide/anansi.html

So next time you hear a good story remember to thank Anansi.
~lisa

A thorough look at Anansi http://www.digplanet.com/wiki/Anansi
African Cultural Center folktales http://www.africanculturalcenter.org/5_4_3folktales.html
A great set of Anansi stories for kids http://anansistories.com/index.html

“Will you walk into my parlor?” said the Spider to the Fly.

A random fact to keep everyone with arachnophobia up at night: There are nearly 40,000 species of spiders worldwide.

“The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web.” – Edwin Way Teale

African Mythology Intro

Tokoloshe, Abada, Biloko, Anansi, Impundulu, Ninki Nanka, Bultungin

These are just a few of the creatures we will be looking at over the next month.

As I said in my June 1 post I will be looking at African Mythologies over the three summer months (June, July, and August).

Little did I know at that time how large a task that would be even with purposely leaving out all Egyptian and Arabian mythology. Africa is the world’s second largest continent and, even looking only at the mythologies of what are considered the indigenous tribes, it is an incredible undertaking.

Not that I’m planning on backing away from it. To the contrary, I love the richness and diversity of the myths.

Most of the African mythology known today is what has been recorded recently from long oral traditions. Many of it is fragmentary, many of the tribes cross borders and diverse neighboring tribes sometimes share the same myths.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous and well-known myth from Africa is that of Anansi. Due to the slave trade the myth of Anansi is also claimed in the “New” World. I will devote the blog post of June sixth to the trickster spider god.

Tokoloshe and Biloko (Eloko singular) are dwarf-like demons.

Biloko inhabit the rain forest of central Zaire. These dwarf-like creatures are said to be spirits of ancestors with a grudge to settle against the living. The Biloko guard the treasures of the forest.

Tokoloshe are dwarf-like demons found in Zulu mythology. These bogey-men are often called upon to frighten children into behaving. The problem with Tokoloshe is that they become invisible by drinking water. The good news is that if a cat sees the tokoloshe it will howl and chase the demon away.

Other somewhat familiar creatures include:

The Abada, native to Kurdufan, has two crooked horns instead of the one of a unicorn, but has many of the same magical powers including the horn’s power to act as an antidote to poison.

Vampire creatures are well-known in African mythology. Tribes of Southern Africa (Zulu, Pondo, and Xhosa) have the Impundulu, the lightning bird. The Impundulu is a black and white bird the size of a human that summons thunder and lightning with its wings and talons. It is a vampire that can also be the familiar of a witch or witch doctor.

The West African Ninki Nanka is another bogey-man type creature with which children are threatened into behaving. It is a huge, dangerous snake-like, dragon-like creature that lives in the swamps.

Finally there is the more ubiquitous idea of the Bultangin or Bouda, the were-hyenas.
The bultangin are hyenas that can turn into men. In the Lake Chad region it was believed that there were villages comprised completely of Bultangin. In Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzia, and Morocco it is believed that the bouda is a human that at night goes from being in its powerful human form (blacksmith, healer, woodcutter) into a cannibalistic monster with a hairy body, red, gleaming eyes and a nasal voice.

While I’m trying to explore only the indigenous myths of Africa, I must add the caveat that defining indigenous Africa is a problem worked on by far greater minds than mine.

Defining which tribes in Africa are indigenous is somewhat problematic as all the tribes can be described as “First Peoples”. If I make mistakes please forgive my ignorance and send me the corrections. I will be sure to post your comments. Thank you.

~lisa

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/list-of-countries-in-africa-3904.html
http://firstpeoples.org/wp/who-are-the-indigenous-peoples-of-africa/
http://www.nativeplanet.org/indigenous/ethnicdiversity/indigenous_data_africa.shtml