African Mythology A to Z

176 Pages·2010·5.74 MB·English

by  Patricia Ann Lynch

African
Mythology
A to Z
second edition
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African Mythology A to Z
Celtic Mythology A to Z
Chinese Mythology A to Z
Egyptian Mythology A to Z
Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z
Japanese Mythology A to Z
Native American Mythology A to Z
Norse Mythology A to Z
South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z
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African
Mythology
A to Z
second edition
8
Patricia Ann Lynch
Revised by Jeremy Roberts
[
African Mythology A to Z, Second Edition
Copyright © 2004, 2010 by Patricia Ann Lynch
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lynch, Patricia Ann.
African mythology A to Z / Patricia Ann Lynch ; revised by Jeremy Roberts. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60413-415-5 (hc : alk. paper) 1. Mythology—African. 2. Encyclopedias—juvenile.
I. Roberts, Jeremy, 1956- II. Title.
BL2400 .L96 2010
299.6' 11303—dc22 2009033612
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Text design by Lina Farinella
Map design by Patricia Meschino
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Bood printed and bound by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN
Date printed: March 2010
Printed in the United States of America
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Contents
8
Introduction vii
Map of Modern Africa xviii
Countries and Tribal Regions xix
Time Line of African History xxiii
A-to-Z Entries 1
Selected Bibliography 139
Index 143

Introduction
8
The first impression one gets of Africa is its size. Africa is the world’s second largest
continent in area (after Asia). The continent spans about 5,000 miles from north
to south and about 4,600 miles from east to west at its widest part in the north.
The geography of Africa is as varied as one might expect in such an immense area.
Strips of fertile land at northern and southern extremes of the continent gradually
fade into the vast reaches of the Sahara Desert in the north and the smaller Kala-
hari Desert in the south. Narrow bands of brush and scrub forest and grasslands
border the deserts. Tall mountains—many of which are extinct volcanoes—tower
over the rolling, grassy savannas. Broad and powerful rivers cut across the conti-
nent, making their way to the sea. In the center of Africa is a great equatorial rain
forest. Wherever the land was capable of supporting human life, people settled.
They developed agriculture and animal husbandry, learned metalworking, founded
cities, and built empires.
To refer to “Africans” or “African culture” as if the inhabitants of this enor-
mous continent represent one people is an error. People’s ways of life, religions,
traditions, and mythologies vary greatly from region to region and even from one
tribe to a neighboring tribe. Wherever they lived, Africans developed lifestyles,
worldviews, religions, traditions, and mythologies that were as different from one
another as their physical environments.
Also because of its size, outside influences on Africa varied from place to place.
The great civilization of ancient Egypt dominated other cultures that developed
along the Nile River. Peoples on the Red Sea coast were influenced by the peoples
of southern Arabia across the sea. North Africa, which borders the Mediterranean
Sea, is just eight miles across the Strait of Gibraltar from Europe. It was settled by
the ancient Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs, all of whom exerted their own
influences on North African culture, traditions, and mythologies. Central Africa,
south of the Sahara, remained uninfluenced by outside civilizations for millennia. Its
peoples developed their own unique religions, worldviews, and mythologies.
Humans use mythology and ritual to establish a sense of community, identity,
and an understanding of their place in the universe. These tools maintain the
traditions of a culture and reflect what is most important in people’s lives. We read
myths not only to learn about the culture in which the myth originated but to dis-
cover what was in the hearts and minds of the mythmakers. This book explores the
surviving mythological traditions of Africa outside Egypt, from the earliest known
myths to the most recent. (Egyptian mythology is covered in our volume Egyptian
Mythology A to Z.) The myths of African peoples give us a glimpse into their ways of
life and worldviews. Because of the vast numbers of traditions and almost limitless
numbers of tales, it is impossible to represent them all in a book of this size. We
vii
viii  African Mythology A to Z
Ancient Africans were painting pictures on rock croppings and cliffs some 30,000 years ago. These ancient
pictographs from Libya feature animals, people, and mythological symbols. (Photo by Clara/Shutterstock)
have attempted to include a sampling of myths that are representative of particular
cultures and that come from as wide a variety of cultures as possible.
AfricA: A Brief History
Africa has a long and dynamic history that goes back millions of years. Human
life began in Africa. Anthropological evidence in the form of fossil skulls, bone
fragments, and other artifacts shows that the first hominids—upright primates who
walked on two legs—evolved in East Africa around 5 million years ago. By 700,000
years ago, hominids who migrated out of Africa had spread throughout Asia and
Europe. Fossil remains of the first modern humans—Homo sapiens—that date
back 160,000 years were found in Ethiopia in 2003. This is evidence that modern
humans also evolved in Africa and spread out from there.
Prehistoric African People
Some 30,000 years ago, the san people of southern Africa began painting pictures
on rock outcroppings and cliffs. San rock art is a valuable aid to understanding San
religion and mythology, both of which have survived to this day.
Over many thousands of years, the geography of Africa has changed more
than once. Between around 5500 and 2500 b.c., the continent’s climate became
wetter. The northern half of Africa became a lush prairie, populated by hunters,
herders, and farmers. Archaeologists have learned about these people’s lives from
the thousands of rock paintings discovered throughout the region. Scenes showing
everyday activities, rituals, musicians, and decoratively costumed dancers give a
Introduction  ix
glimpse into the customs, traditions, and ceremonial lives of these ancient people.
Nothing, however, is known about their myths.
About 4,000 years ago (around 2000 b.c.) the climate changed again; it became
increasingly drier. Lands that were once fertile became desert. Today, the sands of
the Sahara cover the beds of ancient rivers and the ruins of cities that flourished
long ago. The people of the Sahara migrated to more hospitable lands. They
took with them their religions, customs, traditions, and mythology. From the
Sahara, people dispersed in three directions. Some went north to the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea. There, they merged with the local people and formed the
Berber culture. Some settled in the fertile lands along the Nile River and later
became known as Libyans. Still oth-
ers migrated south into the heart of
the continent.
the rise of African Kingdoms
Some of history’s oldest and most
advanced civilizations developed in
Africa. The civilization of Egypt
arose around 5500 b.c. and flour-
ished between 1550 and 1069 b.c.
It was conquered by Alexander the
Great in 332–323 b.c. The first
African civilization after Egypt was
Kush. The Kushites were an Egyp-
tianized people who lived between
the first and third cataracts of the
Nile River. Around 3100 b.c., Egypt
had conquered and colonized the
region around the first cataract—
known as Nubia—spreading Egyp-
tian civilization southward. Kush
grew so strong that in the eighth
century b.c. it conquered Egypt and
ruled it for 90 years. The Kushite
religion closely resembled Egyptian
religion. It contained all the major
Egyptian gods, with Amon as the
principal god, and the related Egyp-
tian mythologies as well.
The Kushite dynasty ended with
the Assyrian invasion of Egypt in the
seventh century b.c. The Kushites
retreated south. In 591, the capital
moved to Meroe. By about 270, Meroe
had become an empire that lasted for
500 years. In addition to Egyptian
deities and mythology, Meroe had
its own regional gods; among them
This figurine, found in the burial place
was a lion-headed warrior god who
of King Senkamanisken of the Kushites,
appears in rock carvings. dates to 623 b.c. and closely resembles
While Meroe declined, the king- works of the Egyptian culture that came
dom of Axum in the highlands of before it. (Unattributed photo/Used under
what is now Ethiopia grew in power. a Creative Commons license)