african mythology
TRANSCRIPT
RELIGION
ANIMISM
The belief that all plants and
animals have spirits.
A doctrine that the vital
principle of organic
development is immaterial spirit.
RELIGION
FETISHISM The belief in magical fetishes (talismans, idols, charms, images) .
Extravagant irrational devotion.
RELIGION
TOTEMISM
The belief in kinship with or a
mystical relationship between
a group of an individual or a
totem*.*totem-symbol for a family or tribe.
PEOPLEPYGMY
a member of a group of small people who live in Africa.
Bantu- spoken language of pygmies.
They believe in one supreme god named Khonvum.
Khonvum-above all the lords of forest and game, that he was perhaps first to exist in the guise of an animal.
Khonvum
Supreme god of the pygmies, they
believe that khonvum directs of controls
all celestial phenomena (lightning, storm,
day and night, shooting stars etc.)
When the sun dies (night) khonvum
collects broken pieces of stars in his sack
and tosses armful of them at the sun so it
can rise in the next morning.
KhonvumHe is also known as “Great Huntsman”
because of his two wielded serpents that
assumes visible forms as the rainbow.
He makes contact with men by
intermediary of either a real animal like
chameleon or imaginary animals who
appears in dreams—the elephant Gor,
whose powerful voice gives rise to thunder.
PEOPLEBUSHMEN
a member of a group of short statured people of southern Africa who traditionally live by hunting and foraging (scavenging).
They also have supreme being whose name varies from tribe to tribe: Kaang or Khu or Kho, or Thora.
He has an adversary called Gauna or Gawa, the leader of the spirits of the dead.
PEOPLEBUSHMEN
one of the special characteristics of
the bushmen’s mythology is the
existence of animal spirits such as the
Praying Mantis, I Kaggen married to
Hyrax. The Antelope or Porcupine,
heroes of dozens of adventures that
explains various celestial phenomena.
The Praying Mantis
The Praying Mantis is the oldest symbol of God ~
the African Bushman’s manifestation of God
come to Earth.
When a Praying Mantis is seen, diviners try to
determine the current message. In this culture
they are also associated with restoring life into the
dead.
CagnIn the mythology of the Bushmen of
southwestern Africa, Cagn is the god who created the world and all the people and things in it. In some stories, he dies and thencomes back to life. Cagn is also called Kaang, Kho, and Thora.
Cagn is a magician who plays tricks and whose strengths lies in one particular tooth; birds are his messengers or emissaries.
CagnIn the beginning, Cagn had a friendly
relationship with human beings. After people began to show disrespect toward their creator god, however, Cagnsent death and destruction to the world. He left the earth to live somewhere far off in the sky According to the Bushmen, only the antelopes know exactly where he is.
Symbolism of Cagn’s Death
and ResurrectionAll the adventures of Cagn, such as the creation
of the moon from an old shoe, are recounted
during the initiation of rites for young boys.
They may be considered as explanation of
these rites, and the swallowing of Cagn, his
death and resurrection may be regarded as the
symbolic expression of death and resurrection of
boys during initiation, which is presided over by
a priest disguised as an animal.
PEOPLEHOTTENTOTS
They have a higher level of technical civilization compared to pygmies and bushmen.
Their mythology seems to reflect this twofold origin:
Their supreme god, Tsuigoab, who is by nature a great priest or sorcerer.
The national hero, Heitsi-Eibib, name derived from Heigib (the great tree).
Tsui-Goab
His cult was celebrated when the Pleiades.
He lives in the Red Sky; he commands storms,
sends rain for the crops and speak with the word
of thunder.
His name meands “wounded knee”.
He has an adversary who lives in the Black Sky;
he is Gaunab, the chief of the dead.
Tsui-Goab kills Gaunab in the end but he is first
wounded in the knee during the fight.
Heitsi Eibib
His name was derived from Heigib, the great
tree who teaches the Bushmen how to hunt.
He is an offspring of a cow who ate special grass
and conceived the hero in this way.
He appears as a sort of magician who performs
miracles, died and come back to life again.
He is victorious against his fights against
monsters.
TRIBESBANTU TRIBE
Ethnologist have rightly emphasized the
important of cult of royal or family
ancestors of bantu tribes.
Their ancestors are intermediaries
between mortals and gods.
Unkulunkulu or ‘the very old’
-He is the first ancestor of human race
He arose from the bed of reeds and
therefore from the ground.
He is the creator of customs and
techniques typical of Kaffir civilization.
Although he is a hero, and the benefactor
of humanity, he is also indirectly
responsible for death.
Unkulunkulu, as indirectly responsible for
death.
He said to the chameleon: ‘Go and tell men that they will not suffer death’.
But the slow and lazy chameleon lingered on the way so; Unkulunkulu grew angry and sent a new messenger, the lizard, to tell men that death would come.
When the chameleon got there, the lizard had already been before him and that is why men are now mortal.
TRIBESTHE CONGO GROUP
They have similarities with Bantu tribe—
which is the belief in one god.
Their supreme god is Nzambi or Nzame.
Christian influence played its part and this
god-creator drove out deities.
Nzame
He created the first man, Fam, who was
intended to be master of all things; but he grew
in vain and revolted against Nzame and
destroyed the earth, he was buried into a hole.
Nzame created the second man, Sekame, the
ancestor of present race.
Sekame made his wife from a tree, Mbongwe.
But Fam was not dead and from his hole he
inflicted misfortune to mankind.
Nzame
Then Nzame came down the earth but fell in
love with a pretty girl Mboya and had a son
named Bingo.
But Nzame and Mboya quarreled over child’s
affection.
Because of anger, Nzame flung Bingo from the
heights of the vault of heaven.
His mother searched for him in vain and she is still
wandering in the world unable to find him.
TRIBESTHE NILOTIC TRIBES
The Nilotic tribe is related both to Paleo-Negritic
culture and Hamitic.
It had produced stratified mythology in creating
with different status and function of invader and
invaded.
The Shiluk tribes has a god-creator Juck, whom
they inherited from non-shilluks.
Juck
He fashioned the world but not direct it.
Altough he is a personal being, he is also
impersonal might, he is present to a greater or
lesser degree in all things.
Beside him is Nyikang, the ancestor god of
Shilluks.
Nyikang is the indispensable intermediary
between men and Juck, who can only be
reached through him.
Nyikang
The ancestor god of Shilluks.
Omara, the first man, who came from the sky,
was believed to be Nyikang’s grandson.
Nyikang was the decendants of first cow that
was created by the supreme god.
Others believe that he is a son of crocodile
mother.
Shilluks
Nyikang quarreled with his half-brother about
who was to succeed to their father’s throne.
He fled after loosing the battle, taking with him
the insignia of royalty.
When he reached the land that was to become
Shilluk kingdom, he created subjects of his new
realm by changing wild animals into men.
Alternatively, it is said that he fished men out of
the water with his fishing line that brought them
out of calabash.