african mythology

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AFRICA MAGIC AND SYMBOLISM

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AFRICAMAGIC AND SYMBOLISM

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.

Fetishes (talismans, idols, charms, images).

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.

Totems

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.

PYGMIES

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.

Khonvum

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.

BUSHMEN

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.

Video of initiation rites:

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).

HOTTENTOTS

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.

BANTU TRIBE

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.

Nzame

Bingo grew up and became the culture-hero,

the teacher, of humanity.

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.