African Mythology a to Z

African Mythology A to Z SECOND EDITION MYTHOLOGY A TO Z 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 MYTHOLOGY A TO Z 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, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Chelsea House 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 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 Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Text design by Lina Farinella Map design by Patricia Meschino Composition by Mary Susan Ryan-Flynn Cover printed by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Bood printed and bound by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Date printed: March 2010 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. All links and Web addressess were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. 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 continent, 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 flourished 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) x African Mythology A to Z According to Greek and Roman sources, Axum was thriving by the first century a.d.

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