Mammals Part # 2 - African Folklore
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WildlifeCampus – African Folklore Course 1 Module # 4 - Component # 2 Mammals Part # 2 - African Folklore Introduction The content that follows is written from transcribed tapes recorded by Credo Mutwa. Credo Mutwa is one of Southern Africa’s most celebrated Sangomas or witchdoctors. The content therefore is not scientific but rather represent the feelings , beliefs and experiences of this exceptional man. The views of Credo Mutwa do not represent those of WildlifeCampus ,it’s management or staff . In addition since this is not a Formal Academic course there are no Objectives , Outcomes or Formal Assessments . You are however encouraged to complete this Components Take the Test in order to be assigned the Top100 badge. No certificate will be issued on completion of this course. These stories are written in precisely the same way that Credo tells them, with all their original colloquialisms and styles. Mammals Part # 2 – African Folklore WildlifeCampus – African Folklore Course 2 Eland: Animal of Myths The eland was viewed by Africans as an animal closely associated with the sun. The creature’s colour suggested sunlight to Africans of all tribes and all races. And, in the language of many tribes, the eland is called by a name with two meanings - in the language of the Zulu people the name for the eland is Impofu, a name which means both ‘the light-skinned one,’ ‘the golden-skinned one’ and ‘the humble one.’ In ancient times, during sacred games in honour of the sun, brave African youths used to summersault over the back of a tamed or half-tamed male eland. In fact there is a painting showing such a sport in one of the caves in the Cape Province. The eland is a gentle animal, which is very easy to tame . It has a love for human beings and will allow them to touch it. In olden days, even right up to the coming of white people to South Africa, our kings used to keep one or two tame elands - a male and a female. They did this for the sport that I had mentioned before, and also for the important fact that the milk of an eland is very, very rich - much richer than the milk of a cow - and it was used to give strength to sickly children. Many a princess or a prince with a delicate constitution, as a baby was brought to full strength by being given the milk of an eland and not that of a cow. Eland milk is very creamy and is gladly tolerated by African babies. And it was the milk that we used in the days when I was a young shaman in helping children with malnutrition. When the milk of an eland had been used to save the life of a human child, that female eland would afterwards be trussed up and gently taken back, usually on a sled drawn by warriors, to the bush were it had come from, and released unharmed - as a sign of gratitude towards the entire eland race and to the sun god to whom all elands are sacred. If you are lying sick in an African village and you dream of an eland, it is a good sign. We are told it means that a great healer will arrive from far away, who will heal you from your illness, bringing you complete recovery. An eland is a symbol of freedom, also of enlightenment and courage. If one is undergoing initiation and one dreams of an eland, one must thank the ancestral spirits for this, by depicting the animal either in clay or in wood or as a drawing or a painting, inside the initiation hut. Dreaming of an eland was taken to mean that one’s period of initiation has ended, or was about to end, and that the gods and the ancestral spirits had accepted one as an initiate. Mammals Part # 2 – African Folklore WildlifeCampus – African Folklore Course 3 If an initiate has difficulty in dreaming or seeing visions, the teacher of that initiate must, once each month, burn a bundle of eland tail hairs, the smoke of which the initiate must inhale together with a mildly hallucinogenic herb. This will bring back the dreams of the initiate, because dreams are very, very important when one is a shaman, a diviner or a sangoma. The Eland and the Sun God Aside from the giraffe, there was one animal that was regarded as very sacred by all tribes throughout southern and eastern Africa. This animal was painted inside the ancient caves hundreds of times. It was engraved on flat rocks far out in the open scores of times. This animal was the eland. The eland is known as the animal of a thousand legends, so many are the stories that have been woven around this beautiful antelope. Amongst the legends of the Great Earth Mother’s journey into the underworld, the eland is mentioned next to the elephant as being one of two animals that went into the underworld to bring back the Great Earth Mother. This was an act of bravery, which caused the eland to endure extreme danger, terror and hardship as it laboured to return back to the earth’s surface with the Great Mother goddess riding on its back. The eland is seen as an animal of self- sacrifice, an animal that is always ready to give its life for the benefit of other animals as well as human beings. A beautiful story is told of how, one day, the young son of the sun god visited Earth against his father’s wishes. The sun god had warned his son not to come down from heaven and visit human beings because human beings were dangerous and unpredictable. And although his father had warned him, the young sun god surreptitiously visited humankind on Earth one day and was promptly murdered by a group of jealous wizards. The great sun god was torn with grief and was very, very furious with the human race for what it had done. He increased the ferocity of the heat of the sun so that, instead of giving life, the sun gave the earth death and destruction. Fires erupted all over the land. Rocks melted in the furious heat of the sun. Rivers boiled away and so did the ocean. Human beings died in their thousands, and only those that succeeded in reaching deep caverns under the earth survived. Mammals Part # 2 – African Folklore WildlifeCampus – African Folklore Course 4 The sun god told human beings that he would not stop destroying them until one of the most beautiful of them had sacrificed himself or herself, by jumping into a fire of molten rock from the top of a mountain. A beautiful princess was about to sacrifice herself for the salvation of human kind, when, out of the burning bush there appeared a beautiful eland, which galloped towards her, and stopped her from jumping into the fire pit. “Great god of the sun,” cried the beautiful female eland. “I, Pofana, the beautiful one, am more comely than this fat human being. Accept my soul, Lord of light. Accept my body, and remove your angry hand from the head of humankind.” It is said that the beautiful animal jumped into the boiling rock and was immediately consumed by the blue flames that roared upward. And stricken with guilt, the beautiful human princess also threw herself into the fire pit, dying together with the eland for the sake of humankind. It is said that the sun god was so moved by this double sacrifice that immediately he halted the fury of the sun and once more soothing rain clouds swam across the skies and blessed the earth with rain. Mammals Part # 2 – African Folklore WildlifeCampus – African Folklore Course 5 Giraffe: The Seer Africans of all tribes regarded the giraffe as one of the holiest animals on Earth. In fact, its name in the Batswana language, Thutlhwa, is a word that means ‘the honoured one,’ or ‘the one to be respected.’ The giraffe was regarded as an animal that was able to foresee the future. It was in fact the symbol of all seers and all prophets and diviners. In the language of the Zulus, the giraffe is called Indula-minthi, and this name means ‘the one who is taller than the trees.’ Our people believed that a giraffe could foretell the coming of veld-fires, and that by its actions it would warn other animals of the coming danger. And again and again, in places where I was initiated in many parts of Africa, I found likenesses of the giraffe. Even in ancient caves where Khoi-San people used to live, you find many paintings of giraffes on the walls of those caves. The giraffe is a quiet animal by nature, and quietness is regarded as an important characteristic of a seer. Our people say, “He who sees into the future must have lips that do not speak.” When we are undergoing deep initiation into the mysteries of African healing, we are always told by our teachers to think very deeply about certain animals. And amongst these animals is the giraffe, and if an initiate is praying for the intensification of his visionary powers, he is told to either draw, or paint, or even carve out of soft wood, the likeness of a giraffe. Because of its very long neck, the giraffe is capable of seeing danger far away, long before the other animals with it see or sense that danger. When a gang of hunters approach, the giraffe will always be the first one to start moving, slowly at first, and then galloping away at a speed that warns the other animals around it that there is danger afoot.