Creation Mythology of Africa Essay -- Myths Africa African Essays

Creation Mythology of Africa One office of examining the values and traditions of a people is to look at their explanations for how the world came to be. These stories execute such wonderful tools for analysis because all cultures have some dissever of creation story. Thus to comp ar groups of people we may start by looking at their creation mythology. It is important to note that the downfall of analyze mythologies is that in a way it is like comparing apples to oranges. This is because not all(prenominal) myth portrays and explains the same elements. Five myths from throughout Africa will be menti championd throughout this essay. They are from the Boshongo, Mande, Shilluk, Egyptian, and Yoruba peoples. For a brief description of these myths please see the appendix. gratify remember that these myths do not represent the notions and stories of all of Africa. In to each one of these stories, the tale of creation has been presented with a unique t wist. Yet there are several important similarities among the various myths. Besides explaining creation, there is always one major overlord. However, in some stories such as that of the Boshongo, the creator had helpers whereas in the Shilluk tale, Juok worked alone. In the Boshongo myth, Bumba creates nine animals and mankind. Then these animals and Bumbas three sons worked together creating everything else. In the Shilluk tale, simply everything is related somehow because everything shares the same creator. Even in other stories where the creator has helpers, however, all of these helpers were made by the creator and thus everything is still connected. In all of these stories, mankind is created by a more powerful being. This represents the belief that... ...rican Cosmogony. http//alexm.here.ru8081/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/051.html. taken from Leach, Maria. The Beginning. New York 1656. pages 145-6. Creation Myths. http//www.dreamscape.com/morgana/ ophelia.htm. January 8, 2001. Crystal, Ellie. African Creation Myths. http//www.crystalinks.com/africacreation.html. August 1995. Egyptian Creational Myths. http//www.crystalinks.com/egyptcreation.html. August 1995. Egyptian Cosmogony and Theogony. http//alexm.here.ru8081/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/054.html. taken from Piankoff, Alexandre. The Shrines of Tut-ankh-amon. New York 1955. page 24. flavour and Death Under the Pharaohs the Gods. http//icvc.imago.com.au/egypt/html/the_gods.html. 1998. West African Cosmogony. http//www.fandm.edu80/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/cosmo.html. 1999.