Origin of Life & Death: African Creation Myths

by Ulli Beier (Editor)

Eighteen African creation myths from across the Continent--colorful answers by man to the problems of life and death--as valid as Genesis.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, Mythology, African Literature

414 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1966

About the author

Taken from the back of The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (Heinemann, 1966): "ULLI BEIER is an associate professor in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of Ibadan. He is the editor of Black Orpheus, author of several books on African art and literature, including African Mud Sculpture, and one of the founders of the Mbari clubs in Ibadan and Oshogbo. He likes translating poetry from Yoruba and German."

Reviews

[Varyanne S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

One very important thing to note;

"There is hardly an African schoolchild today who is not familiar with the biblical creation myths, but how many of them have been taught the creation stories of their of their own people?"~Ulli Beier (Editor)

We are all keen to understand our relationship with God,death and the supernatural, no matter what our beliefs are. Myths of origin are enjoyable to read and shed light on our understanding of these relationships.
This book contains various myths each captivating as the other. In one, man exists before God who is formed when a sheep goes mad with joy after a battle which man wins against dangerous animals, in another, people decide their fate before they are sent to earth by their female creator, in the beginning was a drop of milk which gave birth to other things in another story.

My favorite is the story of "Why the Sky is so far" (A Bini story from Nigeria). Before the sky moved far from earth, people did not have to work so hard to get food because, generously, the sky allowed them to cut pieces of it and eat it. With abundance comes wastefulness. The sky warned people that if they continued to dump pieces of it in the rubbish heap because they cut off more than they could eat, it would get angry. The people heeded the warning but one woman cut off too much and asked her husband and the entire village to help her finish the piece of sky, when they couldn't, they threw it onto the rubbish heap. As promised, sky was very annoyed and moved very far away from earth and man. Now man has to work for food.

More myths please.

[Max Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most striking thing reading this for a Westerner is the realization that we homogenize all of Africa into one culture in our heads. It's not that we don't realize that there are different tribes or anything, just that we tend to think that those tribes have the same beliefs about everything, maybe about as different as the various sects of Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. Of course, it's not so. German poet Ulli Beier edited this volume in the 1960s after interviewing tribespeople from all over the continent. Some of the stories are amazingly unusual; for example, one where the world is made from ant dung on the branch of a tree. This seems to be a good place to go if you're interested in mythology and have already read Gilgamesh , if you can find a copy. It's long OOP and I found mine in a used bookstore in Calais, ME.

[Kinosfronimos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but wonderfully varied