African Myths

The World's Greatest Myths and Legends

by Jake Jackson (editor)

Sub-Saharan Africa is a land of colourful contrasts and diverse cultures. Despite the destructive influences of colonialism and the slave trade and the lack of early written records, Africa has persevered with its powerful tradition of storytelling, with tales of its history passed down in songs and stories through the generations. Because of the huge diversity of lifestyles and traditions, no real unified mythology exists in Africa, but broadly speaking, a number of beliefs, ideas and themes are shared by African peoples. So this collection offers a selection of descriptions and tales, often those recorded faithfully by some of the first to put them to paper – tales of the gods, creation stories, trickster adventures, animal fables and stories which amuse and teach – from Olukun’s Revenge, from the Yoruba people of west Africa, to The Story of the Glutton, from the Bantu-speaking peoples of east Africa, all brought together with the aim of providing an insight into the boundless and vibrant world of African myth.

FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and myth, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Africa, Short Stories, Classics

480 pages, ebook

Published December 15, 2018

About the author

SF and dark fantasy author but also a writer/creator of practical music books - Beginner's Guide to Reading Music, Guitar Chords, Piano Chords, Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary and How to Play Guitar. Other publications include Advanced Guitar Chords, Advanced Piano Chords, Chords for Kids, How to Play the Electric Guitar, Piano & Keyboard Chords, Scales and Modes and Play Flamenco. Also editor of Mythology books 

Released EP Jakesongs on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, LastFM, etc and on CDBaby. Lifelong passion for fantastic worlds of any kind, from movies to fiction, art to music, posters, album and paperback book covers.

Jake Jackson is the artist name for Nick Wells, Publisher of Flame Tree Press / Flame Tree Publishing.

Reviews

[Michael O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This ain't no bedtime story." At least, not for kids.

Some of these are fables with a moral. Some are stories that give a background for why a tribe has a certain tradition or an explanation of things in nature. Some seemed, to me at least, to have no point, and didn't even seem to have much entertainment value either --- wasn't quite sure what to make of them.

Africa is a multitude of tribes and cultures. With each myth, the tribe or ethnic group originating it is listed, but I think that it would have been helpful -- with, perhaps, a prologue or footnotes for the book to give some background on these, assuming it might better explain some of the things in these tales seeming bizarre to modern Westerners.

There are stories of wisdom or making a moral point. Others are creation myths -- some interestingly having a single "creator god" who creates all, then appoints sub-gods to run parts of the Creation. A few involve a great flood. There are also stories featuring gruesome tortures. Slavery figures throughout a number of the myths --- the slaves anonymous and expendable. In one tale, the chief's sons commemorate their father's death by entombing his body --- along with 2 of his slaves, left bound within to stand vigil --- and to slowly starve to death.

Polygamy is prominent, and some plots involve rivalries between wives, usually married to a chief.

The "Big Man" phenomenon, described in African history in Reader's "Africa: Biography of a Continent" and Martin's "The Fate of Africa", figures here too. A number of stories involve a chief or king giving some outrageous and arbitrary decree imposing hardship upon the people, his lieutenants and subjects powerless to resist. The "Big Man", similar to real life, accountable to no one, doing as he pleases.

I did enjoy some of the myths. For example, an African twist on "The Tortoise and the Hare", involves "The Tortoise vs. The Elephant" --- with clever Mr. Tortoise taking advantage of Mr. Elephant's thinking all tortoises look alike to fool him, via teamwork with other Tortoise Family members, into believing him faster and stronger in a competition of athletic prowess.

I found these myths interesting, if not sometimes, with a few, baffling, but I think it would have been better if there had been some explanation of the cultures behind the tribal myths. Probably, an OK book for some initial exposure to African mythology, but there may be better books on this topic that are better, I think.

[Robin Lofton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good myths. The author begins by discussing African history. Very upsetting. He did not present an accurate summary of Subsaharan African history. He made definite historical mistakes that were upsetting and rather offensive. If someone is interested in African myths or folktales, then the book is good. I just discourage reading the introduction where the author gives his erroneous discussion of African history. Gave two stars for the stories. Subtracted three stars for the historical untruths.

[Anscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun collection of wacky hijinks and occasionally downright bizarre tales from across Sub Saharan Africa (though with a prominence of Nigeria, Zanzibar and South Africa). While those regions are so far apart and culturally diverse, it's clear across the book that there are common themes and approaches across the continent, suggesting common challenges faced by African peoples and similar ways of dealing with them, which is interesting to think about while reading.

Some got pretty repetitive though, especially the animal fables. I also tend to prefer mythology about gods and demons than disconnected fables and parables, so for that reason most of these won't feature among my favourite myths.

[Max Rohde · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I do enjoy myths or the retelling of them, such as done by Stepehen Fry in Mythos, I have to admit that many of them are simply not very good - in terms of being a bit on the crazier side and not really following great logic or storytelling. This is certainly true for many of the myths in this anthology and it was a bit of slog for me to finish the whole book.

However, I am glad that I did so, since there were a couple of stories in here I quite enjoyed. Specifically I liked:


The Donkey Who Sinned: A great fable about a donkey meeting with some predators and discussing who is at fault for a misfortune befalling everyone; inevitably, the donkey is found to be the guilty party - since he is the only one without fangs!
The Story of the Glutton: A story about a man who receives many blessings from the gods, but finds them to be insufficient and thus spoils the life of his family. A great allegory on life!


In any case, to find these gems I read through many, many stories I didn't quite enjoy!

[Kara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh! I bought an 8 book box set of myths from various cultures around the world and this was the first one I read. The intro was way too long and boring and then the stories weren’t any better. So many were pointless and lame, no morals, no charm, no entertainment value. I had such high hopes for learning some stories about an unfamiliar culture, but was rather disappointed. But, I’m going to trudge on and give the other books a chance. Hopefully they’re much better!

[Conrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading a book on indigenous horror stories, I became interested in legends of other cultures. I found this series with many books, each a different culture. African Myths was the first. A lot of them seem pointless and nonsensical, but I did enjoy The Two Rogues from Hasua people of West Africa and The Story of the Glutton from Bantu people of East Africa.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories with variety from different countries and regions. Quite a few typos though.