African Creation Stories

Ileana Fernandez

There are many similarities among most African creation stories. Likewise certain differences are also noticeable. For example, I chose four creation stories to make the comparisons between them. The first one is "An African Cosmogony." Here, Bumba is the creator. He created nine living creatures, after vomiting the sun and the moon, from which all other animals emerged. The second one, "An African story of the Creation of Man", is a story among the Shilluks of the White Nile which basically explains the different complexions among the various races on Earth. They believed Juok molded all men of earth while he wandered the earth creating the rest of the world. White men were created from white sand which Juok found in the land of the white. Red or brown men were created out of the mud of the Nile in Egypt. Black men were created from black earth found in the land of the Shilluck. According to this creation story, man was given all necessary parts to function. Each part had a reason for being. For example, Juok gave man arms in order for man to work. The third one, "God and the Five women" states the myth of the origin of earth, fire, water and woman, from the Thompson Indians of North Pacific Coast. This creation story states that Earth was created by Old One or Chief. He came down from the upper world in a cloud and created five Perfectly formed young women. To each of them he asked what they wished to be. The first one wished to be "bad". The second one wanted to be "good". The third one wanted to become Earth. The fourth one wanted to become Fire. And the fifth one became water. Finally, the fourth story, "Creation by Thought" states that man was created out of a thinking process by which he first created the Earth and then created man in resemblance of himself. The Earthcreator designed man out of clay. He gave man mind and thought, tongue, soul, and the ability to talk. All of these features came about out of a thought process. 

In all these stories there is a chief creator. One god, or creator, is in charge of populating the Earth and making men. Two of these stories have similar concepts in relation to the creation of men. Men being created out of clay is similar in the "Creation by Thought" story and "An African Story of the Creation of Man". It is also noticeable that in all these stories everything else, even animals, were created before men were created. These four stories embrace similar codes of ethics. For example, in the "An African Story of the Creation of Man", Juok expected man to work since he designed his hands for that purpose. Similarly, in the "Creation by Thought" story, the Earthcreator gave man a soul, a mind, the ability to talk and made man as a resemblance of himself. Therefore he was expecting man to behave like the creator. 

There are also many differences among these four stories. For example, the origin of the creation. Each culture believes that man was created within them. Therefore, creation stories differ. Also the means of creating man are different. In these four stories man was created out of clay, out of women, and out of thought. In "An African Cosmogony" the most important characters of creation were animals. As stated in this story "Last of all came forth men." 

The story I liked the most was "God and the Five Women". This story fascinates me since women are the center of creation. It is not usual to find women as the leading role in any of the creation stories I read. It also impressed me the way in which the Old Chief balanced the power of each of these Perfect women. The code of ethics of this creation story appears at the end when the Old Chief said that even though evil would surpass goodness in amount, at the end good would always win. This concept of good and evil is present in almost all of the creation stories I read. Certainly, all of this stories are a valuable explanation as to where we all came from. 


 

Works Cited

An African Cosmogony
An African Story of he Creation of Man
Creation by Thought
God and the Five Women 

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