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Tasmia Shariff All cultures seek to explain how everything in this world was created. They come up with their own creation stories that describe the creation of themselves and the things around them. Most creation stories also attempt to explain mysterious phenomena, teach lessons to the listeners, and emphasize aspects of life that each culture finds important. The three creation stories that I chose to compare were the creation myths of the Mande, the African Bushmen, and the Egyptians. These creation stories, though extremely different do share some similarities. The African Bushmen myth and the Egyptian myth both have lessons or morals to be learned from the story; specifically, they emphasize the importance of obeying laws. The Egyptian myth, “The Story of Re,” shows that men must obey the laws of Re, the creator, even if he appears weak in their eyes. When the men stopped obeying Re, they were slaughtered by his daughter, Sekhmet. The African Bushmen myth demonstrated that one should always obey the laws of the creator (in this case, Kaang) because it is usually for one’s own benefit anyway. The people disobeyed Kaang’s warning not to use fire and so their use of fire ended up scaring off the animals breaking off communication between people and animals. All three myths reveal something about what its culture considers to be important in life—the myths indicate what these cultures value and what fascinates them. The Egyptian myth, “The Story of Re,” reveals the Egyptians’ fascination with bloodshed; there is a great deal of bloodshed when Sekhmet slaughters men and takes pleasure in their blood. The myth also indicates that Egyptians valued cunning deception and magic arts. The myth involves two instances in which a character tricks another character using clever and/or magical means. In one instance, Re tricks Sekhmet into drinking large amounts of alcohol by dying it red with red ocher, so that she thinks it is blood. In another instance, Isis tricks Re into telling her his secret name by requiring it as part of a cure for a snakebite. Through their creation myth, the African Bushmen indicate that they value man’s interaction with animals; they show concern about fire and the fact that it frightens animals. They seem to feel that fire has ruined the relationship between men and animals. Bushmen seem to dislike interfering with nature. The Mande myth shows that the Mande have a fascination with fertility. They mention a great deal about wombs and placenta; the pieces of the placenta were used to create earth and sun. The Mande also seem interested in twins, especially dual-gendered twins, since men were created from sets of twins. One difference from the African Bushmen seems to be that the Mande are interested in controlling nature. Sourakata and nyamakalaw people are famous for controlling nature and using it to their advantage. All three myths involve interaction of man and nature. In the African bushmen story, men and animals were once friends but now do not interact due to animal’s fear of fire. The Mande describe how Sourakata and the nyamakalaw people control nature and use it to their benefit. In the Egyptian creation myth, different aspects of nature (sky, wind, rain, and earth) are controlled by different gods that must be pleased if these elements are to behave as men wish them to. Creation myths are an interesting way to learn about a culture since the stories reveal a great deal about the values of the culture and the aspects of this world that are important to them. Back to Creation Myth Papers
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