African Myths of Origin

by Stephen Belcher

  As he was eating, Ture’s penis called to him, ‘How dare you eat termites, when you let all the termites at the other mound escape because you were sleeping with your mother-in-law?’

  ‘You are lying!’ cried Ture to his penis, but his mother-in-law’s vagina spoke, saying, ‘You know it is not a lie. You let the termites escape while you were amusing yourself with me.’

  Nanzagbe was furious and seized her pestle; she chased Ture and her mother out of the compound.

  17

  ESHU OF THE YORUBA

  Eshu is only one of the Yoruba tricksters; there is also the tortoise Ajapa. But Eshu, or Eshu-Elegbara, as his fuller name goes, occupies a special place because of his association with Orunmila, the god or orisha of Ifa divination (see also Chapter 49). Eshu himself is also an orisha. Like the Fon Legba (see Chapters 18 and 51), to whom he is closely related, Eshu works to introduce the unpredictable into an orderly system; this can cause trouble at times, but it also can help (as in the second story below, when Eshu helps Orunmila escape a destined death). The following stories were all recorded around 1960.

  ESHU’S KNOWLEDGE

  At the time of creation, the various orisha went to their Father’s house to receive their powers. At that time, Eshu had no possessions or farm to delay him, and so he arrived first. He stayed and helped the Father as he carved the various beings that would fill the world; he did not get impatient, but he stayed and stayed for sixteen years, helping the Father. Other orisha would come and stay for four or eight days, waiting until the Father assigned them a post and duties, then they left and returned to their homes or farms. Eshu did not leave. He learned how the Father shaped humans: how he made hands and feet and eyes. Eshu learned everything. So finally the Father told him to go and take his place at the crossroads. He said that everyone coming to see him should give Eshu a gift, and everyone leaving should give him a gift. So Eshu became wealthy, and he said, ‘Lazy men live by their wisdom; only fools do not know how to manage their affairs.’

  ESHU, ORUNMILA AND THE SERVANT OF DEATH

  Agbigbo became a servant of Death; his task was to carry the coffins in which Death placed those he had killed to their houses. One night, Orunmila, the orisha of Ifa divination, dreamed of death. The next day, he consulted the Ifa oracle and was told what offerings to prepare. He collected the materials for the sacrifice and carried them to the shrine of Eshu.

  Agbigbo was sent with a coffin to the home of Orunmila. Along the way, he met Eshu sitting outside his shrine. Eshu asked him what he was doing with the coffin and Agbigbo told him it was intended for Orunmila. Eshu asked him what he would take to leave Orunmila alone, and Agbigbo said that he could be persuaded by the gift of a rat, a bird and some other bush-meat. Eshu said that he had all these things, for they had been included in the sacrifice Orunmila had left with him. He gave them to Agbigbo, who put the coffin on his head and went his way. As he left, Eshu commanded that he should never be able to put the coffin down. And this is the mark of Agbigbo to this day: he is a bird with a large tuft of feathers on his head, indicating the coffin he carries.

  ESHU PARTS TWO FRIENDS

  Two men were very close friends and had sworn that nothing would part them. Their compounds were next to each other, their fields lay on opposite sides of the road out of the village; they were always together. At one time, they consulted the Ifa oracle, and were told to make a sacrifice to Eshu, but they did not. And so Eshu punished them.

  One day, he came walking down the road between their fields. His hat was red on one side, white on the other. After he had gone, one friend spoke to the other and mentioned the white hat. The other corrected him: the hat had been red. The first was sure the hat was white. The second knew it was red. They argued about it and finally began to fight. When they stopped, they went back to work in the fields.

  Eshu came walking back in the other direction. This time, the man who had seen the white side saw the red and the man who had seen the red saw the white. Each went to apologize to the other. But when the first said the hat had been red, the second thought he was mocking him. Again, the discussion led to blows, and their families had to come and help them back to their compounds.

  The families spoke to the men, and reminded them how close they had been, and asked why they had come to fight in this way. They said there must be an underlying cause, and so the two friends consulted Ifa again. They learned how Eshu had set them against each other, and so this time they made the prescribed sacrifice to Eshu and appeased him. They remained friends after that.

  18

  LEGBA OF THE FON

  The Fon of Benin (formerly Dahomey) established the kingdom of Abomey in the seventeenth century (see Chapter 51); they later came under the domination of the Yoruba state of Oyo at the end of the eighteenth century, and from them they took a number of ritual elements, and particularly the practice of Ifa (Fa) divination. Legba, the trickster figure, is similar to the Yoruba Eshu; he has also become important in the Caribbean practice of vodun, because, as the intermediary of humans and gods, it is he who enables believers to be possessed by their divinities. This story is retold from a version collected in the 1930s.

  Many stories are told of Legba, and he serves many purposes in the complex Fon pantheon. It is said that he was the youngest born of Mawu, goddess of the sun, and so she favoured him and gave him the gift of all languages, so that he serves as the linguist or spokesman for the gods; all who would approach a god must do so through Legba. Another story says that he was given this post because he, alone of the gods, was able to play a gong, a bell, a drum and a flute, all at the same time and while dancing. Legba is also the servant of Fa, the deity of divination, although the representations of this situation vary. One story says that Fa is personified by the female Gbadu, who has sixteen eyes around her head and sits atop a palm tree looking out over the world; each morning, Legba climbs the tree and opens her eyes according to her instructions. Children of Gbadu were the first Fa diviners in the world, by a dispensation of Mawu. Legba is also said to have caused the war between the sky and the earth at the beginning of time, and then to have effected the settlement by which the people on earth may request rainfall from the sky.

  One complex story illustrates Legba’s qualities. At one time, he and his siblings Minona, a female deity who protects women, and Aovi, a god who punishes those humans who disrespect the gods, formed a funeral band and went about the country playing music for funerals. They heard of a funeral for a great man, and so they went there to perform. At the funeral they encountered several other persons. King Metonofi (it is said he ruled the land of the dead) was there, displeased because he had married his daughter to the king of Adja and he had proved impotent with her. The king of Adja’s son was there, because he had come to consult Fa, the spirit of divination who was also Legba’s master. And Fa himself was there, because he was needed. Fa could not speak by himself; he required Legba’s assistance to express himself.

  The king of Adja’s son came and told Fa about his father’s troubles with Metonofi’s daughter, and Fa told him he could supply a powder that would enable his father to consummate his marriage. He then told Legba to give the prince some of the white powder which he kept in his sack. But Legba gave the prince a red powder instead, that removed potency, rather than the white one which restored it. Then the funeral went on, and Legba’s band played its music so that the mourners could dance.

  The three siblings were paid in cowrie-shells, the currency of the time, and they left the town and stopped at a crossroads to divide the shells. But the shells would not divide evenly: there was always one left over, and the three could not decide what to do with the remaining shell, or who should get it. Finally, a woman came by and they asked her what to do. The woman answered that she thought the eldest child should receive the last cowrie, and so Minona should have it. But Legba and Aovi were furious at this answer, and so they killed the woman and threw her body in the bush. Legba, always lecherous, then sli
pped off and lay with the corpse.

  Another woman came by, and she said that the middle child should receive the extra cowrie. She was killed by Minona and Legba, and again Legba lay with the corpse. A third woman came by, and she was killed when she said the cowrie should go to the youngest. Legba lay with her body too.

  Then Legba created the figure of a dog, and made it move and speak, and sent it to the three siblings. They asked it what to do with the cowrie, and the dog answered that they should give it to the ancestors. The dog dug a hole and buried the cowrie, and the three siblings were satisfied. They went home. Since that time, the dog is respected among humans.

  Meanwhile, people began to complain to King Metonofi and to Fa: women had been killed, and the powder Legba had given the prince, which was supposed to restore potency, had instead made men impotent. The king sent for Legba, and he ran away to the home of his in-laws. As it happened, his father-in-law was away at the time, and so Legba slept next to his mother-in-law and in the middle of the night they lay together.

  The next morning, the king’s men caught him and brought him to face his accusers and their charges, among whom he could now also count his father-in-law who accused him of adultery. First they asked about the three women who had been killed, and Legba explained that it was always a pair of siblings who killed them, not he. He also explained how he had solved the problem by creating the dog, and he produced the figure of the dog.

  King Metonofi was very impressed by Legba’s ingenuity, and so he declared that Legba would be given a special responsibility to watch over people. Minona he ordered to go become a guardian of women, and because Aovi was so violent, Metonofi charged him with enforcing respect for the gods.

  Then Legba’s father-in-law spoke his complaint, and Legba had to admit that he had slept with the woman, but explained that it was a mistake because she had been lying where his wife normally lay. But Metonofi and the other people were not satisfied with this explanation, and so they ordered that Legba was not to live in houses with people, but must always be found in the open spaces such as crossroads, and this is why shrines to Legba are generally placed at crossroads.

  Finally, they heard the case of the king of Adja and the complaint that Legba had given men the red powder instead of the white. Legba simply denied this. He said the red powder was perfectly good. But he had changed the colours of the powders: he mixed the white powder with blood, so that it became red, and he mixed the red powder with white clay, so that it became white. When the people said Legba had given them the red powder, Metonofi ordered Legba to take some of it himself.

  Then came the question of the marriage of Metonofi’s daughter. Metonofi built a hut and placed his daughter inside it, and then said the men of Adja should attempt intercourse with her. One by one they tried, but none succeeded. Then Legba said that he would accomplish this task. He asked for drums to play when he entered the hut, and then he danced in and lay with the daughter, who was a virgin. Then, still erect and with blood on his penis, he danced out of the hut and showed everyone what he had accomplished.

  Metonofi then said that Legba should marry his daughter, but Legba said that instead she should marry his master, Fa, and he gave her the name Adje, which means cowries. At the wedding, Legba mixed the good powder in with the palm wine which was served to all the guests, and so the men of the country recovered their potency.

  19

  ANANSE THE SPIDER, OF THE ASHANTI

  Ananse is the trickster-hero of the Ashanti of coastal west Africa, in modern Ghana (see Chapter 52). He is not quite a god, but he has done a good deal to shape the world, and for the Ashanti he owns all stories (we learn why in the second story). In form, he is a spider, although he is also very human in behaviour and characteristics; as a story-figure, he is related to a variety of other animal-shaped (theriomorphic) tricksters found around Africa: Nden-Bobo, the spider of Cameroon, Kamba the tortoise of central east Africa, Leuck the hare of Senegal, and others. Ananse also travelled with African slaves, and he appears in Jamaican folklore as Aunt Nancy. The first story was reported by a Danish traveller in the eighteenth century; the other two are retold from a collection made at the start of the twentieth century.

  THE STORY OF NANNI

  Perhaps the earliest reported story of Ananse dates to the eighteenth century, in Ludewig Rømer’s Reliable Account of the Coast of Guinea (1760). Rømer was a Danish trader, part of a multi-national European community along the Gold Coast, and much of his work concerns trade conditions. But he also reported what he understood of African affairs and culture, and his story of Nanni shows clear links with the modern narrative traditions.

  At the beginning, the spider Nanni assisted God in creating humans. The spider wove stuff, and God used the spider’s weaving to make humans. Nanni expected the humans to recognize her part in their creation, but humans turned instead to oracles and fetishes. So Nanni took a little bit of the stuff that was left over and made another being, just like herself. She taught this being trickery. For instance, people would sacrifice chickens to the oracle. But the little Nanni learned from his mother that he could eat the meat of the chicken, and sacrifice only the feathers and bones, reassembled to resemble a live chicken.

  The younger Nanni lived with people. He married and had a large family. One time there was a famine, and Nanni did not have enough food stored up for his wives and children. But he knew his neighbour, a hunter, had a large store of beans which he had gained by selling the meat of animals he killed. The hunter was often away from home, in the bush, and during that time he had instructed his children to keep the beans dry and free of pests by laying them out in the sun and turning them.

  Nanni went one day to the hunter’s home and greeted the children. Their father was away, and they had laid out the beans. At first, they thought Nanni had come to steal beans and they watched him carefully to make sure he did not pick any up. But he reassured them, telling them he had only come to play a new game with them, a dance he had learned and which he thought they would enjoy. In the dance, he threw himself about on the ground and rolled about, and it happened at times that he rolled over the beans. The hunter’s children did not realize that Nanni had coated his body with gum, so that he was sticky all over, and they did not notice how many beans stuck to his body. When he had finished dancing, Nanni showed the children his empty hands and to reassure them that he had not taken handfuls of beans, and then went home. In this way he was able to provide food for his family for some time.

  But the hunter returned home, and noticed that he had fewer beans than before. He suspected Nanni, especially after his children told him how Nanni would come and play the game of dancing and rolling on the ground with them. One day the hunter only pretended to go into the bush and in fact hid quite close to his home. He saw Nanni come and dance, he saw Nanni roll on the ground over the beans, and he saw Nanni leave with beans sticking all over his body. So he leaped from his hiding place, seized Nanni and cut off Nanni’s hands with his great knife. Then he brushed the beans from Nanni, and sent him on his way.

  Nanni returned home, hiding his lack of hands, and announced loudly from the centre of the compound that since food was so scarce he would feed only the children, and he would feed them privately, in his own hut. One by one, the children were brought into the hut, and there he threatened them until each agreed to say he or she had been fed. But after three days the secret got out; the children told the mothers they had not been fed, and the mothers discovered that Nanni had lost his hands. They determined that they would leave him, since he could not provide for them any more.

  Nanni ran out, ahead of them on the path, and scraped together a bundle of firewood. He pulled a cloth over his head, so they would not recognize him. When the wives and children came by, he asked them where they were going. They answered that their husband Nanni was no longer able to provide for them, and they were seeking another home. ‘Ha!’ said the disguised Nanni. ‘You will not find one. I have had twenty wi
ves, and have sent nineteen away because they did not please me. Who will take the lot of you in these times?’ But the wives ignored him and continued down the path.

  Nanni ran ahead of them again, and found a place where he could pretend to be fishing. When the wives reached him, he asked where they were going. As before, they explained they were leaving their husband Nanni. ‘Ha!’ said Nanni the fisherman. ‘No one will take you. I have cast off forty-nine out of fifty wives. Times are hard. You will find no home.’ But the wives ignored him and continued down the path.

  This happened again, and the wives began to discuss whether they had really chosen the right course. They decided that they should perform a divination at the nearest fetish. So they went there. Nanni had concealed himself in the shrine, and when the wives put their question to the fetish Nanni answered that they should go home at any price, because they faced certain destruction elsewhere. So after much discussion, the wives returned home.

  But at the compound, Nanni held the door shut against them. He refused to readmit them until they had agreed not to question his authority, and that they would take over many household tasks and provide many services to him.

  HOW ANANSE GOT THE STORIES FROM THE SKY-GOD

  This is perhaps one of the best-known and best-loved stories of Ananse, collected in the Ashanti heartland at the beginning of the twentieth century.

  Ananse the spider went to Nyankopon the sky-god and asked to buy the stories which the sky-god owned. The sky-god asked, ‘Why should I sell them to you?’ and Ananse answered, ‘Because I shall be able to pay the price.’

  The sky-god told him, ‘Men have come from powerful towns, offering to buy the stories, but they could not pay the price despite all their men and their wealth. You are a simple man without a chief, without a clan. You say you can pay the price?’