Select four of the stories you read in Sproul and discuss the following:  Determine the place and role of humanity in the sacred reality portrayed in each of these stories. Then compare and contrast the visions of human identity these stories present.  Based on your analysis, are the similarities strong enough to enable us to speak of an African view of human identity?  Explain your answer.

     I chose the four stories for my discussion based on similarities between them that I found compelling, and therefore elected to skip over some, such as the very Muslim-influenced Swahili creation stories, that we'll find counterparts to in later chapters. Hopefully this will give my post more cohesion.

     In “God Retreats to the Sky” (Sproul 35-6) from the Barotse people of what is now Zambia, comes an interesting twist on creation stories that often have man banished from some idyllic setting, or paradise. Instead, it is the creator that ends up leaving the scene. God (Nyambi) and man (Kamonu) coexist in this mythical world, and whatever Nyambi does, Kamonu tries to imitate. This makes Nyambi paranoid. His fears are well-founded; soon the man begins killing other animals. Kamonu is reprimanded, “These are your brothers. Do not kill them”. But despite a temporary enforced exile, Kamonu continues to kill animals. Nyambi tries to flee from the man, hiding in various places in the world, but Kamonu and his progeny keep finding him. Nyambi finally decides he must leave the world . With the help of Spider, a thread from earth to the sky is made, and Nyambi makes a “retreat to the sky”, and becomes the Sun.

     What “The Chameleon Finds” (36-7) are two very small humans ( a man and woman) in his fish-trap, which he then takes to Mulungu (the Creator). At his orders, they are placed on the ground, and then they grow to normal size. There had only been Mulungu and the “peaceful beasts” up until this point, and they all watch to see how these new people will behave. The answer comes soon enough: very badly. The people rub sticks together and start a bush fire that threatens the animals. From there, they develop the habit of killing other animals and roasting them for food. Mulungu exclaims, “They are burning up everything!... they are killing my people”. (by which one assumes he meant the other animals). Mulungu decides to leave. And although this story comes from a different tribal source (the Yao of Mozambique), again it is Spider that spins a rope for a god's escape to the sky.

     I really admired the first myth fragment of the Ngombe, “The Quarrelsomeness of Man” (47-8) for its simplicity, yet how it also shares the theme of a god that feels it must get away from man. It's so brief that I'll quote most of it: " Akongo was not always as he is now. In the beginning the creator lived among men; but men were quarrelsome. One day they had a big quarrel and Akongo left them to themselves. He went and hid in the forest and nobody has seen him since. People today can't tell what he is like". The Ngombe were a forest-dwelling people from Zaire, and another name for Akongo was “the Unexplainable”, as hinted at in the last line quoted above. This creation story is charming in its conciseness, and the matter-of-fact explanation of why their “god” left.

     Finally, I chose “When God Came to Earth” (48-9) (which reminded me, in spirit, of a fable by Aesop), from The Nandi of Kenya. The basic synopsis is: God comes to earth, and finds three beings there- thunder, an elephant, and Dorobo (man). The thunder becomes afraid of man, and warns the elephant about him, but the elephant dismisses man, “only a small creature”, as a non-threat. Thunder flees to the sky, never to return to earth. The man makes poison arrows and shoots the elephant, which then becomes scared of man, too, The elephant begs the thunder for rescue, but it's too late. The elephant dies, and “man became great in all countries''.

     The commonality in the four stories is that man causes trouble whenever he is introduced into creation, to the point that the creator becomes fearful himself and has to escape the world of man. These gods set themselves in the sky (above man) or in the forest (hidden from man). Although the details differ from one area to another, I was struck by how similar the four tales were in relation to man being depicted as a killer of animals, and able to strike fear into the gods. While it's not a large enough sampling to make a broad statement, I think there are enough similarities to substantiate an “African view of human identity”. These four creation stories from different regions all seem somewhat anthropocentric; they deem man to be the most significant species in the world, dominating the other animals and even scaring the gods away. The early hunter-gatherers had healthy egos, but interestingly they also seemed to possess some sense of guilt in how they treated other creatures, and even blamed themselves for the gods no longer being among them.

Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World. Comp. Barbara C. Sproul. New

            York: Harper One, Harper Collins. 1991. Print.