African Myths of Origin

by Stephen Belcher

  CHAPTER 53. THE FOUNDING OF GONJA

  The Gonja histories are edited in Ivor Wilks, Nehemia Levtzion and Bruce M. Haight, Chronicles from Gonja: A Tradition of West African Muslim Historiography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 44–6, 91–7; a variant on the tradition is given by E. F. Tamakloe in A. W. Cardinall’s Tales Told in Togoland (1931; repr. London: Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 237–79.

  CHAPTER 54. A DAGOMBA HERO

  The basic source for the Dagomba is the account by E. F. Tamakloe, which appears in A. W. Cardinall, Tales Told in Togoland (1931; repr. London: Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 237–79, and was also published separately: A Brief History of the Dagomba People (Accra: Government Printing Office, 1931), pp. 3–9. But Leo Frobenius also gives a version in his Voice of Africa, pp. 468ff. The story has echoes in Mossi tradition as well.

  CHAPTER 55. THE MOSSI OF BURKINA FASO

  The story retold from multiple sources (see below): Frobenius, pp. 256ff.; Delobsom, pp. 2–10; Balima, pp. 66–75.

  There are many compilations of Mossi traditions. An early local account is that of Dim Delobsom, L’Empire du Mogho-Naba (Paris: Les Éditions Domat-Montchrestien, 1932); less satisfying is Albert Balima’s Légendes et histoire des peuples du Burkina Faso (Paris: private printing, 1996). Leo Frobenius gives many traditions of the Mossi kings in Dichten und Denken im Sudan, Atlantis, vol. v, pp. 256–303. The French historian Michel Izard has devoted considerable effort to the history of the Mossi kingdoms: Introduction à l’histoire des royaumes Mossi (= Recherches Voltaiques, 12, 1970) and Le Yatenga précolonial (Paris: Karthala, 1985). An accessible English account of the Mossi people is that of Elliott Skinner, The Mossi of Burkina Faso (1964; repr. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1989).

  CHAPTER 56. THE DOGON OF THE BANDIAGARA ESCARPMENT

  Creation: a Popular Version, retold from Marcel Griaule, Masques Dogon (Paris: Institut d’ethnologie, 1938, 1994), pp. 44–52. Death and the Dancing Costume, retold from Griaule, Masques Dogon, pp. 52–8. Creation: the Esoteric Version, retold from Marcel Griaule, Dieu d’eau (1948; repr. Paris: Fayard, 1966), pp. 23–54.

  The Dogon of the Bandiagara plateau have been the subject of study since Louis Desplagnes, Le Plateau central nigérien (Paris: Émile Larose, 1907); and Leo Frobenius also offered an early description in Spielmannsgeschichten der Sahel, Atlantis, vol. vi, pp. 249ff. But the name most closely associated with descriptions of the Dogon is that of Marcel Griaule, in three books: Masques Dogon (1938), Dieu d’eau, known in English as Conversations with Ogotemmeli (London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1965), and Le Renard pâle, which was published posthumously (The Pale Fox, trans. Stephen Infantino, Chino Valley, Ariz.: Continuum Foundation, 1986; French version published in 1965). Griaule’s team included Germaine Dieterlen, who produced Les mes des Dogons (Paris: Institut d’ethnologie, 1941) and Michel Leyris, La Langue secrète des Dogon de Sanga (Paris: Institut d’ethnologie, 1948). The list might continue. A new generation of anthropologists is now reviewing Griaule’s work on the Dogon, as questions have been raised about many of his findings, particularly the results reported in Conversations with Ogotemmeli and The Pale Fox (see Walter van Beek, ‘Dogon Restudied: A Field Evaluation of the Work of Marcel Griaule’, Current Anthropology, 32 (1991), pp. 139–67, and the responses on the following pages of the same issue). The article about the star Sirius appeared in 1950 (Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, ‘Un système soudanais de Sirius’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, 20 (1950), pp. 273–94). Griaule’s account of the myths retold in this section are echoed in the works of his collaborators.

  CHAPTER 57. THE SARA AND THE SOW OF LAKE CHAD

  The stories of Sow and Loa are retold from the different versions given by Joseph Fortier, Le Mythe et les contes de Sou (Paris: Classiques africains and Julliard, 1967): Creation by Loa and Sou, pp. 63ff.; Sou and the Arts, pp. 79–81 and ff.; Sou and the Star Women, pp. 115–17.

  The stories about Goulfeil and Makari are retold from Marcel Griaule’s study, Les Saô légendaires (Paris: Gallimard, 1943): The Foundation of Goulfeil, pp. 83–9; The City of Makari, pp. 121–5.

  For the general background on this region, Humphrey Fisher’s essay, ‘The Eastern Maghrib and the Central Sudan’, is very useful reading (in Cambridge History of Africa, vol. iii: From c. 1050 to c. 1600, ed. Roland Oliver, pp. 232–330), and H. R. Palmer’s collection of translated documents, Sudanese Memoirs, provides useful primary source material, including discussion of the Sow. See also Gustav Nachtigall, Sahara and Sudan, vol. iii: The Chad Basin and Bagirmi, trans. Allan G. B. Fisher and Humphrey J. Fisher (1889; repr. London: C. Hurst and Co; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, Inc., 1987).

  CHAPTER 58. THE KINGDOM OF BAGIRMI

  The account is reconstructed from the information given in Viviana Pâques, Le Roi pecheur et le roi chasseur (Strasbourg: Travaux de l’Institut d’anthropologie de Strasbourg, 1977).

  See also the sources given in the notes to Chapter 57, especially Nachtigall, vol. iii, pp. 211–91.

  CHAPTER 59. THE KINGDOMS OF KANEM AND BORNU

  The Five Tribes of Kanem, retold from H. R. Palmer, Sudanese Memoirs, vol. ii, pp. 83–4. The Saifawa and the Sow, retold from Palmer, vol. ii, pp. 64–8; A. Schultze, The Sultanate of Bornu, trans. P. A. Benton (1913; repr. London: Frank Cass, 1968), pp. 246–50. The Wars with the Bulala, retold from Palmer, vol. ii, pp. 39–43.

  The texts in Palmer are translations of Arabic manuscripts collected in the region in the nineteenth century. See also Gustav Nachtigall, Sahara and Sudan, vol. iii: The Chad Basin and Bagirmi, trans. Allan G. B. Fisher and Humphrey J. Fisher (1889; repr. London: C. Hurst and Co.; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International Inc., 1987) and P. A. Benton, Languages and Peoples of Bornu (London: Frank Cass, 1968). For the historical background, see Humphrey Fisher, ‘The Eastern Maghrib and the Central Sudan’, in Cambridge History of Africa, vol. iii: From c. 1050to c. 1600, ed. Roland Oliver, pp. 232–330. For an ethnography of the Kanuri, see Ronald Cohen’s The Kanuri of Bornu (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967).

  CHAPTER 60. THE HAUSA

  Bayajida and Daura, retold from multiple sources. Bagauda and the Founding of Kano, retold from ‘The Kano Chronicle’, in H. R. Palmer, Sudanese Memoirs, vol. iii, pp. 97ff.

  There are numerous versions of the story of Daura. One of the longest, collected from oral tradition, is the Histoire du Dawra (Niamey: Centre régional de recherche et de documentation pour la tradition orale, 1970). Another version is given in Palmer, vol. iii, pp. 132–4, as also in Frobenius, Volkserzählungen und Volksdichtungen aus dem Zentral-Sudan, Atlantis, vol. ix, pp. 277ff. W. K. R. Hallam offers a study, ‘The Bayajida Legend in Hausa Folklore’, Journal of African History, 7 (1966), pp. 47–60, which is useful in presenting the sources, although it may now be dated. M. Hiskett has presented a number of other Hausa primary sources: The Kitab al-Farq: A Work on the Habe Kingdoms Attributed to Uthman Dan Fodio’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 23 (1960), pp. 558–79, and ‘ “The Song of Bagauda”: A Hausa King List and Homily in Verse’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 27 (1964), pp. 540–67; 28 (1965), pp. 112–35; 28 (1965), pp. 363–85. For a useful general introduction to Hausa literature, see Graham Furniss, Poetry, Prose, and Popular Culture in Hausa (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1966).

  CHAPTER 61. THE SONGHAY PEOPLES OF THE MIDDLE NIGER

  Es-Sadi’s Account of the Origins of the Songhay Kingdom, retold from Abdourahmane es-Sadi, Tarikh es-Sudan, ed. and trans. O. Houdas (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1913, repr. 1972), pp. 6–12; see also John Hunwick, Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 5–8. Mali Bero and the Escape from Mali, retold from multiple versions given in Fatimata Mounkaila, Le Mythe et l’histoire dans la geste de Zabarkane (Niamey: Centre d’études linguistique et historique par la tradition orale, 19
89), pp. 63–163. Koukamonzon and the Kingdom of Dendi, retold from the version collected by Ahmadou Hampâte Ba, Koukamonzon (Niamey: Centre national de recherche en sciences humaines, 1970). Zwa the Hunter, retold from a version collected by Julde (or Dioulde) Laya, Traditions historiques de l’Anzuru (Niamey: Centre régional de documentation pour la tradition orale, 1970), pp. 10–29.

  A new collection of Songhay traditions is a volume by Hammadou Soumalia, Moussa Hamidou and Diouldé Lya, Traditions des Songhay de Tera (Paris: Karthala/Arsan/Centre d’études linguistique et historique par la tradition orale, 1998). On the history and culture of the Songhay, see the works of Jean Rouch, Contribution à l’histoire des Songhay, Mémoires de l’IFAN, 29 (Dakar: IFAN, 1953), pp. 138–259, and La Religion et la magie songhay (1950; new edn., Brussels: Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, 1989); the films of Jean Rouch are also a significant documentation of Songhay culture. Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan also offers valuable resources: Les Sociétés songhay (Paris: Karthala, 1984) and Concepts et conceptions Songhay-Zarma: Histoire, culture, société (Paris: Nubia, 1982). Readers interested in the spirit cults, which link the Songhay with their southern neighbours, the Hausa and the Yoruba, might wish to read Paul Stoller, Fusion of the Worlds: An Ethnography of Possession among the Songhay of Niger (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), and, with Cheryl Olkes, In Sorcery’s Shadow (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

  CHAPTER 62. THE CITY OF DJENNE

  The first version is retold from Charles Monteil, Une cité soudanaise: Djenné, métropole du delta central du Niger (1932; repr. Paris: Éditions Anthropos and the International African Institute, 1971), pp. 34–6, and the second from the rich material collected by Leo Frobenius in Dämonen des Sudans, Atlantis, vol. vii, pp. 173–81.

  Our sense of the historical importance of the city of Djenne has been increased by recent archaeological work; see, as a starting point, Roderick and Susan McIntosh, ‘The Inland Niger Delta before the Empire of Mali: Evidence from Jenne-Jeno’, Journal of African History, 22 (1981), pp. 1–22.

  CHAPTER 63. THE SONINKE

  The Legend of Wagadu, retold from multiple versions: Frobenius, Spielmannsgeschichten der Sahel, Atlantis, vol. vi, pp. 60–72; Charles Monteil, ‘La Légende de Ouagadou et l’origine des Soninke’, Mémoires de l’IFAN, 23 (1953), pp. 358–409; Germaine Dieterlen and Diarra Sylla, L’Empire de Ghana (Paris: Karthala, 1992), pp. 11–60; Oudiary Makan Dantioko, Soninkara Tarixinu: Récits historiques du pays Soninké (Niamey: Centre d’études linguistique et historique par la tradition orale, 1985), pp. 102–44. Daman Gille and the Kingdom of Jara, retold from multiple versions: Maurice Delafosse, Traditions historiques et légendaires du Soudan occidental (Paris: Publications du Comité de l’Afrique française, 1913), pp. 30–47; Frobenius, Atlantis, vol. vi, pp. 76–79; M. G. Adam, Légendes historiques du pays de Nioro, pp. 26–38.

  There are now many versions available of the story of Wagadu and Jara (or Diara); for a description and general discussion, see Stephen Belcher, Epic Traditions of Africa, pp. 76–88. An excellent discussion of Soninke traditional historiography is Mamadou Diawara, La Graine de la parole (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990).

  CHAPTER 64. THE MANINKA AND THE EMPIRE OF MALI

  A Ritual Story of Creation, retold from the versions reported by Germaine Dieterlen and others from the reroofing ceremonies of the Kama Blon in Kangaba; see Dieterlen’s initial essay, ‘Mythe et organisation sociale au Soudan français’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, 15 (1955), pp. 39–76; Solange de Ganay, Le Sanctuaire Kama blon de Kangaba (Paris: Éditions nouvelles du Sud, 1995). Migration from Mecca: the story of Jon Bilal and his sons is taken from a performance of the epic of Sunjata by Kele Monson Diabaté, which has been published by Rex Moser, ‘Foregrounding in the Sunjata, the Mande Epic’, Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University (1974), and in multiple versions by Massa Makan Diabaté: Kala Jata (Bamako: Éditions populaires, 1970) and Le Lion à l’arc (Paris: Hatier, 1986). The story of Mystery was also published separately by Charles Bird in Richard Dorson (ed.), African Folklore (New York: Doubleday, 1972), pp. 443–8. Sunjata and the Empire of Mali, retold from a composite image of the more than forty versions now available. Well known is the prose version of D. T. Niane, Sunjata: An Epic of Old Mali (London: Longman, 1965), or John W. Johnson (ed.), The Epic of Son-Jara (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986). David Conrad has published a new collection of versions from upper Guinea: Epic Ancestors of the Sunjata Era (Madison: African Studies Program/University of Wisconsin, 2000). For fuller references, see Stephen Belcher, Epic Traditions of Africa, pp. 89–114.

  On the Sunjata tradition, see also Ralph Austen (ed.), In Search of Sunjata (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999). Mande culture is now perhaps inseparable from the notion of its music and performers, the jeliw or griots; an excellent study of the music is that of Eric Charry, Mande Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).

  CHAPTER 65. THE BAMANA OF THE MIDDLE NIGER

  The Creation, adapted from the account given by Germaine Dieterlen in Essai sur la religion bamana (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1951), pp. 1–33. The Kulibali Dynasties, retold from M. G. Adam, Légendes historiques du pays de Nioro, pp. 55–7; Charles Monteil, Les Bambara du Segou et du Kaarta (1924; repr. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1977), pp. 27ff. The Diarras, retold from David C. Conrad, A State of Intrigue: The Epic of Bamana Segu, Fontes Historiae Africanae (London: Oxford University Press and the British Academy, 1990), pp. 48–55. Biton Kulibali and the Founding of Segou, retold from many versions: Conrad, pp. 64–88; Lilyan Kesteloot, ‘Le Mythe et l’histoire dans la formation de l’empire de Ségou’, Bulletin de l’IFAN, ser. B, 40:3 (1978), pp. 578–611.

  There are two full versions of the rich epic cycle of Segou: Lilyan Kesteloot’s L’Épopée bambara de Ségou (2 vols., 1972; repr. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1993), made up of performances by different artists, and David Conrad’s version, based on a performance by the gifted Taïrou Banbera which stretched over four days. Frobenius, Spielmannsgeschichten der Sahel, Atlantis, vol. vi, also gives many of the episodes of the epic cycle. For a discussion and fuller bibliography, see Stephen Belcher, Epic Traditions of Africa, pp. 115–41.

  CHAPTER 66. THE MANDINKA OF SENEGAMBIA

  The Conquest of the Jolof, part of the epic of Sunjata; references are given in notes to Chapter 64. A particularly interesting version is given by Bamba Suso in Gordon Innes (ed.), Sunjata: Three Mandinka Versions (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1974). See also the collection of narratives made by Donald Wright: Oral Traditions from the Gambia (2 vols., Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1979 and 1980). Niumi and Jarra, retold from Wright, vol. i, pp. 75–87.

  There are two recent collections of Gambian Mandinka oral literature: Katrin Pfeiffer, Mandinka Spoken Art: Folk-Tales, Griot Accounts, and Songs (Cologne: Rudiger Koppe Verlag, 1997), and Matthew Schaffer, Djinns, Stars, and Warriors (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2003). For additional references, see Stephen Belcher, Epic Traditions of Africa, pp. 175–81.

  CHAPTER 67. THE SEREER OF SENEGAL

  The Guelowar Lineages, retold from Gravrand, Cosaan (see below), pp. 243–55; see also Donald Wright, Oral Traditions from the Gambia (2 vols., Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1979 and 1980), vol. i, pp. 150ff; vol. ii, pp. 170ff. Lineage Stories I: the Caxer, retold from Gravrand, pp. 203–5. Lineage Stories II: Sira Badiane, retold from Gravrand, pp. 264–6.

  The history and religion of the Sereer have been described by Henri Gravrand in two volumes: La Civilisation Sereer: Cosaan (n.p.: Les Nouvelles Éditions africaines, 1983) on history, and La Civilisation Sereer: Pangool (n.p.: Les Nouvelles Éditions africaines, 1990), dealing with belief systems.

  CHAPTER 68. NJAAJAAN NJAAY AND THE WOLOF

  The story is retold from multiple sources. Jean Boulègue’s history, Le Grand Jolof (Paris: Éditions façades, 1987), pp. 24–7, reprints the earliest
account (collected in the eighteenth century). J. L.-B. Bérenger-Féraud gives another in his Recueil de contes populaires de la Sénégambie (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1885), pp. 191–6. Samba Diop has published a lengthy version: The Oral History and Literature of the Wolof People of Waalo, Northern Senegal (Lewiston, Pa.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995).

  For the Wolof, see Boubacar Barry’s history, Le Royaume du Waalo (Paris: Karthala, 1985), and an excellent collection by Bassirou Dieng, L’Épopée du Kajoor (Paris and Dakar: CAEC/Khoudia, 1993) which gives two versions of the king-cycle. There are also two volumes of Wolof tales and myths: Lilyan Kesteloot and Cherif Mbodj, Contes et mythes wolof (Dakar: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, 1983) and Lilyan Kesteloot and Bassirou Dieng, Du Tieddo au Talibé: Contes et mythes wolof II (Paris: Présence africaine, 1989); the latter volume contains a discussion of Njaajan Njaay on pp. 183–200.

  CHAPTER 69. THE FUTA TOORO

  The Origin of the Fulbe: there are numerous accounts (see also the notes to Chapter 9). The variant given here for the Islamic origins is a consensus version, with some details taken in particular from the narrative of M’Baba Diallo in Tradition historique peule (Niamey: Centre d’études linguistique et historique par tradition orale, 1974); see also Boubou Hama, Recherche sur l’histoire des Touareg sahariens et soudanais (Paris: Présence Africaine, 1967), pp. 66–9. Koli Tengela and the Deniyanke Dynasty, retold from Sire Abbas Soh, Chroniques du Fouta sénégalais, ed. and trans. Maurice Delafosse and Henri Gaden (Paris: Leroux, 1913); M. G. Adam, Légendes historiques du pays de Nioro; Henri Labouret (ed. and trans.), ‘Livre renfermant la généalogie de diverses tribus noires du Soudan’, Annales de l’Académie des Sciences Coloniales, 3 (1929), pp. 189–225; and Robert Arnaud, L’Islam et la politique musulmane en Afrique occidentale française (Paris: Comité de l’Afrique française, 1912), pp. 172–6.