African Myths of Origin (Penguin Classics)

by Stephen Belcher

MUSA NYAME AND THE HIRA

  Musa Nyame became the leader of the Gow. He was the son of Nyame; his father was unknown. His mother had become pregnant after sleeping near the tree of the spirits. Soon after Musa’s birth, Kuruyore, the leader of the Gow, prophesied that Musa would become their leader, but people did not believe him. For much of his childhood he was rejected and teased by the other children of the village; finally, he could not stand it any longer and he went to his mother. He demanded that she tell him who his father had been, and she sent him to the spirit tree. There, his father appeared to him and taught him all the secrets of the bush and of hunting and magic, so that Musa had no peer.

  When he returned to the village, Kuruyore took off his cap, the sign of leadership, and offered it to Musa, for he could see how the boy had changed. Musa refused the cap, and the other hunters protested, but it was clear to all that Musa should now become the chief because of his knowledge and powers. But he continued to resist until he got the people to agree to one condition: they would eat their food only in the village. They would not take cooked food into the bush. All agreed to this condition, and Musa then became the chief of the Gow. He did still have to overcome a challenge from Ndermabe, who at one point led people into the bush and served them food, but he managed this with the help of his daughter.

  At one time, while Musa was still young, a magical beast called a hira came and began to attack people working in their fields, so farmers were afraid and they called on the Gow to come and kill the beast. Kuruyore went first; he armed himself with his weapons and charms and marched out into the field. He found the hira and struck it; none of his weapons had any effect. The spearpoint turned, the arrows bounced back, and the hatchet made no impression on the hide. Then the hira turned on Kuruyore. It beat him and trampled him, so that his clothes were torn off and he was covered with dirt. Kuruyore just managed to escape with his life and crept home to the village.

  The same thing happened to other notable Gow hunters: Modi and Ndermabe and Mandingne and Kelimabe and Kelikelimabe. All went out to meet the hira, and all crept back, naked, bruised and dirty.

  At that time, Musa was courting Meynsata, and he could not be bothered to hunt a hira. But the villagers continued to complain, and Meynsata said to the women, ‘Well, since the men have not done anything, let’s go and kill this beast ourselves.’ So the women all dressed in hunters’ garments and left the village in a band. As they got further from the village, though, their cheerful banter fell silent. Finally they came in sight of the hira, and they asked Meynsata, ‘What is that huge thing? Is it a building or a city?’

  ‘No,’ answered Meynsata. ‘It is the hira.’ And with that the women screamed and soiled their clothes and turned to run back into the village. Only one woman stayed with Meynsata. But when the hira rose and approached them, she too soiled her clothes, and she begged Meynsata to let her have her clothes. ‘I cannot go back to the village in this way,’ she said. Meynsata let her have her robe, while she kept her undergarments. So Meynsata was almost naked when she began her struggle with the hira.

  First, Meynsata seized the hira and threw it to the ground. Then the hira rose and seized her and threw her to the ground. Then she threw it against some bushes. Then it threw her against some bushes. She threw it against a tree; it threw her against a tree. This went on for some time.

  Meynsata’s companion returned to the village and announced that the hira was killing Meynsata. She made a point of telling this to Musa, for it was known that Musa wanted to marry Meynsata. When he heard her, Musa took his weapons and went into the bush to find Meynsata and the hira.

  He arrived and found the hira throwing Meynsata into a waterhole. It stayed on the bank as she swam back. Then Musa seized the hira.

  ‘Stop, Musa!’ called Meynsata. ‘This is my hira! I am hunting him because you could not be bothered.’

  But Musa did not listen to her. He threw the hira onto the ground and then cut its throat with his knife. He struck so hard that the blade went into the ground and stuck fast, and he could not free the arm that was holding the knife. He struggled, and then asked Meynsata to help him. She freed his arm. Then she struck the hira. It rose up and transformed itself into an elephant. Meynsata broke its neck. Then Musa struck the hira. It rose up and transformed itself into a lion. Musa broke its neck. Then Meynsata struck the hira. It rose up and transformed itself into a hyena, and Meynsata broke its neck. Then Musa struck the hira. It rose up and transformed itself into a leopard, and Musa broke its neck.

  ‘Musa, I am not afraid of you,’ said Meynsata.

  Musa slipped a chain over her neck, and she removed it with a spell. Musa slipped another chain over her neck, and she removed it with a spell. This happened a third time, and then Musa slipped a very fine chain over her neck, and she could not remove it at all. Meynsata could not remove this chain, though she tried all the spells her mother had taught her. Then she used the spells she had learned from her father and from her grandfather, but they didn’t work either. Then Musa pulled on the chain in a special way, and her underclothes fell off.

  ‘Stop, Musa! Do you want to kill me?’ cried Meynsata.

  On the way back they found a herd of elephants. Musa killed many with his knife, while Meynsata seized others and knocked them together. They left one alive. ‘You will ride it to the village,’ said Musa, and he changed it into a camel and settled Meynsata on its back.

  The women cried, ‘Meynsata has killed the hira!’

  The men cried, ‘No, no! Musa has killed the hira!’

  When they asked, Meynsata said, ‘Musa killed the hira, or it would have killed me.’ Later, Musa and Meynsata married.

  KELIMABE AND KELIKELIMABE

  Kelimabe and Kelikelimabe were brothers, ‘same mother, same father’ as they say, and they lived together. Kelimabe, the elder, was ugly. Kelikelimabe was wonderfully handsome. They lived together and they hunted together.

  Kelimabe married a woman from a different village. When she came to his home and met his brother, she was amazed at his good looks. After some time, she approached the brother and begged him to be her lover, but he swore that he could never be false to his brother. She did not give up hope, but waited on opportunities when Kelimabe was absent. At such times she would approach Kelikelimabe and continue her suit, but he continued to resist her. Finally, one day she lured him into the bedchamber and tried to take off his clothes, while opening hers. He pushed her away and cried that she should not try to trick his brother like that.

  ‘Come,’ she said, ‘just once, and I shall give you a hundred of every measure of value’ (she meant cattle, sheep, chickens and other goods).

  ‘Not if you gave me the whole world,’ he cried, and he pushed her away.

  He left the house and ran away. The wife sat in the room, and after a while she tore her clothes and undid the bed and overturned things to show the signs of a struggle. Then she sat in the room and wept until Kelimabe returned and found her. She told him that Kelikelimabe had tried to take her by force and that she had resisted.

  Furious, Kelimabe rushed from the house and searched until he found Kelikelimabe.

  ‘How did you dare to do this?’ he cried.

  ‘I did nothing!’ answered Kelikelimabe.

  ‘You tried to rape my wife!’ cried Kelimabe.

  ‘I did not,’ answered Kelikelimabe. ‘If she told you that, she lied.’

  But Kelimabe did not believe him. He threw himself on his brother, and with his hunting knife he cut off Kelikelimabe’s penis. Kelikelimabe fainted. Kelimabe rushed off into the bush and the night.

  When he revived, Kelikelimabe said he would seek his brother. People asked what the problem was, and he told them how his brother’s wife had tried to seduce him, and then had lied to Kelimabe and said he had tried to rape her. ‘I must find my brother,’ he said. ‘He is my elder. I must find him.’

  So Kelikelimabe went looking everywhere for Kelimabe. He asked in every village, at every farm, ev
eryone he met along the paths, if they had seen Kelimabe. Eventually he came to a village in which there lived a rich chief who had one unmarried daughter. He had agreed he would let her choose her husband, and she had not yet found a man who pleased her.

  Kelikelimabe asked in this village about his brother. A weaver who worked for the rich man told him that yes, he had seen him – he had come through the village the day before, saying he was travelling. Kelikelimabe sat with the weaver for a time, while the man offered him some drink. While they were sitting there, the slave-girl of the chief’s daughter brought the weaver’s shuttle, filled with thread (in west Africa, women spin the thread for the men who weave). The slave-girl was so struck by the beauty of the weaver’s visitor that she sat there until late that evening, and when she returned her mistress was of course furious. But the slave said, ‘Wait! I saw a young man, as handsome as the devil, at the home of the weaver. I couldn’t stop looking at him. You should see him.’

  So the chief’s daughter went past the weaver’s house and saw his guest, and she was smitten. She stopped and stared at him for fifteen minutes, just standing in the path in front of the weaver’s home. Then she returned to her father and told him that she had seen the man she wanted to marry. She told him who it was. Her father told her he would take the necessary steps. The next morning, he sent a messenger and summoned Kelikelimabe, and when the young man arrived the chief told him that his daughter would like him to marry her.

  ‘I cannot,’ said Kelikelimabe.

  ‘Why not?’ asked the chief, but Kelikelimabe did not want to tell him the reason. The chief asked again, and told him that he would become a rich man if he married his daughter, but Kelikelimabe still refused. Finally the chief said that if Kelikelimabe did not marry his daughter, the chief would have him killed.

  ‘Then kill me,’ Kelikelimabe answered simply. But when the chief told his daughter what Kelikelimabe had said, the daughter said that he should kill her too. So the father tried again. He begged Kelikelimabe to marry his daughter. Kelikelimabe refused.

  ‘Is it because of the girl?’ asked the chief. ‘Don’t you think she’s pretty?’

  ‘No, she’s very nice. I like her,’ said Kelikelimabe.

  ‘Then why not marry her?’ asked the father, and he sent the village holy men to talk to the young man, and at last Kelikelimabe agreed to marry the chief’s daughter. He asked if he couldn’t go and look for his brother before the wedding, but they would not let him.

  The couple were married. There was a great feast, and many guests came. The young man and woman were left alone together. Kelikelimabe did nothing. He sat and looked at his wife. He said nothing. In the morning, she brought him some food and he ate it. ‘That was good,’ he said. ‘Bring me some water.’

  ‘At least you can talk,’ she said. He continued to watch her, but he did nothing more. At the end of the day, he said he would like to go bathe in the river.

  ‘We will bring you water here,’ she said. ‘Do you want it hot or cold?’

  ‘No, I must go to the river,’ he said. So she sent a hundred of her father’s men with him down to the river to watch him bathe. He went into the river and swam out into the water and tried to dive down and drown himself, but he could not. He tried again, but he could not. He swam back to the bank and sat staring at the water.

  A man approached him. ‘You are afraid to drown yourself,’ he said.

  ‘No, not at all,’ said Kelikelimabe.

  ‘Then go and do it,’ said the man.

  ‘I can’t,’ said Kelikelimabe.

  ‘You are afraid,’ said the man. ‘I know all about it.’

  ‘What do you know?’

  ‘You fought with your brother. He mutilated you. And now you’re married and you can’t do anything about it with your wife. Isn’t that why you want to drown yourself?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well, I can help you. Tomorrow the Gow are going out to hunt a hira. Go and hunt with them. When they have made their kill, I will send a bird to you. You should take one of the feet of the hira. If you can bring it to me before the bird gets back to me, I will restore your manhood and you will be able to satisfy your wife.’

  Kelikelimabe went back to his home. He told his wife he needed the fastest horse available, and that he would go hunting with the Gow the next day.

  The next day, he followed the Gow as they went hunting; he watched as they killed and butchered the hira. A bird flew up and screamed over them. Kelikelimabe asked the Gow if there was one of them with enough magic to stop the bird for a while, and promised a rich reward to the man who could accomplish this. A Gow named Fabekondoro said he could. He pointed his finger at the bird, and it hung motionless in the sky. Kelikelimabe took one of the hira’s feet and raced his horse back to the village where the old man lived.

  The old man greeted him. He told Kelikelimabe to undress, and then to follow him. They went into the bush, to a large tree. ‘There is an assembly of spirits there,’ he said. ‘Do nothing and say nothing, no matter what happens. Do not answer greetings, do not answer insults.’ They climbed the tree, taking the foot of the hira with them. They sat silent in the assembly, as the spirits commented on the sexless state of Kelikelimabe and the white hairs of the old man. When the assembly was ended, they climbed down the tree and went to the old man’s house. The old man gave Kelikelimabe the choice of two male members, and although he admired them both, he could only take one.

  Then he went home. He and his wife consummated the marriage; they were very happy. His wife became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, whom he named Kelimabe. Then Kelikelimabe said that he must go on his way and find his brother. His wife protested, but he said she should give him a month, and at the end of the month he would return.

  Kelikelimabe went to Musa Nyame, leader of the Gow. He told Musa that he wished to go to find his brother. The other assembled Gow approved, and in turn they rose and addressed Musa in the formal terms a hunter would use.

  ‘Musa, do you know me?’

  ‘Yes, I know you, Fabekondoro. You are the greatest eater of the hundred and twenty Gow. You eat while walking, while sitting, while standing, while lying down, you eat on your back and you eat while running, you eat a hundred and twenty measures of meal, you eat a hundred and twenty animals.’

  ‘Yes. I, Fabekondoro, will go to look for Kelimabe, and I will not return without him.’ And another: ‘Musa, do you know me?’

  ‘Yes, I know you, Moti. You are the hunter without a spear, without a bow, without an axe, without a cutlass. When you shout, the animal that hears you dies. If an animal cries and you hear it, it dies. If you pass before it, it dies. If you pass behind it, it dies. If an animal smells your breath, it dies. I know you, Moti.’

  ‘Well, I, Moti, will go to look for Kelimabe, and what I hunt I find.’

  And another: ‘Do you know me, Musa?’

  ‘Yes, I know you, Kuruyore! You are the grandfather of the Gow! You are their chief. You came from heaven. Your people came from heaven. Your boat came from heaven. Your magic hat came from heaven.’

  ‘May my name be forgotten among the Gow, if I do not bring Kelimabe back.’

  So the next day they all went off together to find Kelimabe. They searched through the villages and were told that people had seen him, and then they followed the direction they were given. After three days, they found an old man who said, ‘Yes, I know where Kelimabe is. He is in the Kiekie wood, where he has married the daughter of a great tree spirit. I met him once when I was walking through the wood, and he asked me for news of his brother, saying he had mutilated him and run away, and he did not know if his brother was dead or alive. But I had no news to give him. But while we were talking his wife was becoming furious, for she was afraid I would take her husband away and she wished to kill me. If you wish to find him, you will have to deal with her. But don’t tell them that I told you. Do not mention my name.’

  So they went into the forest. They found Kelimabe’s tre
e. But then his spirit wife appeared and attacked them, and they all ran away, even Kelikelimabe. The wife chased them to the edge of the wood and returned home. There she found Musa Nyame, who had captured her husband. He was sitting by the tree. The wife attacked him, but he avoided all her blows.

  ‘I can’t use my weapons,’ he said, ‘for you are a woman. Meynsata would laugh at me.’

  So he slipped a chain over her. She slipped out of it. He tried again, and then a third time. But the third time he used a slender little chain, and she could not escape this one.

  Meanwhile, the Gow were saying that Musa had been killed, and Meynsata was complaining of the shame, that Musa had not fulfilled his vow to return with Kelimabe. She summoned the women to follow her to the Kiekie wood. Then she flew there. She found Musa sitting in front of his two captives.

  ‘Kelimabe does not want to return,’ said Musa.

  ‘Why don’t you want to return?’ asked Meynsata.

  ‘They will kill me for what I did,’ said Kelimabe.

  ‘I ask you to return to the village,’ said Meynsata.

  ‘I will return only if Kelikelimabe comes here,’ said Kelimabe.

  So they called Kelikelimabe. He came and greeted his brother, and his brother greeted him. Kelimabe said he realized his wife had lied, and Kelikelimabe said the damage had been made good, and he told his older brother how he had followed his trail, asking after him, until he was caught by a young woman who made him marry her, and what had happened after that. And so the two brothers were again on good terms. Kelimabe returned to the village, where Musa Nyame had Kelimabe’s first wife killed, in case Kelimabe took her back and she caused another disaster.

  FARA MAKAN AND FONO

  Fono thought he was the greatest of the Sorko river-hunters. Every day he would spear three hundred hippopotamuses and send his people out to fetch the meat. But an envious woman once told him that his equal lived up the river, and so Fono made enquiries and learned about Fara Makan, of whom many stories are told. He learned also that Fara Makan had a daughter, Nana Miriam, and so he decided to ask for her hand in marriage. But the emissary he sent to Fara Makan returned with bad news: Fara Makan foretold great misfortune from such a union, and so would not allow it. Fono decided to try himself, without relying on an intermediary, and so he travelled downstream to the territory of Fara Makan.