Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [191]
CHAPTER EIGHT
OUT OF AFRICA
The Myths of Sub-Saharan Africa
In the time when Dendid created all things,
He created the sun, And the sun is born, and dies, and comes again.
He created man,
And man is born, and dies, and does not come again.
—old African song
You who dive down as if under water to steal,
Though no earthly king may have seen you,
The King of Heaven sees.
—traditional proverb of the Yoruba (Nigeria)
Caller-forth of the branching trees:
You bring forth the shoots
That they stand erect.
You have filled the land with mankind,
The dust rises on high, O Lord!
Wonderful One, you live
In the midst of the sheltering rocks.
You give rain to mankind.
—from a traditional prayer of the Shona (Zimbabwe)
We come upon a curious fact. The pre-colonial history of African societies—and I refer to both Euro-Christian and Arab-Islamic colonization—indicates very clearly that African societies never at any time of their existence went to war with another over the issue of their religion. That is, at no time did the black race attempt to subjugate or forcibly convert others with any holier-than-thou evangelizing zeal. Economic and political motives, yes. But not religion.
—WOLE SOYINKA, Nobel Prize acceptance speech (December 1986)
Is there an “African” mythology?
What role did myth play in African villages?
Is there an African Creation myth?
Who’s Who of African Deities
How did a suicidal king become a god and end up in the Supreme Court?
MYTHICAL MILESTONES
Africa
2.5 million years before present The first known stone tools are used by early ancestors of modern man, Homo habilis.
1.7 million years before present Hominids begin to move out of Africa, adapting to a range of environments in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
150,000 years before present Migration of early modern humans begins from East Africa.
100,000 years before present Anatomically modern humans with superior “tool kit” emerge in southern Africa.
70,000 years before present Evidence of human burials in southern Africa.
42,000 years before present Ocher, a kind of earth which is ground to a fine powder and used as a pigment, is mined and possibly used for body decoration.
26,000 years before present Evidence of earliest African rock art.
20,000 years before present Evidence of terra-cotta figurines in Algeria (northern Africa).
12,000–10,000 years before present End of the last Ice Age.
Before the Common Era (BCE)
c. 8500 Saharan rock art depicts wide array of elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, and other animals long since extinct in this region. Finely crafted stone arrowheads and other tools are used in the Sahara region.
c. 7500 “Wavy-line pottery,” made by dragging fish bones through wet clay, produced in Sahara and its southern fringes.
c. 6500 Domestication of cattle in the Sahara region.
c. 6000 Agriculture begins along the Nile River.
c. 5000 Desertification of Sahara region begins; populations expand south and east.
c. 4100 Sorghum and rice are cultivated in the Sudan and West Africa.
c. 3100 Beginnings of united Egypt (see Mythical Milestones, chapter 2).
c. 1965 Nubia conquered by Egypt.
c. 900 Nubian kingdom of Kush (also spelled Cush) rises along the Nile River in what is now northeastern Sudan. Its founding date is not known, but it existed as early as 2000 BCE. Egypt conquers Kush in the 1500s BCE, and the Kushites adopt elements of Egyptian art, language, and religion.
814 Carthage founded by Phoenicians in northern Africa.
747 Kushites invade and rule Egypt.
c. 600 Capital of Kush moved to Meroë. Kush probably fell about 350 CE after armies from the African kingdom of Axum destroyed Meröe.
c. 500 Daamat, first kingdom in Ethiopian highlands, is founded. Nok culture begins in northern Nigeria; first known iron working in the sub-Saharan region.
332 Alexander conquers Egypt.
30 Egypt becomes a Roman province.
Common Era
c. 150 Nigerian Nok culture reaches its height.
c. 200 Ghana gains wealth