Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [197]
The good of the group was often tied to the question of food. In a landscape where growing conditions were always challenging, the constant possibility of drought, crop failures, and food shortages was a persistent fear, and social cooperation and collective farming were crucial to survival. African myths and stories were both preoccupied with this theme, as Roger Abrahams notes. “Nothing strains the web of culture so much as the threat of starvation…. We see [that] through these tales. Bonds are repeatedly strained because someone steals food, or because children are neglected when crops fail. Therefore no theme is more important or receives more attention than the building of families and friendship ties to provide that strength which, even in the face of natural disaster or perilous human responses to it, ensures a community’s survival…. One realizes how great the achievement of family and community is, and how constantly that achievement must be recreated again.”
The importance of communal action is clear in a story about the trickster Hare told by the Ewe (of Ghana and Togo) that also appears in other versions in many African traditions. While just an amusing tale on the surface, it underscores the fundamental need for cooperation. When a drought dries up the earth, the animals assemble in a council and all agree to cut off a piece of their ears and extract the fat, which they will sell to buy a hoe to dig a well. All do as they promise except for Hare, the trickster, who reneges. The other animals are surprised, but still manage to buy the hoe and dig until they hit water. Along comes Hare, who first draws some water and then takes a bath, muddying the well. When the other animals realize that Hare has ruined their water, they hatch a plan that involves covering a small statue with “bird lime.” Hare comes along and speaks to this “dummy,” which, of course, does not respond. Angrily, Hare hits the statue and gets one paw stuck to it, then the other. Next, he kicks at the sticky statue, but only succeeds in getting both feet stuck as well. The other animals, watching from hiding, come out and give Hare a beating, before letting him go. From that day on, Hare never leaves the safety of the grass.*
Given the central importance of communal cooperation, something as seemingly simple as a “work song” takes on a vital role in African mythology. Sung in unison by laborers harvesting crops or hoeing fields, the work song was not just a pleasant diversion from otherwise dreary labor, but a fundamental, cohesive force in tribal life. These songs, still very much alive in Africa today, made their way from thousands of African villages to America for centuries, aboard slave ships, and found voice in the work songs of the plantation slaves as well as in the rhythmic songs of chain-gangs (brilliantly displayed in the opening scene of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?). These, in turn, powerfully influenced American gospel, rhythm and blues, jazz, and, eventually, rock and roll and Motown. That’s just one reason this mythic tradition deserves some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
MYTHIC VOICES
In the beginning, in the dark, there was nothing but water. And Bumba was alone.
One day Bumba was in terrible pain. He retched and strained and vomited up the sun. After that light spread over everything, The heat of the sun dried up the water until the black edges of the world began to show. Black sandbanks and reefs could be seen, but there were no living things.
Bumba vomited up the moon and then the stars, and after that the night had its own light also.
Still Bumba was in pain. He strained again and nine living creatures came forth: the leopard