Stories of the Land

Hello friends, new and old!(New friends, read this post if you’re not sure what Mythological Africans is about.)Meanwhile, I am so thrilled to share this week’s MA podcast episode with you! We are starting out on one of my favorite aspects of studying folklore: the connection between folklore and landforms. If you grew up in a place with a distinctive geographical landform of any kind (mountain, valley, hills etc.), you probably know how the stories about these landforms have carved terrains of their own on the psyches of the people who live near them. In this episode, we take some time to discuss why it is important to study and understand the stories we have told about the land on which we live.“Geography is the study of places but there are few places on earth which do not owe their present and past appearance and character to the interaction of nature and man. Thus, folklorists must maintain an awareness of geography if they are to fully understand the attitudes and beliefs and appreciate the cultural and spiritual forces which have been at work to make a people who they are.”— Karl A. Sinnhuber, German geographerReferences* Antwerp Chocolate Hands * More about Edo Royal Coral* Sinnhuber, Karl A. “On the Relations of Folklore and Geography.” Folklore, vol. 68, no. 3, 1957, pp. 385–404. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1258359. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.* Tanda Pits: Balancing Cultural Preservation and Tourism* Wrigley, Christopher. “The River-God and the Historians: Myth in the Shire Valley and Elsewhere.” The Journal of African History, vol. 29, no. 3, 1988, pp. 367–83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/182347. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.Relevant MA EpisodesMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!Mythological African is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Mythological Africans at mythologicalafricans.substack.com/subscribe