Mythological Africans Podcast

Hello to all new subscribers and followers! Welcome! Please read this.Meanwhile, life is life-ing so this week’s episode features a short story reading and a light-hearted discussion of the magician archetype. Hope you enjoy!Can’t Get Enough? Miracles of Another Kind!Still Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends * Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

It’s April, friends, and we’ll spend the month focused on the Jungian archetype of the Magician. We’ll go over what Jung (and Jungian scholars in general) have to say about the Magician, set it in the African context, and then examine specific examples of the patterns of behavior, circumstances, images and ideas which allude to the Magician archetype as they show up in African myth, folklore and legend. We will necessarily touch on the topic of witchcraft in the African context but only peripherally and as relevant to the topic.In today’s episode, we’ll see how Nuer (Sudan) prophet, Ngundeng Bong, embodied the Magician archetype to catalyze change.“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” - Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, and inventor.References* The Collected Works of Carl Jung.* The Fate of Ngungdeng’s Dang.* Kelsey, Darren. "The Archetypal Magician." Storytelling and Collective Psychology: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Life and the Work of Derren Brown. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022. 21-40.* Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan. The Nuer:: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford University Press. 1940. p185.Can’t Get Enough?* Tenets of Kikuyu Witchcraft and ReligionStill Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the story of Tin Hinan, Founding Mother of the the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hello Friends!We close the series with a short reflection on what this might all mean for us as people living in today’s world of chaos and contradictions.Virtually everything depends on the human psyche and its functions. It should be worthy of all the attention we can give it, especially today, when everyone admits that the weal or woe of the future will be decided neither by the threat of wild animals, nor by natural catastrophes, nor by the danger of world-wide epidemics, but simply and solely by the psychic changes in (hu)man(s). It needs only an almost imperceptible disturbance of equilibrium in a few of our rulers’ heads to plunge the world into blood, fire, and radioactivity. - Carl Jung, God, the Devil, and the Human Soul.Hope you enjoy and see you next week!Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the story of Tin Hinan, Founding Mother of the the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hello Friends!New to Mythological Africans? Welcome! Read this.Meanwhile, we’re still talking about the images, symbols, and patterns of behavior or circumstances associated with rulership in African myth, folklore, legend, and history. This week, we linger in that sliver of space where the perception of “good” or “bad” rulership bends to the will of the beholder. Arraweelo of Somalia is a particularly contradictory ruler in African legend. In some accounts of her story, she is maligned as an exceptionally evil ruler who despised men. Yet other accounts present her as a ruler who fought for the good of her people, especially the women. We’ll hear two versions of her story and reflect on how their contradiction is a both a manifestation of the bipolarity of archetypes and an expression of wholeness.References* The Somali Queen: Queen Arraweelo by Farah Mohamed.* British Somaliland by Ralph E Drake-Brockman (pages 169 - 171).* Arraweelo: A Role Model For Somali Women by Ladan Affi.* A Tree for poverty : Somali Poetry and Prose by Margaret Lawrence (pages 126 - 131)Can’t Get EnoughStill Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the story of Tin Hinan, Founding Mother of the the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hello Friends,In this week’s episode, we examine the archetypal symbols, patterns and motifs from the story of Chief Shemwindo, a case of bad rulership from the legends of the Nyanga of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I also reflect on how this ties to the persistence of bad rulership on the continent in current times. The way I see it, bad rulership is not new to the African continent. What has been disrupted is the ability of the people to organize against it and when they succeed, to move on from it.References* Biebuyck, Daniel, and Kahombo C. Mateene, editors. “The Mwindo Epic.” The Mwindo Epic from the Banyanga, 1st ed., University of California Press, 2021, pp. 39–142. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hm8jb6.5. Accessed 16 Mar. 2026.* Mysterioum Coniunctionis by C.G. JungCan’t Get Enough?Still Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the story of Tin Hinan, Founding Mother of the the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hey FriendsWe’re on the fourth episode of the MA deep dive into Jungian archetypes in African myths, legend and folklore. We’re remaining focused on the rulership archetype for the month of March and the plan is to look at it from different angles. In this week’s episode (and to honor Women’s Day!) we’re going to talk about rulership in African mythology and folklore from the perspective of women.References* Franz, Marie-Luise von. The Feminine in Fairy Tales. United Kingdom, Shambhala, 1993.* Lewis, Jerome. Forest hunter-gatherers and their world: a study of the Mbendjele Yaka pygmies of Congo-Brazzaville and their secular and religious activities and representations. Diss. University of London, 2002, 175 - 176.* Schipper, Mineke. Source of all evil : African proverbs and sayings on women. Chicago, Bloomsbury Academic, 1991.* Korsah, Chantal. Yaa Asantewaa: Queen Mother of the Ashanti Confederacy* Ogwu, Matthew Chidozie, Moses Edwin Osawaru, and Rosemary Noredia Iroh. “Ethnobotany and collection of west African okra [Abelmoschus caillei (a. Chev.) Stevels] germplasm in some communities in Edo and Delta states, southern Nigeria.” Borneo Journal of Resource Science and Technology 6.1 (2016): 25-36.* Fraser, Douglas, and Herbert M. Cole, eds. African art and leadership. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1972.* Fisher, Angela. Africa Adorned. United Kingdom, Harvill Press, 1996.Can’t Get Enough?* Read this reflection on archetypes as living territory for transformation:* Read this X/Twitter Thread for some exceptional heroines from African myth, legend and history.* Check out the project page for The Runaway Princess and Other Stories (and references for Yennenga’s story)Still Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the story of Tin Hinan, Founding Mother of the the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hello Friends!This week’s episode is a bit experimental. We tell a story. Not a folktale, legend or myth. Just a story about a Malinke boy who has a very interesting dream. Then, we talk about the dream and tease out some archetypal images, patterns and symbols which, in the context of West Africa’s Mande-speaking people, might allude to the rulership archetype. I hope you like it!References* Jung on Dreams: Part I - Definitions, Components, Functions and Features* Sundiata : an epic of old Mali by Djibril Tamsir Niane* The Epic of Son Jara by John W. Johnson* The Collected Works of Carl Jung* Dreams as Portals to the Soul: Dreamwork and Analysis Across Freudian, Jungian, Indigenous, and African Perspectives* McCall, Daniel F. “The Prevalence of Lions: Kings, Deities and Feline Symbolism in Africa and Elsewhere.” Paideuma, vol. 19/20, 1973, pp. 130–45. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40341534. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.* Manzon, Agnes Kedzierska. "Humans and Things: Mande" Fetishes" as Subjects." Anthropological Quarterly 86.4 (2013): 1119-1151.* Chidester, David. “Dreaming in the Contact Zone: Zulu Dreams, Visions, and Religion in Nineteenth-Century South Africa.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 76, no. 1, 2008, pp. 27–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40006024. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026.* Four Characteristics of Archetypes: Autonomy, Affect, Activation, Agency* Jung and the Individuation Process* The Persona* The Shadow* The Anima and Animus* Our Inner Partner: The Anima and Animus* 12 Jungian Archetypes: The Foundation of PersonalityNeed a book of African Mythology and Folklore?The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the foundation legend of the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hi Friends!In week three of our Jungian archetypes meets African myth and folklore series, we start on the story of Sundiata (AKA Son Jara) Keita, arguably one of the major figures from African legends about good and courageous rulership. Sundiata is to the Manding people what Arthur of Camelot is to the British. We preface things with a bit more contextualization of rulership as an archetype and then take a quick look at Sundiata’s life to lay the foundation for our discussion.This is a big topic and I feel the weight of my own limited knowledge as I poke and prod at it. I ask for your understanding as we go along. I will try to be as thorough as I can be.I hope you enjoy!References* The Epic of Son Jara by John W. Johnson* The Collected Works of Carl Jung* Jung and the Individuation Process* The Persona* The Shadow* The Anima and Animus* Our Inner Partner: The Anima and Animus* 12 Jungian Archetypes: The Foundation of Personality Can’t Get Enough?Need a book of African Mythology and Folklore?The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the foundation legend of the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

We are still at the very beginning of our year-long exploration of Jungian archetypes as expressed in African mythology and folklore. In the first episode from last week, we defined some foundational concepts we will encounter over and over as we move along. These include the collective unconscious as well as archetypes and stereotypes. We also talked a bit about why we are looking at African myths and folklore through this lens and then laid out a tentative plan for the year.We have a lot of ground to cover, friends, and it is important that we properly learn the contours of the psychic terrain we will be traveling. So, in this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we will focus on Jung’s four main archetypes (the Self, the Persona, the Shadow and the Anima/Animus complex), probe (lightly) at personhood in some African contexts, and then outline a few more concepts that will help us along the way.References:* The Collected Works of Carl Jung* Pearson, Carol . Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help Us Find Ourselves and Transform Our World (p. 182). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.* Oyeshile, Olatunji A. “Towards an African concept of a person: Person in Yoruba, Akan and Igbo thoughts.” Fiorita: Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies 34 (2002): 1-2.* Ndlovu, Sanelisiwe Primrose. “A critical exploration of the ideas of person and community in traditional Zulu thought.” (2021).* Brooke, Roger. “Ubuntu and the individuation process: Toward a multicultural analytical psychology.” Psychological Perspectives 51.1 (2008): 36-53.* Jung and the Individuation Process* The Persona* The Shadow* The Anima and Animus* Our Inner Partner: The Anima and AnimusNeed a book of African Mythology and Folklore?The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the foundation legend of the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Black/African people spend an incredible amount of energy, time and resources on countering negative stereotypes. Stereotypes are oversimplified, rigid, and, too often, biased perceptions people have of others. Black/African people have been locked in an all-out war against negative stereotypes for longer than is reasonable. The culture wars that perennially rage on social media could be called the Battles of the Stereotypes. But there is another framework which is similar to yet offers so much more than stereotypes: archetypes. The word “archetype” comes from the Greek word “archetypos” which means “original pattern”. It was initially used by philosophers from antiquity to describe the role of God or the Divine as the primordial pattern from which existence emerges. Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung was the first person to systematically apply the concept of archetypes to human psychology . In Jung’s theories, archetypes are patterns of behavior, circumstances, images and ideas which occur repeatedly in the unconscious thoughts of a given collective of people and so are expressed in oral traditions, literature, art, ritual, philosophy, and other domains of human communication and relationship. Jung proposed that an observer might arrive at some insight into what motivates and animates a given group of people by observing the expression and evolution of the archetypes in their cultural expressions. In 2026, the MA podcast will focus on applying Jung’s theory of archetypes to African mythology and folklore to see what emerges. In this introductory episode, we’ll define the term, explain some of its features, and explore why it is a more suitable framework for understanding a given group of people than stereotypes. We’ll also lay out the year’s plan with a focus on the specific archetypes we will encounter each month.References (including two of Jung’s books you want to keep close by for the rest of the year!)* Carl G. Jung. “The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.” Routledge, 1968.* Jung, Carl G. “Man and his symbols.” Anchor Press, 1964. * Hogenson, George B. “The controversy around the concept of archetypes.” Journal of Analytical Psychology 64.5 (2019): 682-700.* Jungian Archetypes and the Hidden Architecture of the Psyche* 12 Jungian Archetypes: The Foundation of Personality Need a book of African Mythology and Folklore?The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the foundation legend of the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody! Get full access to Mythological Africans at mythologicalafricans.substack.com/subscribe

The average human in the modern context is largely cut off from deep and transformative encounters with the natural world. The reasons are manifold. Some people live in places where access is nonexistent or limited. Others have access but no time, buffeted as they are by their obligations and efforts to earn a living and take care of their families. Even when access and time are present, awareness and inclination might be lacking. Many people live within walking distance of great rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, deserts, plains, mountains, hills and forests, and yet, these land forms have faded to the background scenery of their lives.It might be hard for many of us, then, to imagine what it would be like to adopt a lifestyle whose maintenance, talk less of success, requires keen attention to and relationship with a land form. Yet, this is the lifestyle traditionally chosen by the Tuareg and other north African desert dwellers like the Sahrawis of Western Sahara. These people don’t only live in the Sahara desert, they actively claim it as theirs. But what does it mean to claim a land form as one’s own? And what could this mean for us present-day Africans?In the last Mythological Africans podcast episode of 2025, we probe at this question with insight drawn from Tuareg-Libyan Author Ibrahim al Koni’s “The Bleeding of the Stone” and reflections on the experiences of the Sahrawi of Western Sahara.… perhaps one way Africans can repair and reaffirm the bonds that tie us together is by looking again at the land forms that connect us. The mountains ranges that spread from country to country. The rivers that thread their ways from homeland to homeland. The forests in whose depths generation upon generation have lived. The deserts whose winds and waters have chiseled countless lineages. The seas and oceans that surround us. The hills, valleys, lakes, and plains whose siblings across the continent attest to the common stock from which we emerge. Maybe, just maybe, our future lies in our ability to look at them again and see more than land or resources. Maybe our future lies in remembering that they are a shared inheritance to be understood and stewarded.References* “The Bleeding of the Stone” by Ibrahim al-Koni. Interlink Publishing Group Inc.* Ellison, Mahan. “La amada Tiris, tierra de nuestros abuelos: The Affective Space of the Sahara in Hispano-Sahrawi Literature.” Review of the Center for the Studies of the Literature and Arts of North Africa 15.2–3 (2018): 73.* Benjaminsen, Tor A. “Does supply-induced scarcity drive violent conflicts in the African Sahel? The case of the Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali.” Journal of Peace Research 45.6 (2008): 819-836.* Mattingly, David, et al. “Desert Migrations: people, environment and culture in the Libyan Sahara.” Libyan Studies 38 (2007): 115-156.* Deubel, Tara Flynn. “Between homeland and exile: Poetry, memory, and identity in Sahrawi communities.” (2010). Diss. The University of Arizona.* Voices of a lost homeland: The poetry of Western SaharaCan’t Get Enough?* Tishuash by BadiStill Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the foundation legend of the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Last week, we started our analysis of Libyan writer Ibrahim al Koni’s “The Bleeding of the Stone.” We met Asouf, the young Tuareg man who is the book’s main character. We also encountered one of the major conflicts that drive the book’s plot: the sun’s eternal vendetta against the desert and the unfortunate creatures, humans among them, that call the desert home. That episode includes a reading and discussion of a folktale told by Asouf’s father. In that story, we heard how the people captured and preserved knowledge of the desert’s shifting patterns and the delicate balance of relationships it supports. Finally, we got some foreshadowing of events to unfold in the book. The Sun’s endless fury is not the only (or even the main) conflict in the story. That honor goes to the human conflicts. In this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we will explore some of the human relationships in Ibrahim al Koni’s “The Bleeding of the Stone”. We also examine how these relationships are influenced by their encounter with the desert environment and expressed in oral traditions.[Note: Episode contains spoilers!]References* “The Bleeding of the Stone” by Ibrahim al-Koni. Interlink Publishing Group Inc. Can’t Get Enough?* Tuareg Camel Music* Tales from the Plateau of Rivers: Folklore of the Tassili n’Ajjer and Ahaggar Mountain Ranges* Tuareg Tea-time: Sweet tea in a golden cupStill Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the foundation legend of the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

You meet three of the main protagonists and hear a central conflict in Libyan writer Ibrahim al Koni’s “The Bleeding of the Stone” in the first sentence of the book.“Evening was coming,” he writes, “the flaming disk of the sun sinking slowly down from the depths of the sky as it bade farewell, with the threat to return next morning and finish burning what it hadn’t burned today, and Asouf plunged his arms into the sands of the wadi to begin his ablutions, in readiness for his afternoon prayers.”Sun, desert sand, and humans. It is an age old conflict. The Sun’s beef with the land which constitutes the Sahara desert is millions of years old, playing out in 20,000 year cycles of harsh intimacy and soothing distance, depending on which way the planet tilts. Humankind entered the picture less than 50,000 years ago and quickly sided with the desert against the Sun. But the desert is a fickle ally and, as al Koni documents in intimate detail in his stories, no one knows this better than the humans, plants and animals who call it home.In this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we introduce the Sahara as a geographical land form and reflect on some of the stories that have emerged from its long history.References* The Thetys Sea* Sahara climate cycle reveals desert turns green every 20000 years * The Sahara Is Millions of Years Older Than Thought * The Sahara Desert flooded for the first time in decades. Here’s what it looks like * A Wetter, Greener Sahara Could Reshape Global Weather — Especially Hurricane Season* The Bleeding of the Stone by Ibrahim al-Koni. Interlink Publishing Group Inc.Can’t Get Enough?* Read: The latest edition of the MA Newsletter* Listen: The fascinating world of Tuareg Camel Folk MusicStill Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (Including the Tuareg Foundation Legend)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

It‘s hard to believe its December already, but here we are! We’ve spent the bulk of the year talking about land form myths from across the continent so I figured we could zoom in and look at things from another perspective: how these myths influence daily life. However, I don’t live on the African continent and the MA annual budget cannot support travel at this time, so my best bet is to do another kind of traveling: through books.Now, if one wants to travel by book across the African continent in a way that allows for close contact with the land, where does one go to, quite literally, book this trip? I don’t know about other parts of the continent but I do know that if you want to travel the Sahara region by book, you will find no better map and travel guide than the work of Libyan writer, Ibrahim al Koni.I was going to do a fresh episode on the Sahara desert before we start talking about Ibrahim al Koni’s “The Bleeding of the Stone.” But as I thought about what to say, I realized we already have several episodes in which we introduce the Sahara. And so, instead of reinventing the wheel this week, we’re going to revisit a snippet from one of those episodes. How about we save the fun for later this month and sprinkle more fun facts about this foremost of all African geographical landforms in upcoming episodes?(I’ve also had a long work week. I need a hot soak in a bath with some Samara Joy playing, and then cuddles with my cats. Thanks for understanding!)PS: I experimented with sound effects when I produced this episode. That was fun, but I don’t think I’ll be doing that again!Don’t forget to tune in next week as we start discussing Ibrahim al-Koni’s “Bleeding of the Stone.”References* al-Majus or through the Labyrnith by Ismail Fayed* Rawafed: Documentary Interview with Ibrahim KuniCan’t Get Enough?Still Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody! Get full access to Mythological Africans at mythologicalafricans.substack.com/subscribe

I ran into a bit of a problem while doing the research for the first section of my book: “The Watkins Book of African Folklore”. That section is titled “Creation Myths and Foundations Legends” but it was originally supposed to be titled just “Creation Myths.” The problem I ran into was that many stories classed as creation myths in the African context are actually foundation legends. They are not stories about the creation of the world per se, with the expected metaphysical connotations. They are accounts of how the couple recognized as the first ancestors of the people in question came to be in the geographical location they claim as home.In this week’s episode of the MA podcast, we round up the conversation about African creation myths with a comment on African foundation legends.If you recall from the first episode of the year, the plan for 2025 is to focus on myths and folklore related to land forms and the natural world, with detours into the realms of psychology and history. Having come so far, I look back at all the episodes and what I find is that the thread running through them is a reminder that what makes us African is our connection to the continent, no matter where we may find ourselves in the world. What makes us African is our remembrance of the land, the waters, the plants, the animals and the lineages, both great and small, known and unknown, whose collective existence is inextricably bound to ours, and whose destruction would be ours as well. What makes us African, is our commitment to honoring this truth in all ways we possibly can.References* Belcher, Stephen. African Myths of Origin (Penguin Classics) Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition. p. 143* Frobenius, Leo, and Douglas C. Fox. “African Genesis (1937).” New York: B. Blom (1966), pp 49 - 57* Mudimbé, Vumbi Yoka. Parables and Fables: exegesis, textuality, and politics in Central Africa. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1991. p86-87Can’t Get Enough?Refresh your memory on Ibrahim al Koni since we’ll be spending time with his work in December.* The Desert in Ibrahim al Koni's “Al Majus”Still Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

We are still looking at African creation myths this month. This week, we examine a version of the creation myth of West Africa’s Mande-speaking people. I’m very excited to spend time on this story because it is one of the best documented and analyzed myths from the African continent. It is also rich in symbolism and communicates so much about how the people who claim it as theirs understand their arrival to and situation on earth.References* Dieterlen, Germaine. “The Mande Creation Myth.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, vol. 27, no. 2, 1957, pp. 124–38. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1156806. Accessed 23 Nov. 2025.* Dieterlen, Germaine. “Mythe et organisation sociale au Soudan français.” Journal des Africanistes 25.1 (1955): 39-76.* Jansen, Jan. “The Mande Magical Mystery Tour-the Mission Griaule in Kangaba (Mali).” Mande Studies 2.1 (2000): 97-114. (A Criticism of the Griaule Missions)* Djenne-Djenno * Scheub, Harold. A dictionary of African mythology: the mythmaker as storyteller. Oxford University Press, 2000. p51Can’t Get Enough?* Septennial re-roofing ceremony of the Kamablon, sacred house of Kangaba* Niger Valley Civilizations* Jeffreys, M. D. W. “Maize and the Mande Myth.” Current Anthropology, vol. 12, no. 3, 1971, pp. 291–320. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2741046. Accessed 24 Nov. 2025.* Jansen, Jan, and James R. Fairhead. “The Mande Creation Myth, by Germaine Dieterlen, as a Historical Source for the Mali Empire.” Journal of West African History 6.2 (2020): 93-114.* Engeström, Tor. “Some aspects of the Mandé myth problem.” Ethnos 26.4 (1961): 219-226.Still Can’t Get Enough?The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

If you were raised Christian like me, your head probably threatens to explode at the thought of there being more than one version of a creation myth. In the Christian worldview, the Genesis account is it. However, even the Christian biblical canon as we know it was compiled and legitimized over almost a thousand years and after a great many meetings or councils as they were known. Similarly, in just about all spiritual traditions with documented accounts of cosmological events, there are variations both legitimate and illegitimate. Some are canon. Some are relegated to the arena of folklore. Some are actively erased from the record, especially if they contradict or threaten whatever the orthodoxy of the time has decided is the truth.In this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we take a break from stories to put some context around variations in mythological and folkloric accounts.(Listen to Part 1 & Part 2)References* Brown, John Tom. Among the Bantu Nomads: A record of forty years spent among the Bechuana, a numerous & famous branch of the Central South African Bantu, with the first full description of their ancient customs, manners & beliefs. Seeley, Service & Company, 1926, pp. 162-167* Boeyens, Jan CA. “A tale of two Tswana towns: in quest of Tswenyane and the twin capital of the Hurutshe in the Marico.” Southern African Humanities 28.1 (2016):13.* Ellenberger, Vivian. “History and Pre-history in Botswana.” Botswana Notes & Records 4.1 (1972): 135-136.* Finnegan, Ruth. Oral literature in Africa. Open Book Publishers, 2012.* Ouzman, Sven. “Spiritual and political uses of a rock engraving site and its imagery by San and Tswana-speakers.” The South African Archaeological Bulletin (1995):60.* Scheub, Harold. A dictionary of African mythology: the mythmaker as storyteller. Oxford University Press, 2000, p140, 151.* Van Der Ryst, Maria, et al. “Rocks of Potency: Engravings and Cupules from the Dovedale Ward, Southern Tuli Block, Botswana [with Comment].” The South African Archaeological Bulletin (2004): 1-11.* Walker, Nick. “In the footsteps of the ancestors: the Matsieng creation site in Botswana.” The South African Archaeological Bulletin (1997): 95-104.* Wilman, Maria. “The engraved rock of Kopong and Loe, Bechuanaland Protectorate.” South African Journal of Science 16.5 (1919): 443-446.Can’t Get Enough?!The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hi Friends!We’re looking at African creation myths this month on the Mythological Africans podcast (Listen to part 1 here). In this episode, we examine stories of creation by emergence from underground. In these accounts, all that exists seems to emerge from under the earth or a body of water. Emergence accounts sometimes intersect with Ex nihilo accounts where an all powerful being makes creatures and puts them underground or in a cave. This occurs in two of the stories we discuss in this episode. We start with a version of the Mende (Sierra Leone) origin myth, and then explore similar myths from the Kabyle people of Algeria, the Tswana of southern Africa, the Akan of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, as well as the Babungo and Bamougong of Cameroon. We also examine the way European missionaries and scholars distorted or neglected some of these accounts leading to misconstructions which persist till today. Come for the analyses, stay for the drama!References* Brown, John Tom. Among the Bantu Nomads: A record of forty years spent among the Bechuana, a numerous & famous branch of the Central South African Bantu, with the first full description of their ancient customs, manners & beliefs. Seeley, Service & Company, 1926, pp. 162-167* Boeyens, Jan CA. “A tale of two Tswana towns: in quest of Tswenyane and the twin capital of the Hurutshe in the Marico.” Southern African Humanities 28.1 (2016):13.* Divine Che Neba, Julius Angwah, “Entry on: Myth of the Origin of the Babungo People by Eleanor Zofoa”, peer-reviewed by Daniel Nkemleke, Eleanor A. Dasi and Elizabeth Hale. Our Mythical Childhood Survey (Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2019). Link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/613. Accessed 10 Jan. 2021.* Divine Che Neba, “Entry on: Bamougong Creation Myth by Pierre Keubou”, peer-reviewed by Eleanor Anneh Dasi, Susan Deacy and Karolina Anna Kulpa. Our Mythical Childhood Survey (Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2019). Link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/876. Accessed 10 Jan. 2021.* Frobenius, Leo, and Douglas C. Fox. “African Genesis (1937).” New York: B. Blom (1966), pp 49 - 57* Masoga, Mogomme Alpheus. “Gabriel Molehe Setiloane: His intellectual legacy.” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 40 (2014): 33-52.* Parrinder, Edward Geoffrey. African Ideas of God. United Kingdom, Edinburgh House Press, 1950. p287* Setiloane, Gabriel M. “The image of God among the Sotho-Tswana.” Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema, 1976, p 82.Can’t Get Enough?* How Mokran Fetta Restored Indigenous Kabyle Folk NarrativesAlso* Listen to the episode about Cameroon’s exploding lakes.Still Can’t Get Enough?!The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Creation myths are the first geological myths in the true sense of the word, even when the accounts speak of eggs rather than rock. Creation myths address the most fundamental question of human existence: how did we get here? And as they answer this question, creation myths also provide reason for the other fundamental question of human experience: why we are here? This way, they structure the experience of living. There are hundreds of creation myths and yet, if you ask most Africans, you will most likely hear the biblical or qur’anic version. That was certainly the case for me before I started curating Mythological Africans. And so for the month of November on the Mythological Africans podcast, we will take a closer look at African creation myths. We’ll also probe, lightly as always, at what they reveal about what the people who believe in them understand about the forces and processes that move and organize their world. We start with two of my favorite Cameroonian creation myths.References* Types of Cosmogenic Myths* Eleanor A. Dasi, “Entry on: The Bali Creation Myth by Robert Ba Ndangho Fomunyang “, peer-reviewed by Daniel Nkemleke, Divine Che Neba and Susan Deacy. Our Mythical Childhood Survey (Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2018). Link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/443. Accessed 10 Jan. 2021.* Eleanor Anneh Dasi, “Entry on: How the Earth (Land) Came to Be by Nson Ngambi”, peer-reviewed by Divine Che Neba and Elizabeth Hale. Our Mythical Childhood Survey (Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2019). Link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/877. Accessed 10 Jan. 2021MA Posts About Cameroonian Myths, Folklore and CultureMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hello Friends!We’re at the end of our month-long examination of how different African peoples have fought back against extractive and exploitative industrial and commercial practices, often at the hands of multinational companies.In the first episode, we discussed Kenya’s Chonyi people’s successful bid to preserve their land and the caves to which they go to commune with their ancestors. In the second episode, we examined how industrial fishing practices like bottom trawling complicates the relationships and practices of artisanal fishing communities on Ghana’s Atlantic coast. For the third and final episode this week, we turn to the Maasai of East Africa and examine what their folklore reveals about their relationships with the land they call home. Tanzania’s Maasai people are currently locked in a fight to retain control of their ancestral land in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is the standard issue story of foreign investors working with national governments to implement initiatives that will benefit indigenous people only marginally, while taking over land and stripping away much of what holds the people and their communities together. What is interesting about this case is that this has led to some Maasai elders seeking to remove the Ngorongoro Conservation Area from the UNESCO list of world heritage sites. This is quite unprecedented. I look at the land through the eyes of the Maasai people themselves to see what they believe they are losing.“We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own - indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder. This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process.” - Wangari Mathai, Kenyan Environmental Activist and Nobel LaureateReferences* Maasai Cattle Songs* Inkishu : Myths and Legends of the Maasai by Kioi wa Mbugua* Hey, that’s our stuff: Maasai tribespeople tackle Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum* Mount Oldoinyo Lengai* Can UNESCO Accommodate Both Preservation and Human Rights?Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hello all!In the last episode, we examined the case of Kenya’s Chonyi people’s fight and ultimate victory in preventing a cement plant from being established on their lands. We ended that episode with a question: How should modern Africans navigate a future which will continue to demand land and other natural resources to support much needed economic development? Here’s another question: What attitudes can modern Africans adopt to ensure that the same exploitative and extractive attitudes we condemn in foreign entities don’t poison our own activities? In this week’s episode, we go to Ghana’s Atlantic coast to examine yet another case of foreign exploitation and explore how traditional beliefs might offer a pathway to more sustainable development.References* Adjei, Joseph Kingsley, and Solomon Sika-Bright. “Traditional beliefs and sea fishing in selected coastal communities in the Western Region of Ghana.” Ghana Journal of Geography 11.1 (2019): 1-19.* Addo, Christian. Singing in fishing: A culturally-centred exploration of the meanings and functions of singing to sailors. MS thesis. Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Fakultet for samfunnsvitenskap og teknologiledelse, Psykologisk institutt, 2013.* Battle to stop Africa’s waters being ravaged by China’s dark fishing fleets* What is bottom trawling?* Cameroon: Foreign trawlers devastate fisheries in Cameroon, navy deployed to seize illegal vesselsMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

To those who still look and listen, the majestic beauty of the African continent’s diverse landscapes thrums with life, animated by the spirits who inhabit them. Each forest grove or tree, river, mountain, oasis, cave or shoreline is a portal to connection. It is to these liminal places that people go to forge and maintain relationships with the larger-than-life forces that define their lives.To say the demands of modernity have taken a toll on this landscape would be putting it mildly. Whether it is oil drilling, mineral mining, timber logging, dam building, large-scale fishing, big game hunting or plantation farming, too often (and sadly), many of these projects, while lucrative for the people whose wheeling and dealing brought them to life, do little for the communities on whose land or waters they operate on, extract from, and, ultimately, destroy.Crushed under the weight of poverty and lured by promises of heretofore lacking jobs, amenities, and opportunities, many communities have, historically, been powerless or disincentivized to resist or fight back when things go bad.But that is not always the case.In this week’s episode of the Mythological Africans Podcast, we hear the story of how one community in Kenya fought back and, ultimately, won the right to preserve their land and heritage.Shout out to Katherine May through whose lovely newsletter I found out about this story. References* Ngumbau, Veronicah Mutele, Paul Mutuku Musili, and Guang-Wan Hu. “Premna mwadimei (Lamiaceae), a new species from Cha Simba, a remnant of coastal forests of Kenya, East Africa.” Phytotaxa 510.2 (2021): 155-162.* Tsuma, Lewa Amos. Achonyi Burial Rituals: A Critical Examination Of Their Effects In Light Of Practices On Christian Widows Of Chasimba Ward, Kilifi County, Kenya Diss. Pwani University, 2023.* Kilifi Caves (Panga Ya Saidi, Mawe Meru and Chasimba Caves) * Why Kilifi residents want written deal with cement investor* How Kenyan villagers saved their sacred caves from a mining company* Chasimba Cave - Caves in Kilifi County* Battle to stop Africa’s waters being ravaged by China’s dark fishing fleets* “It’s Like Killing Culture” Human Rights Impacts of Relocating Tanzania’s Maasai * Congo’s coltan miners dig for world’s tech — and struggle regardless of who is in chargeCan’t Get Enough?* For a fictional take on a similar situation, read “How Beautiful We Were” by Cameroonian author Imbolo Mbue.Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

We are at the end of our month-long series about the intersection of mythology, folklore and psychology in the African Context. But it wouldn’t be much of a series about mythology, folklore and psychology if we didn’t discuss the denizens of the spirit world as understood and experienced across the African continent and so that is what we will end our exploration on.I decided against including a folktale in this episode, choosing instead to share this MA Twitter thread about what might be thought of as “fairies” in African mythology and folklore.When I first researched and shared this Twitter thread, I remember being blown away by how the effect many of these creatures and entities (especially some of the malevolent ones) have on humans might as well have been lifted out of a psychiatry text book. At the same time, other descriptions reflected the awe and wonder which African people have experienced as we encountered new people, creatures, situations and ideas. The descriptions of how to move through relationships with these different spirits also reveal much about how people perceive themselves and their place in the world.The truth is, no matter what western psychiatric and psychological theories say about mental illness, genetics and chemical imbalances in the brain, no matter what Christian, Muslim and other spiritual philosophies posit about angels, demons, and other such entities, there will always be a distinct and autochthonous African way of perceiving these phenomena.I hope we continue to draw inspiration and insight from the stories that are available about them to step out from under the shadow of fear and aversion that usually hangs over it all so we can better understand and come up with more compassionate and effective ways of dealing with things.References- Bourguignon, Erika. “Introduction: A framework for the comparative study of altered states of consciousness.” Religion, altered states of consciousness, and social change (1973): 3-35.Can’t Get EnoughThe Ultimate List of MA Mythology and Folklore Threads on X/Twitter.Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

We are in week three of the Mythological Africans Podcast September series on how mythology and folklore from the African continent intersects with psychology. This week, we tackle yet another phenomenon common to the African continent: the incidents of mass panic which seem to take hold of certain communities for days, weeks or even months at a time. Such incidents are curiously common on the campuses of girl’s boarding schools on the continent. As it turns out, I have experienced them myself!In this week’s episode, we’ll examine some folkloric precedents for some of these events and probe lightly at why certain communities seem so vulnerable to them.References* Pinky Pinky * Madam Koi Koi * Walsh, Martin. “Killing Popobawa: collective panic and violence in Zanzibar.” 57th Annual Meeting of the African Studies.* Zhao, Gang et al. “Mass hysteria attack rates in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis.” The Journal of international medical research vol. 49,12 (2021): 3000605211039812. doi:10.1177/03000605211039812Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

I’m very excited about this week’s episode of the MA Podcast because I get to talk with my mother, author and poet, Susan Nde. This is not her first time on MA! Back in 2022, we got to chat with her about her short story collection, The Mirror and Nine Other Short Stories. We talked menstrual taboos, girlhood culture and more! She joins me today to talk about what I call the “My Village People” phenomenon. If you spend any time around people from the African continent, you will invariably run into some version of this phenomenon. This is the belief that misfortunes in life can result from the malicious intent of one’s own “village people”. The village people in question here does not necessarily mean a whole village. It is a metaphor for the people, usually extended family, in one’s immediate community who might have vested interest in one’s success or failure as the case may very well be. This was a great conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! References* Les Nouveaux Contes d'Amadou Koumba by Birago Diop.Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody! Get full access to Mythological Africans at mythologicalafricans.substack.com/subscribe

In the ever fascinating world of the internet, the word “narcissist” lurks under just about every person’s tongue, waiting to be lobed at any and every one whether or not it is deserved or appropriate. I want to believe most people who use the word know the Greek myth of Narcissus. I might be wrong. Much of what we consider modern psychology and psychiatry are inextricably tied to and have been deeply influenced by mythical, folk, magical, spiritual and other such beliefs. Whether you are talking about an Oedipus complex or a generational curse brought on by dissatisfied ancestral or other spirits, the underlying narratives are what spawn, inform and propagate these beliefs.For the month of September on the Mythological Africans Podcast, we’ll be taking a break from our excavation of Geomythology from the African continent to probe at the way mythology and folklore intersect with psychology.References* Ekoue, Leocadie, et al. “Aze and the Incommensurable.” Evil in Africa: Encounters with the Everyday, edited by William C. Olsenand Walter E. A. Van Beek, Indiana University Press, 2016, pp. 128–39. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt17t75bk.12. Accessed 8 Sept. 2025.* Davies, Owen. “Finding the Folklore in the Annals of Psychiatry.” Folklore 133.1 (2022): 1-24.Can’t Get Enough?Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

We end our August discovery of African urban legends this week. In the first episode, we heard the story of the showdown between Nyaminyami, the beloved and fearsome spirit of the Zambezi River and the engineers building the Kariba Dam. In the second episode we talked about the case of Epasa Moto, the territorial mountain god of Cameroon’s Bakweri people, and the annual Mount Cameroon race. In that episode, we also broached the topic of why urban legends, especially those which derive from folklore, come to be. Additionally, we talked about the impact of their existence, for better and worse. In this week’s episode, we revisit the theme of the creation and impact of urban legends based on oral traditions, with a focus on trees.This week’s episode is inspired by this post on X/Twitter. I’m dubbing this episode the yapping episode because it is going to be a very short, lighthearted, and general commentary on the topic. I’m still recovering from a two-week long family vacation and so I’ve not had time to dig deeper or script things out.Can’t Get Enough? Revisit Some Episodes on Tree FolkloreMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

We’re discovering African urban legends this month on the Mythological Africans podcast. In the first episode, we heard the story of the showdown between Nyaminyami (the beloved and fearsome spirit of the Zambezi River revered by the Tonga of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique) and the engineers building the Kariba Dam. In that story, a series of dramatic events which occurred during the dam’s construction challenged the engineer’s belief in their ability to control or maneuver around natural forces. To hear the Tonga people tell it, however, Nyaminyami upset the engineer’s plans. He did this because he was enraged by their project which would restrict the river’s flow and disrupt the lives of the people. These events moved beliefs about Nyaminyami from the realm of indigenous oral traditions to the realm of popular culture.This phenomenon of urban legends mediating the transition of indigenous oral traditions and metaphysical beliefs into popular culture occurs across the world. It is, in a sense, a means by which people diffuse the tension that arises from the cognitive dissonance of witnessing the inevitable transformation of revered traditions after their encounter with the forces of industrialization and globalization.In this week’s episode, we continue our examination of African urban legends with the case of Efasa Moto, the Mountain God of Cameroon’s Bakweri people, and the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope.Correction: Point of correction: Mount Cameroon is the fourth most prominent peak and the 30th highest peak on the African continent.References* Lemnyuy, Bongajum & Nalova, Endelly & Ebong, Epiemembong. “A Re-Think of a True Identity in Embracing and Practicing Western Culture(s) and Religion as Typical Bakweri, Manyu and Ugare people of the Anglophone Cameroon.” American Journal of Education and Practice (2023) 7. 17-37. * Monikang, Evelyn Neh. “Phonology of Mokpwe.” Diss. Université de Yaoundé, 1989. p4-5* Monono, Augustine Ngoni, et al. “The Role of Bakweri Traditional Beliefs in the Management of Mount Cameroon National Park.” Journal of Resources Development and Management (2016) 24. * Nebasifu, Ayonghe Akonwi, and Ngoindong Majory Atong. “Discourses of cultural continuity among the Bakweri of Mount Cameroon National Park.” Culture and local governance 6.2 (2019): 103-121.* Neba, Divine Che, “Entry on: The Myth of Efasa-Moto by Alfred Ngoisa Lyonga”, peer-reviewed by Eleanor A. Dasi and Elizabeth Hale. Our Mythical Childhood Survey (Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2018). Link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/144. Entry version as of August 24, 2025.* History And Evolution Of Mount Cameroon Race Of Hope by Victorine Ongbehok * Sarah Etonge: Queen of the Mountain Reflects on Her Legendary Career by By Boris Esono Nwenfor * 2016 Guinness Mount Cameroon Race of Hope : Simplice Ndungeh Finally Enters Guinness Mount Cameroon Race of Hope Record of Champions By Moki S. Mokondo * 19 people injured in blast at Cameroon sports event By Edwin Kindzeka Moki Can’t Get Enough?* Short documentary with archival videos from the race* Volcanic Sprint: A Film by Steve Dorst and Dan Evans * Guinness Mount Cameroon Race Archives Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Most human communities have moved on from oral traditions as the primary means by which knowledge is collated and transmitted. Yet, folklore persists as urban legends. This is because our very human need to use stories to make sense of and memorialize the events of our lives is timeless. Urban legends are a type of folklore which emerged from the modern human context. They reflect the anxieties and beliefs of modern society, especially in relation to new technologies. There are many urban legends from the 1900s when traditional African societies transitioned to industrialized societies. Most, if not all, of these stories are continuations of the accounts of well-known figures, creatures, concepts and geographical landforms of traditional folklore. The stories that feature geographical landforms are particularly interesting, keeping in mind that for traditional societies, these landforms were almost always the dwelling places or physical manifestations of powerful spirits and deities. These urban legends detail their encounters with industrial technologies and in so doing, reveal what the people from whose oral traditions they come truly think about the changes wrought by these technologies.For the month of August, the Mythological Africans podcast will focus urban legends about African geographical landforms. We start with what might be the most popular African urban legend of all time: the story of Nyaminyami and the construction of the Kariba Dam.References* Chikozho, Joshua, et al. "Nyaminyami,‘The Tonga River-God’: The Place and role of Nyaminyami in the Tonga people’s cosmology, and environmental conservation practices." Harnessing Cultural Capital for Sustainability: A Pan Africanist Perspective. Edited by Munyaradzi Mawere and Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye. Cameroon: Langaa Research & Publishing CIG (2015): 243-64.* Gambahaya, Zifikile, and Itai Muhwati. "Tonga orature as historical record: An Afrocentric exegesis of the dialectics between African human factor agency and the European enslavement of place." Journal of Black Studies 41.2 (2010): 320-337.* Matanzima, Joshua. “Exploring the Origins and Expansion of the Nyaminyami (Water Spirit) Belief Systems among the BaTonga People of Northwestern Zimbabwe.” Journal of Religion in Africa, vol. 51, no. 3/4, 2021, pp. 364–96. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27286539. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.* Ncube, Godfrey Tabona. A history of northwestern Zimbabwe, 1850-1960. Mond Books, 2004. p25-26Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hello Friends!We spent the month of July getting to know some of the folklore associated with Lake Victoria. Normally, we would be moving on to a new topic but there are a couple more lake-related stories and aspects of folklore that I want to touch on before we do. And so in this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we will discover the stories of women who come from the lake, and then round things up with some lake-related sayings and proverbs.A Note on Names…I fully agree that it is important to challenge and reject colonial nomenclature. Names are powerful. They are a portal to relationship, familiarity given tangible form. This lake has many names and each name speaks to the relationship people have with it as a giver, sustainer and taker of life, as well as a representation of the mysterious infinite against whose backdrop the realities of their lives play out. But names are also practical. The way I see it, the name “Lake Victoria” functions as handles with which I can carry the massive pot that is this lake and all it means to the people, making it easy to pour knowledge out. Do I like it? Not particularly. Am I going to spend any more time than necessary wringing my hands over it? No.***This episode comes with a content warning. We broach the topic of female sexual pleasure at the end. So if, according to the laws of the land you are listening from, you should not be hearing about these things from people on the internet, I beg of you to skip this episode and come back next week!***References* Odaga, Asenath. Luo Proverbs and Sayings. Kenya, Lake Publishers & Enterprises, 2005. p67, 91* Kenny, Michael G. “The Stranger from the Lake: a theme in the history of the Lake Victoria shorelands.” Azania: Journal of the British Institute in Eastern Africa 17.1 (1982): 1-26.* Pesce, Fiorenza, et al. "“You shall make Lake Victoria, and become a goddess of love”: a case report about traditional female ejaculation techniques in Kenya." Sexes 5.1 (2024): 1-8.* Roscoe, John. The Baganda: An Account of Their Native Customs and Beliefs. United Kingdom, Macmillan, 1911. p49Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hello friends! This week’s episode of the Mythological Africans podcast is inspired by a conversation with award-winning Ugandan author and film maker, Dilman Dila, who I had the pleasure of meeting at the African Book Festival. We return to those accounts of strangers who come from Lake Victoria, with some perspective from the Baganda of Uganda.In Luganda, the language spoken by the Baganda, Lake Victoria is called Nalubaale. The word Nalubaale can be broken down into two components: the prefix “Na” which is used in reference to mothers, and the word “lubaale” which refers to ancestral/guardian spirits or gods. It is important to know, however, that lubaale are deified ancestors. These are individuals who possessed special skills or played important roles on the history of their people and so are revered, petitioned and propitiated. Putting this all together, Nalubaale translates to “Mother of the Ancestral/Guardian Spirits or Gods.” Interestingly, while the name suggests feminine or motherly qualities, Nalubaale is also the name of a royal drum for Kibuka, the Baganda god war. Kibuka’s brother, Mukasa, as it turns out, is honored among the Baganda as the Spirit of Lake Victoria. He is also a stranger who came from the lake. Listen to the episode to learn more about Mukasa.References* Kiganda, Jose'Marie. "The survival of Ganda traditional religion before and after the coming of foreign religions." (1998).* Roscoe, John. The Baganda: An account of their native customs and beliefs. Macmillan, 1911. p 290-292* Roscoe, J. “95. Kibuka, the War God of the Baganda.” Man, vol. 7, 1907, pp. 161–66. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2788113. Accessed 28 July 2025.* Kenny, Michael G. "The Powers of Lake Victoria." Anthropos H. 5./6 (1977): 717-733.* ."Bubembe." Encyclopedia of African Religion. Edited by Molefi K Asante and Ama Mazama, Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2009, pp. 139-139. Sage Knowledge, doi: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412964623.n96.Can’t Get Enough?Watch this short film by Dilman Dila and be sure to check out more of his work!Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

She is the world’s largest tropical lake and second largest freshwater lake by surface area, covering almost 69,000 square kilometers (43,000 square miles). Naturally, she is the largest lake on the African continent. Three countries: Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, lie along her shores. Burundi and Rwanda lie within her reach. To the peoples whose ancestral lands touch her waters, she is everything. To the Sukuma, she is Ukerewe. To the Luo, she is Nam Lolwe: the Endless Body of Water. To the Baganda, she is Nnalubaale: Mother of the Guardian Gods. In Ikinyarwanda, the language spoken in Rwanda, she is Nyanza: the Large Body of Water. She is the source of the Nile, her generosity spilling out at Bujagali Falls and flowing north, nurturing some the African continent’s greatest civilizations along the way.John Hanning Speke and Richard Burton, the two British military officers who were the first westerners to trace the Nile to its source, renamed her Victoria to honor their queen which...I mean, I get it…but come on!That doesn’t change what this lake, the greatest of East Africa’s Great Lakes, represents to the people whose lives she has sustained for millennia. It’s probably not too much of a stretch of imagination to say the first humans who emerged from the African continent were nurtured by this lake. She is, after all, at least 400,000 years old.We arrived at Lake Victoria two weeks ago after sailing up the Nile as part of our discovery of African Geomythology. Having rested in her waters for this long, I figured we could, in this and the next couple of episodes of the Mythological Africans podcast, learn some of her lore before moving on to other east and south African water bodies. One of the stories common to this region is that of the “Stranger from the Lake”. These stories feature a person coming from the lake under mysterious circumstances. This stranger is cautiously welcomed to the community and, after proving themselves trustworthy, marries into the community to start a lineage.Today, we’ll hear the version of the story as told by the Wasurwa who are, if I understand the material correctly, a clan from the Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania.References* Kenny, Michael G. “The Stranger from the Lake: a theme in the history of the Lake Victoria shorelands.” Azania: Journal of the British Institute in Eastern Africa 17.1 (1982): 1-26.Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

One of the most fascinating characteristics of the Nile is how it is often spoken of as one river but the location and lore surrounding each section of the river makes it seem, at times, to be different rivers. There is the bounteous silt-laden Egyptian Nile spreading its palm out at its Mediterranean delta. There is Abay, the Blue Nile, all 900 miles or 1,450 kilometers of it, rumbling only one name: Ethiopia, as it rushes down the mountains from Lake Tana. Then there is the White Nile of the Sudans, a meandering gift from Uganda’s Nnalubaale or Lake Victoria.In this week’s episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we continue our journey upstream through South Sudan, into Uganda. We start with river lore from the Shilluk and Dinka of South Sudan, and end with folk beliefs about Bujagali Falls in Uganda where the White Nile spills from Lake Victoria.References* Bassekalowooleza ne Bannakalowooleza ba Buganda abedda - Buganda Thinkers of the Past* Austin, Herbert Henry. “Survey of the Sobat region.” The Geographical Journal 17.5 (1901): 495-512.* Sahlins, Marshall, and David Graeber. On kings. HAU books, 2017. p83* Nde, Helen. The Watkins Book of African Folklore. United Kingdom, Watkins Media, 2025. p 39 - 41* Ness, Patrick. “From the White Nile to Ruanda.” The Geographical Journal 72.1 (1928): 1-16.* Willis, C. A. “THE CULT OF DENG.” Sudan Notes and Records, vol. 11, 1928, pp. 195–208. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41715952. * Oestigaard, Terje. “Dammed divinities: the water powers at Bujagali Falls, Uganda.” Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2015.Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the Shilluk Foundation Legend)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

To the people of Ethiopia, Abay (the Blue Nile) is the River of All Rivers. Abay is a friend, a stranger and an enemy. It is a healer, a unifier and a giver, as well as a destroyer, a scatterer and a taker. Much has been written and said about what Abay means to Ethiopians but nowhere else has this been better recorded than in the poems and songs that have been composed about the river.Ethiopia is our country, Abay is our river. The women are fine spinners [and] the men are brave warriors. — Ethiopian song.In this week’s episode of the Mythological Africans Podcast, we use songs and poems to probe at the relationship the Ethiopian people have with this great river.NB: I present the Ethiopian Christian legend of the naming of Gish Abay as it is recorded. I do not spend any time establishing if the details align with historical fact.References* Arsano, Yacob. Ethiopia and the Nile: Dilemmas of National and Regional Hydropolitics. Switzerland, ETH, 2007. p 69 - 80* Ayenalem, A. “The songs of the Nile: From A’bay to the GERD.” Bridging Humanities–Nile Pop. Leiden: Brill. Retrieved from https://nilepop. bridginghumanities. com. * Damtew, Ebrahim. “Friend, Stranger, Enemy Ethiopian Oral Traditions on the Abbay (Blue Nile) River.” Ethiopian Renaissance Journal of Social Sciences and the Humanities 3.2 (2016): 21-37.* Messing, Simon D. “Ethiopian Folktales Ascribed to the Late Nineteenth Century Amhara Wit, Aläqa Gäbre-Hanna.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 70, no. 275, 1957, pp. 69–72. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/536503. Accessed 21 June 2025.* Oestigaard, Terje, and A. F. Gedef. “Gish Abay: the source of the Blue Nile.” Water and society 153.27-38 (2011).* Van Wyk Smith, Malvern. “‘Waters Flowing From Darkness’ The Two Ethiopias in the Early European Image of Africa.” Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, no. 68, 1986, pp. 67–77. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41801755. Can’t Get Enough?Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends * Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Midnight skin, fiery vertical eyes, long tails, donkey legs, big ears, and an insatiable taste for palm dates and little children, the Aman Doger is the stuff of Nubian nightmares. But what is it exactly? In this week’s episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we start with some Sudanese cities whose names are influenced by the Nile, and then meet this fearsome river creature of Nubian folklore.References* Gerasimov I. V. “About the Origin of Some Sudanese Toponyms.” Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 2024, vol. 16, issue 3, pp. 558–566. * Kennedy, John G. “Aman Doger: Nubian Monster of the Nile.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 83, no. 330, 1970, pp. 438–45. JSTOR.Can’t Get Enough?* Seeing beyond the unknown other in folklore by Helen Nde* Wisdom from the Nile : a collection of folk-stories from northern and central Sudan by Ahmed Al-Shahi and F.C.T. MooreMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including a river-based version of the foundation legend of the Shilluk people of Sudan!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody! Get full access to Mythological Africans at mythologicalafricans.substack.com/subscribe

The ancient Egyptian civilization emerged around 6,000 years ago. It is one of the greatest of human civilizations. Ancient Egypt owed its very existence to the river Nile. Its landmass consisted of the river’s fertile floodplain and delta. Its life force was driven by the river’s annual flooding. Its sole means of cross country transportation followed the river’s path.To the ancient Egyptians then, the Nile was everything: the source and sustainer of the flow of Life, an all-powerful primordial deity in its own right.In this week’s episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we read and discuss “Hymn to the Nile,” a song of praise to this great river, written milennia before present times.References* The Hymn to the Nile Flood by Wolfgang Helck* The Hymn to the Nile by Paul Guieysse* Ancient Egypt * Westermann, William Linn. “The Greek Papyri as Historical Material (Concluded).” The Classical Weekly (1925): 51-55. * Maspero, Gaston. Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes. Vol. 38. Libr. Honoré Champion, 1916. pp 1 - 26* 12 Festivals In Egypt In 2025 That Depict The Traditions Of The Country Music* The Land of the Blessed from 1978 King Tutankhamun Exhibit Soundtrack Can’t Get Enough?Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including a version of the ancient Egyptian creation myth)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

May was a strenuous but exciting trek north through the Saharan desert, charting the North African mythical landscape. Like travelers from times past and present, we sought out the Tuareg to guide us on this journey. After all, who could be more qualified at trans-Saharan crossings than those who call it home?As we enter June, it is only fair that we rest our legs as we make our way back toward cooler climes. Having found our way to Egypt, all the way East, we will sail south on the Nile, learning the lore of this great river. In this week’s episode of the Mythological Africans Podcast, we set the tone for our voyage with a reading of Nile, a poem by playwright, translator, essayist, art director and Poet Laureate of Ethiopia, Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin.This is the source, his source, this is his heritage, our heritage. He must come and walk in the footprints of the human ancestors….know thyself first. — Tsegaye Gebre MedhinReferences* Nile : A Poem by Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin* Music: Ethiopian Lyre by Harold CourlanderCan’t Get Enough?We will need ( and probably have) another episode to truly grasp the genius of Tsegaye Gebre Medhin. In the meantime, here are some links to read the story of this great man!* Poet Laureate Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin of Ethiopia: A Short Walk Through His Literary Park* One More Big Loss! Poet Laureate, Tsegaye dies at 60* Tsegaye: In MemoriamMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends * Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

This week, we travel even further north to the African Mediterranean coast where the Rif Mountains are located. The Rif Mountains are another Moroccan mountain range rich in history and mountain-related folklore. We’ll visit the town of Chefchaouen, whose name tells you just how much the surrounding mountains have impressed themselves on the minds of the people.In northern African (specifically Moroccan) Arabic, the word Chouf means “to look.” In Tamazight, the language spoken by the Amazigh who are the indigenous people of northern Africa, the word “Echaouen” means “horns.” The horns in question here are Djebel Meggou and Djebel Kala, two mountains overlooking the town, whose peaks thrust into the sky like the horns of a nubian ibex. And so, “Chouf-Echaouen” translates to “look at the horns,” that is, look at the mountain peaks.Some of you might already know my favorite folktale from the Rif Mountains. It is the story of Oum Hani, the woman whose lover Chaieb is killed by the Mountains of Chefchaouen for participating in the quarrying that defaces and destroys the mountains. In this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, however, we’ll read a poetic retelling of Oum Hani’s story from my self-published book of African folktale retellings: “The Runaway Princess and Other Stories.”References* The Runaway Princess and Other Stories by Helen Nde. Buy the book here.* Dipasquale, Letizia. Understanding Chefchaouen: Traditional knowledge for a sustainable habitat. Firenze University Press, 2020. p 69* Chimenti, Élisa. Tales and Legends of Morocco. United States, I. Obolensky, 1965. pp 6-10* كلخة, et al. The Presence of Riffian Mines in the Amazigh Oral Heritage and its Socio-Historical Dimensions. دورية کان التاريخية: المستقبل الرقمي للدراسات التاريخية 18.67 (2025): 210-217.‎* El Ghaoui, Lisa. Des femmes et de la nature: l’écoféminisme ante-litteram d’Elisa Chimenti. Atlante. Revue d'études romanes 18 (2023).Can’t Get Enough?* Maimoona: Music of the Rif Mountains : Casette tape recordings of Riffian music of unknown source. Come for the melodies and vibes, stay for the scratchy, old school goodness.* Rif Mountains Wiki* Chefchaouen WikiMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

To most people, the name “Atlas” (in the context of mythology and folklore) refers to Atlas, the North African king from Greek mythology. Atlas sided with the Titans in their war against the Olympian gods and so was cursed to hold up the western sky on his shoulders. Accordingly, the highest peak of North Africa’s Atlas Mountain range (which stretches from Tunisia to Morocco) is the sky scraping Jebel Toubkal of Morocco found on the western edge of the mountain range.Atlas the Titan might dominate western mythological conceptions of the Atlas Mountains but to the people villages nestled in the crags and valleys of the Atlas Mountains, Sidi Chamharouch looms larger. In this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we meet this other great mythical figure of the Atlas Mountains.References* Kitab al-Bulhan - “The Book of Wonders” (14th Century)* Modalités de célébration du rituel à l’arbre de sidi Chamharouch * Mahdi, Mohamed. “La danse des statuts.” Pratiques et résistances culturelles du Maghreb (1992): 85-112.* Maʻrūf, Muḥammad. Jinn Eviction as a Discourse of Power: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Modern Morrocan Magical Beliefs and Practices. Vol. 8. Brill, 2007. p 92, 107-108, 211, 218* Rachik, Hassan. L'esprit du terrain: Études anthropologiques au Maroc. Centre Jacques-Berque, 2016.Can’t Get Enough?Read* The Sultan of Others: Ritual and Politics in the High Atlas by Rachik HassanListenMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Deep in the Algerian section of the Sahara Desert, nestled in the southeastern* corner of the country, are the Tassili n'Ajjer and Ahaggar mountain ranges. The Tassili n'Ajjer range is familiar to the world as the largest open air museum with striking rock formations and prehistoric rock art for which it is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The Ahaggar is home to Mount Tahat, the highest point in Algeria.But to the Tuareg who have long called the desert home, the Tassili n'Ajjer (the “Plateau of Rivers”) and the Ahaggar mountains are something more.In this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we learn the names the Tuareg people have given some peaks and sections of these mountain ranges, and through them explore the intricacies of the relationship between these extraordinary landscapes and the humans who know them best.*In the episode, I say the “southwestern” part of the country. This is not quite right.We ask the Tuareg people about this rock heritage, and we ask this rock heritage about the Tuareg people. — Dr. Ahmed Zegheb, Algerian Anthropologist and FolkloristReferences* Gautier, E. F. “The Monument of Tin Hinan in the Ahaggar.” Geographical Review, vol. 24, no. 3, 1934, pp. 439–43. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/208915.* Hamida, Souad, and Kazhar Mesaadia. "Nature and Culture in the Land of the Tuareg: A Reading of a Section from Ahmed Zegheb’s Book." Aleph 11.7 (2024): 675-685.Can’t Get Enough?* Enjoy these glorious pictures of the Tassili n’Ajjer!* Read more about Sefar City. The Eight Wonder of the World!* Listen to last week’s episode featuring the Tuareg and the Desert. Bonus links to past MA episodes about Tuareg mythology and folklore.Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends (including the foundation legend of the Tuareg!)* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Hello Friends!For the month of May, we go north with our meanderings through the landscape of African geomythology. Come along as we cross the Sahara with the Tuareg, the African continent’s great desert nomads. We will travel through the desert where nature has been stripped bare, where nature has vanished and turned into a spirit.“If you refuse a traveler a sip of water, the desert will deny you water.” — Tuareg sayingReferences* de Foucauld, Charles. Chants touaregs (French Edition) (p. 92-94). Albin Michel. Kindle Edition. * Al-Koni, Ibrahim. The Fetishists. University of Texas Press, 2018. p 159 - 163Can’t Get Enough?Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

Around 9:30 pm on the night of Thursday August 21st 1986, a roaring sound, muted like an approaching storm, arose near the area surrounding Lake Nyos in Cameroon’s North West region. In its aftermath there was a strange eerie silence. When dawn came, no cocks crowed to welcome the rising sun. No birds sang their pleasure at the steadily brightening day. No goats bleated their impatience to leave their pens. No cows lowed their anticipation for wide open fields. No dogs barked their excitement to greet their human companions. Roads, normally filled with people headed to farms, to the market, to check traps for game or raffia stands for palm wine, were empty. No motor bikes roared across the hills, carrying people from one village to another. The few people who could be seen walked slowly, eyes glazed, mouths hanging open in breathless agony at the horror of the scene around them.And what a scene it was. Almost every living creature in the area lay on the ground. Dead.What happened? In this episode of the Mythological Africans, we’ll discover how a tragic myth from the Kom people of Cameroon’s Northwestern region might have recorded an earlier occurrence of such an incident.References* Shanklin, Eugenia. "Exploding lakes and maleficent water in Grassfields legends and myth." Journal of volcanology and geothermal research 39.2-3 (1989): 233-246.* Freeth, Samuel J., Charles O. Ofoegbu, and K. Mosto Onuoha, eds. Natural Hazards in West and Central Africa. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013. p 59 - 64* Natural Disasters, Sustainability and the Legacy of the African Geomyth by Aramide MoronfoyeCan’t Get Enough?* Read Bad Lake by Nkiacha AtemkengMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans 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

In “Legends of the Earth: Their Geologic Origins”, American Geologist Dorothy Vitaliano asserts that the lack of widespread catastrophic flood myths from the African continent is one of the reasons why people who study such things came to question the plausibility of a global flood as described in the biblical account. There are, however, many flood myths from the African continent. In this episode , we will hear two from Cameroon (my country of origin!) and a couple from other African countries.Note: Dorothy Vitaliano credits her version of the origins of Dilolo Lake to Scottish Missionary David Livingstone. However, this story is not mentioned in Livingstone’s commentary on his discovery of Dilolo Lake in “Explorations into the Interior of Africa”, published in 1857. I couldn’t find Livingstone’s account in any of the publicly available material on his discovery of Dilolo Lake. If you know a source, do share!References* Cameron, Verney Lovett. Across Africa. United Kingdom, G. Philip & Son, 1885. p 373 - 374* Engard, Ronald K. "Myth and political economy in Bafut (Cameroon): The structural history of an African kingdom." Paideuma (1988): 49-89.* Farrar, F. W. “Traditions, Real and Fictitious.” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, vol. 3, 1865, pp. 298–307. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3014166. Accessed 21 Apr. 2025.* Gufler, Hermann J. “Reenactment of a Myth. The Fon of Oku Visits Lake Mawεs (Cameroon).” Anthropos (2009): 347-357.* Vitaliano, Dorothy B.. Legends of the Earth: Their Geologic Origins. United States, Indiana University Press, 1973. p164 - 165* Flood Stories from around the World by Mark Issak* Mythological Africans Thread about African Flood MythsMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody! This Substack 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

In this episode of the MA Podcast, we introduce the concept of Geomythology (another term for the folklore of landforms). In the process, we also start our exploration of the kinds of stories African people have come up with to explain the landforms and landscapes of wherever they have found themselves on the continent.References* Belcher, Stephen. African Myths of Origin (Penguin Classics) (pp. 320-321). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.* Natural Disasters, Sustainability and the Legacy of the African Geomyth by Aramide Moronfoye* The Virunga Mountains* Vitaliano, Dorothy B.. Legends of the Earth: Their Geologic Origins. United States, Indiana University Press, 1973.* Vitaliano, Dorothy B. “Geomythology: geological origins of myths and legends.”Geological Society of London Special Publications 273.1 (2007): 1-7.Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out! The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody! If you are new to mythology and folklore from the African continent, you can expect exposure to some major themes, creatures and figures. If you are familiar with mythology and folklore from the continent, you will (hopefully!) get a better understanding of various themes and discover new creatures and figures. If you're an expert in African orature, I hope you will appreciate the storytelling and pick up a kernel or two of new information from the commentary.This book has been writing itself since I started Mythological Africans in December of 2020. Your questions and comments and challenges and contributions fill the pages, cover to cover. More than anything else, I hope to reach people, African or otherwise, seeking to understand African mythology and folklore better. As I've said here so many times, I believe that by connecting African stories to stories from around the world, we can remind ourselves of the fundamental truth of our interconnection. This Substack 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

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

Hello Friends!In this week’s episode, the last in our exploration of African trees and forests, we’ll acquaint ourselves with some arboreal friends and fiends from across the continent.We start with a tragic historical account of the felling of two great Baobab trees in Lokoja (Nigeria). Next, we learn, from Baganda (Uganda) folklore, why the African Tulip’s tree’s flowers are flame red. Finally, we speculate (very lightly) about the true symbolism of the Basotho tree, Koumongoe.This is a longer than usual episode because I read more than one folktale. I hope you enjoy it!PS: If you happen to know about any commentary (preferably by a person of Basotho origin) on the The Sacred Milk of Koumongoe, please reach out!References* The Story of Ogbe Baba Akinyelure and the Irojo tree of Ibode* Oluronbi and the Iroko Tree* Magana Hausa. To which is added a translation in English by J. F. Schon.* The Use of Baobab Leaves (Adansonia Digitata L.) for Food in Africa: A Review by John Rashford* The Flame Tree and Other Folk-Lore Stories from Uganda by Rosetta Baskerville* The Sacred Milk of KoumongoeMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!This Substack 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

Hello there!(And welcome to new friends! Read this post if you’re not sure what Mythological Africans is about!)Have you been following along so far this year? We’ve been talking about how the natural world shows up in African mythology and folklore. In recent episodes, we’ve focused on forests and trees, although we took a small detour, last week, to talk about my newly released book, The Watkins Book of African Folklore. Yes, it does include a story about a tree! However, as some of you may know, Friday March 21st was International Forest Day. This is a day set aside by the United Nations to highlight the critically important role forests play in food security, nutrition, and sustainable livelihoods. This year’s theme was “Forests and Foods,” which emphasizes the relationship between forests and the global effort against hunger and famine. And so to commemorate that, in today’s episode, we talk about some food giving trees in African folklore. Enjoy!ReferencesWhere Animals Talk: West African Folklore Tales by Robert Hamill NassauChildren of Wax : African Folktales by Alexander McCall Smith. Buy the book here.Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!This Substack 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

Hello Friends!We interrupt regular podcast programming to bring you the news. The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is here! Our baby, all 1.25lbs of her, entered the world on March 11th. She’s currently #2 on Amazon’s list of top new releases in African Literature, and #5 in Folklore & Mythology.I’m so happy, and so proud, and so thankful for every single one of you who read and support MA. This, literally, wouldn’t be possible without you! It’s been such a delight to receive texts, emails, and social media tags with pictures of the book. Please keep them coming!ICYMI: Book Talk Replay!On March 6th, I had the immense honor and pleasure to sit down for a book talk with Dr. Falami Devoe. We read and discussed some stories from the book, and shared our thoughts and experiences on why mythology and folklore matters today. It was one of those chats I wish could’ve gone on forever! You can now watch a replay of the conversation on YouTube. If you’ve ever wondered what I listened to as I wrote, how I selected the stories to include, which are my favorites ( or recommended must-reads), this is the conversation for you! Many thanks again to Charis Books and More, Decatur, GA for hosting the event.It’s been a whirlwind of a week with Pub Day and Book Talks and life carrying on in the midst of it all. The best part was getting to sit in front of my mother as a published author, and share the moment with my family.I can’t wait to see what comes next. In the meantime, if you’re reading the book, I hope you’re enjoying the stories and the analyses. Let me know what you think , if you will!Thank you all again!Be well,Helen Get full access to Mythological Africans at mythologicalafricans.substack.com/subscribe

The Nakayima Tree (Pterygota mildbraedii) is one of Uganda’s most well known cultural artefacts. A recent tragedy at the Nakayima Shrine, where the tree stands, highlights some of the perils of poorly informed eco-spirituality. In this episode, we explore the tree’s history and discuss the implications of the incident.References* Tragedy strikes Nakayima Tree Shrine in Mubende, leaving four dead and three injured* Art and Gender: Imag [in] ing the New Woman in Contemporary Ugandan Art * The Cultural secret behind Uganda’s Nakayima tree* Reconfiguring the Omweso board game: Performing narratives of Buganda material culture * Unmasking Ideology in Imperial and Colonial Archaeology: Vocabulary, Symbols, and Legacy (← Read this for commentary on Chwezi history)* Uncovering the True Story of the Ancient Bachwezi People of Uganda* Ecospirituality is tremendously beneficial but may hinder environmental efforts, say researchers* Nakayima tree shrine reopens to devotees amid safety concernsMeanwhile…T minus 1 days till “The Watkins Book of African Folklore” or the “Mythological Africans Book”, is out!More Stuff: Book Talks!RSVP here! Mythological Africans is a reader-supported publication. 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

If you grew up immersed in Christian theology like I did, you’re probably familiar with the Cedars of Lebanon. King Solomon famously used large quantities of this holy and most prestigious of wood to construct the temple which housed the Ark of the Covenant of the Israelites.In Northern Africa, Morocco and Algeria specifically, there is another kind of cedar tree: Cedrus atlantica, also known as the Atlas cedar or Arz in Arabic. The Atlas cedar has been harvested to near extinction for its many beneficial properties. Only 163, 000 hectares of Atlas Cedar forests remain! Thankfully, the tree has been designated an endangered species, and is subject to intensive reforestation campaigns.But one could say the efforts to preserve the predates the modern era. Don’t believe me? Listen to this week’s episode.References* Cedrus Atlantica (Atlas Cedar): Botanical Description and Medicinal Uses* The Cedar Tree of Sidi Bou-Mehada from Tales and Legends of Morocco by Elisa Chimenti.Music* My Brother from Rifi: The Sounds of Morocco* Aziza from Rifi: The Sounds of MoroccoCan’t Get Enough?Meet some American tree-friends of mine! And while we’re in America, here’s a lovely Cherokee legend about cedar trees.Meanwhile… T minus 8 days till “The Watkins Book of African Folklore” or the “Mythological Africans Book”, is out! More Stuff: Book Talks!RSVP here!Mythological Africans is a reader-supported publication. 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