Introducing MA 2026

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