1. The Human-
Eating Tree of
Madagascar
Trees in African lore are
generally good things; the
people need firewood, goats
eat the leaves, bees and bird
s
make their nests in them,
drums and boats are made
from the wood. Big trees are
believed to have spirits, to
which the people listen
carefully, and if kept happy the
spirits will, for instance, protect
boatmen riding in boats made
from their tree. However, in
Madagascar, there is a tree
that will use its branches to
catch people up, then opens
its bark and swallow them
whole – and the friends and
relatives will hear the victim
singing a goodbye song from
inside the trunk. The only way
to save them is to pay a fee to
the Woodpecker so that he will
use his magic powers and
sharp bill to open the tree and
release the trapped person.
2. Oi, the Spirit of
Disease
The Suk of Mount Elgon in
Western Kenya used to live as
a tribe of strong warriors and
hunters, with a reputation that,
in the nineteenth century, was
fiercer than that of the powerful
Maasai-Samburu. However,
they decided to change their
way of life completely and
moved down to the Kerio
Valley to become peaceful
cattle-herders. In their beliefs,
illness or disease in an
individual is blamed on the
spirit of disease, Oi, and he
needs to be expelled for the
person to recover. To do this,
they believe they must first
empty the house of the
sufferer, so when the priests
come in to cast out the evil
spirit it will have nothing left to
lurk behind. When someone
dies, death ‘infects’ their hut
and the family will move out
after burying the dead within it
and shaving their own heads in
bereavement (although
mourning only continues until
the next new moon). The loss
of the home was not a great
problem as the nomadic tribe
would be moving on anyway.
3. Life After Death?
One of the most popular
African myths and legends is
the one that has long been told
about the Yoruba tribe of
Nigeria, where people are
expected to return to the clan
in the form of a newborn baby,
and who a child is can be
determined by its resemblance
to the original person. A boy
that resembles his paternal
grandfather will be named
Babatunde (‘father returns’), the
female equivalent being
Yetunde (‘Mother returns’).
When dying, a person’s spirit
may visit relatives to inform
them of the impending death,
which they will feel even from
a great distance as a cold
presence. Most strange,
however, is their belief that if a
person dies young, their ghost
can go to another town and
live there as if they were not
dead, even marrying a living
woman who would not realise
he was already dead!
Eventually the ‘final hour’
arrives and the man dies a
second time, with the wife,
presumably, never knowing she
had been married to a ghost …
4. The Spirits of
the Kikuyu
One of the most famous African
legends is attributed to the
Kikuyu tribe of Mount Kenya, a
person’s spirit can be a
terrible thing. After death this
spirit, ‘Ngoma’, becomes a
ghost, and if the person was
murdered the Ngoma will
pursue the one who murdered
him until the murderer comes
out of hiding and gives himself
up to the police, imprisonment
being considered a better
option than continuing to run
from a vengeful spirit! The
spirits of elders are especially
feared, so their burial rituals
are executed meticulously to
ensure the spirits are not
upset; fortunately less
important people have less
dangerous spirits.
5. The Origin of
Elephants
Since elephants are as
intelligent as humans, the
Kamba tribe of Kenya believes
that they must have originated
from man. In their beliefs, a
very poor man consulted
someone called Ivonya-Ngia
(‘He that feeds the Poor’) for
help in alleviating his troubles;
although offered cattle and
sheep, he refused the gift,
asking instead to be told how
to become rich himself. The
strange reply is to be given a
flask of ointment which he is
told he should rub on his
wife’s canine teeth, wait until
they have grown and then sell
them! He does this, extracting
the teeth when they are a
couple of feet long and selling
them in the village for a herd of
goats.
However, when the wife’s teeth
grow again she refuses to let
him remove them and now her
body grows too and her skin
becomes thick and grey, until
she bursts out of the hut and
walks away, going to live in the
forest as an elephant. Her
husband visits her there but
she refuses to come back, and
in due course she has several
healthy children, all elephants
as well, who form the first herd
… well, it’s as good an
explanation as any!
African legends have been told
for long and some of these
stories are ages old but one
thing remains certain: there
will always be new legends but
the question is wide would the
story travel? You can use the
comment box below to add
more African myths and
legends.
Source: Google.com
Eating Tree of
Madagascar
Trees in African lore are
generally good things; the
people need firewood, goats
eat the leaves, bees and bird
s
make their nests in them,
drums and boats are made
from the wood. Big trees are
believed to have spirits, to
which the people listen
carefully, and if kept happy the
spirits will, for instance, protect
boatmen riding in boats made
from their tree. However, in
Madagascar, there is a tree
that will use its branches to
catch people up, then opens
its bark and swallow them
whole – and the friends and
relatives will hear the victim
singing a goodbye song from
inside the trunk. The only way
to save them is to pay a fee to
the Woodpecker so that he will
use his magic powers and
sharp bill to open the tree and
release the trapped person.
2. Oi, the Spirit of
Disease
The Suk of Mount Elgon in
Western Kenya used to live as
a tribe of strong warriors and
hunters, with a reputation that,
in the nineteenth century, was
fiercer than that of the powerful
Maasai-Samburu. However,
they decided to change their
way of life completely and
moved down to the Kerio
Valley to become peaceful
cattle-herders. In their beliefs,
illness or disease in an
individual is blamed on the
spirit of disease, Oi, and he
needs to be expelled for the
person to recover. To do this,
they believe they must first
empty the house of the
sufferer, so when the priests
come in to cast out the evil
spirit it will have nothing left to
lurk behind. When someone
dies, death ‘infects’ their hut
and the family will move out
after burying the dead within it
and shaving their own heads in
bereavement (although
mourning only continues until
the next new moon). The loss
of the home was not a great
problem as the nomadic tribe
would be moving on anyway.
3. Life After Death?
One of the most popular
African myths and legends is
the one that has long been told
about the Yoruba tribe of
Nigeria, where people are
expected to return to the clan
in the form of a newborn baby,
and who a child is can be
determined by its resemblance
to the original person. A boy
that resembles his paternal
grandfather will be named
Babatunde (‘father returns’), the
female equivalent being
Yetunde (‘Mother returns’).
When dying, a person’s spirit
may visit relatives to inform
them of the impending death,
which they will feel even from
a great distance as a cold
presence. Most strange,
however, is their belief that if a
person dies young, their ghost
can go to another town and
live there as if they were not
dead, even marrying a living
woman who would not realise
he was already dead!
Eventually the ‘final hour’
arrives and the man dies a
second time, with the wife,
presumably, never knowing she
had been married to a ghost …
4. The Spirits of
the Kikuyu
One of the most famous African
legends is attributed to the
Kikuyu tribe of Mount Kenya, a
person’s spirit can be a
terrible thing. After death this
spirit, ‘Ngoma’, becomes a
ghost, and if the person was
murdered the Ngoma will
pursue the one who murdered
him until the murderer comes
out of hiding and gives himself
up to the police, imprisonment
being considered a better
option than continuing to run
from a vengeful spirit! The
spirits of elders are especially
feared, so their burial rituals
are executed meticulously to
ensure the spirits are not
upset; fortunately less
important people have less
dangerous spirits.
5. The Origin of
Elephants
Since elephants are as
intelligent as humans, the
Kamba tribe of Kenya believes
that they must have originated
from man. In their beliefs, a
very poor man consulted
someone called Ivonya-Ngia
(‘He that feeds the Poor’) for
help in alleviating his troubles;
although offered cattle and
sheep, he refused the gift,
asking instead to be told how
to become rich himself. The
strange reply is to be given a
flask of ointment which he is
told he should rub on his
wife’s canine teeth, wait until
they have grown and then sell
them! He does this, extracting
the teeth when they are a
couple of feet long and selling
them in the village for a herd of
goats.
However, when the wife’s teeth
grow again she refuses to let
him remove them and now her
body grows too and her skin
becomes thick and grey, until
she bursts out of the hut and
walks away, going to live in the
forest as an elephant. Her
husband visits her there but
she refuses to come back, and
in due course she has several
healthy children, all elephants
as well, who form the first herd
… well, it’s as good an
explanation as any!
African legends have been told
for long and some of these
stories are ages old but one
thing remains certain: there
will always be new legends but
the question is wide would the
story travel? You can use the
comment box below to add
more African myths and
legends.
Source: Google.com
Five creepiest African myth and legend.
Reviewed by Caleb Bresh
on
October 07, 2016
Rating:
Reviewed by Caleb Bresh
on
October 07, 2016
Rating:
