Upon closer inspection my book is mostly about the Bantu peoples (
Myths and Legends of the Bantu by Alice Werner, 1935, republished in 1995 under the deceptive title of "Africa: Myths and Legends") so while not covering the entirety of Africa, it does cover a rather large slab of it.
High Gods and Sky GodsRight so we have a few in this category. If nothing else this will give you a cool
ish list of authentic names for whatever you decide to go with:
Mulungu (Yao, Swahili and others)
Leza, Nyambe (Zambezi region)
Chiuta (Malawi)
Kalunga (Angola)
Nzambe (Congo)
Katonda (Uganda)
Unkulunkulu, Umvelinqangi (Zulu)
These guys are all quite similar, generally speaking they are the top dog in the celestial hierarchy, but often aren't regarded as the creator of the universe. The earth is usually thought of as an un-created thing, it has simply always been here. Sometimes considered the creator of animals, but usually not humans. Often regarded as an ancient ancestor figure, the first man, who ascended to the position of supreme being somewhere back in the mists of time.
They are usually said to have originally walked the earth, but as time went on got tired of mankind and all his fuss and violence and general stinking up of the place and so ascended to a new abode above the clouds. This is either achieved in some kind of Jack-and-the-Beanstalk fashion (a rope or spider's web is lowered down by some unknown force) or (and this is my preferred version) they knocked pegs into the sky and used them to climb, removing the ones below and banging them in again above them, thus ascending to heaven like a rock-climber up a cliff.
Once in the sky they take charge of the business of running the weather, and as such become sky, thunder, rain and sun gods. Generally aloof and not interested in worship, unconcerned with human affairs (they went up there to get away from us, after all) and slow to interfere with the affairs of earth. So while they seem unlikely candidates to come striding down and lead your warband, there are plenty of stories where they do indeed help people when pestered. These gods aren't really worshiped as such, they are simply there, so not really the patron deities of peoples and as said, unlikely to intervene on human behalf without a good reason. As far as looking for supernatural aid goes, Africans would be more likely to go to ghosts and local spirits (which themselves are often thought to have originated as people).
UnkulunkuluUnkulunkulu is slightly different from the others in the list, he seems a little more interested in mankind's welfare. Supreme god but not the main creator, that was his dad
Umvelinqangi who married
Uhlanga (a kind of sentient swamp).
Unkulunkulu emerged from the swamp and went on to create people from reeds (but is also considered the first man and main Zulu himself). He planned to gift mankind with immortality and sent a chameleon with the message, but the damn lizard dawdled and we never got it. Annoyed that mankind hadn't come back and said "Hey God, thanks for the immortality" he sent another, faster lizard with the message "Let men die."
And that, best beloved, is why Zulus hate chameleons and won't have them in the house, unlucky and death-bringing blighters that they are.
A modern interpretation of the myth, with Unkulunkulu dressed in a most unZulu-like fashion.Unfortunately, as I said in my previous post, most of these fellows aren't really described, appear as natural forces, or are assumed to have human form. Not much help to Argonor, but I thought you guys might find them interesting anyway.
ImanaImana is the high god of Rwanda, and another one who occasionally pops down to help out mortals. He's noted for providing young girls with new teeth to make them pretty again (apparently tooth decay is a very serious problem in Rwanda) and in one case even provided a girl with an entire new skin, which made her beautiful all over. Again,
Imana is associated with the sky, clouds, thunder and rain.
From this tradition we get the story of "The Thunder's Bride." The Thunder may be taken to be some aspect or avatar of
Imana, or not (they're a bit vague on that). In this story a sick woman whose husband has failed to return from battle calls out in despair for help, and the Thunder appears, does all her chores for her using his magic powers, and then tells her that when she has a baby girl, he expects to get her as his bride in payment for his services. Husband returns from the war, baby girl happens, and then various shenanigans as they try to avoid paying, there are monsters, magic, heavenly gifts and eventually the girl marries the Thunder and they go off and live happily ever after in the sky.
Anyway, for once we get a description: The Thunder appears in a flash of lightning "in the likeness of a man", he carries an axe, can produce fire from his hands and has a great booming voice.
So there we have it: African Thor carries an axe, not a hammer. IruwaIruwa is the Chaga god of the sun. It is said that if one is to walk all the way to where the sun rises each day, you might meet him before he ascends to the sky. A certain poor man did precisely that. For some unexplained reason he blamed
Iruwa for the deaths of his three boys, and he forged special arrowheads, took up his bow and marched off to kill him. When he reached the place of sunrise he saw a gateway with paths leading both up into the sky and down into the earth. Then there appeared a mighty host of many men, all goodly to look at and shining like fire. In their midst was the Shining One, bright as flaming fire. The poor man is rather overwhelmed by the sight and doesn't go through with his murderous plan.
Iruwa takes pity on him and tells him that he does indeed have his sons, and offers them back. But when the man sees they have become shiny beings of light he says they don't belong back home any more and should stay with
Iruwa. So the god arranges it that the man has three new baby sons to replace the ones he lost. I suppose that's kind of a happy ending, if all he was interested in was having enough sons to work his farm for him.
Kalunga-ngombeWhile Kalunga is normally one of those remote sky gods, in some parts of Angola they have
Kalunga-ngombe, a chthonic god of death. He tends to get the blame for any and all deaths, and does seem to wonder the land looking for people to take, but he claims he isn't responsible for the deaths (mankind is), he simply collects the dead and takes them under the ground. There are various tales of people trying to outwit him and reclaim dead loved ones with varying degrees of success. His form seems to be human, as people don't seem to realise who he is when they bump into him.
Snakes Alive!If, like Robert E. Howard, you have a bit of a thing for giant snakes, there is something of a precedent for their use in your game.
NgeketoIn Malawi they have the legend of
Ngeketo, who was once a sort of snake god, but one no longer worshipped by Africans. He was the youngest of three brothers, the others being
Lyambilo and
Mbasi. They grew jealous of him, for he had knowledge of planting and growing crops, introducing the maize plant (yes, it was him, not the Portuguese) so they decided to murder him. But after three days (hmmm, where have I heard that before?) he came back to life in the form of a giant snake. So they chopped the snake to bits. Once again N
geketo came back to life. And once again they killed him. This time he finally got the message that he wasn't wanted around there, and so slithered off to become the god of white people. Crazy.
KoleloIn the mountains of Uluguru in Tanzania is a haunted cave that contained a giant serpent called
Kolelo. The serpent was consulted by the locals as an oracle, and sometimes, if it was in the mood, it would send rain in times of drought. One of its prophecies proved disastrous, however, for this place was the source of the
maji-maji, the magic that would turn the invading Germans' bullets to water. As we know, when tried out this failed rather spectacularly, resulting in tens of thousands of African deaths.
Well, I'm kind of out of gods for now, but I do have some interesting monsters for you...
The Swallowing MonsterThis one crops up all over the place, in many forms. The swallowing (or engulfing) monster is a big nasty thing that eats whole villages, tribes, even countries whole. It is usually killed by some resourceful young boy, and the creature then proceeds to sick up everything it ate, with everybody all alive and well.
Here's a few variants:
Khodumodumo or Kammapa (Basotho)
A huge shapeless blob that devours everything in its path. Got so big it became stuck in a mountain pass where the resourceful lad (who had only been born minutes previously) was able to slay it.
The Squatting Monster (Zulu)
An aquatic, squatting female variant, this one seemed to like eating young girls that come down to the water. It ate the troop of warriors sent to deal with it, the local chief, all his cattle, and just about everyone and everything else in the country. It seems this one either had or could take the form of a human female, because it was not always recognized by those it was about to eat for what it was. The resourceful hero of our tale wasn't to be fooled though, and killed it, recovering everything it had eaten relatively unscathed.
The Devouring (and talking) Gourd (Yao/Iramba)
Yes, a talking gourd that grew as big as a house and ate an entire village. It sprang from the corpse of a monster that the hero of another story had slain.
The Nunda, Eater of People (Swahili)
Starts off as a tiny little cat. Eats everything, ends up as big as an elephant. Is slain, but all the villages and people are not recovered this time.
Sadly we are getting a little far from deities now, but I just thought the idea of a giant blob destroying Africa was too good to leave out. I still have were-people, animal spirits, the living dead, dwarves, imps and all sorts of other junk, but no more gods, so they'll all have to wait for another day. Sorry I haven't been much help, but maybe at least we found some entertaining ideas.
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April 25, 2024, 07:54:53 PM
January 27, 2008, 04:50:30 PM