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Chapter 09

The document summarizes two African creation stories - one from Uganda called "Kintu Wins Mugulu's Daughter" and one from Nigeria called "The Origin of Death". The Ugandan story explains the origins of fruits, animals and death in their region and legitimizes the rule of Ugandan kings. The Nigerian story describes how a trickster lizard caused humans to perform the wrong ritual to banish death, resulting in its permanent presence among humans. Both stories provide insights into the cultural aetiology of death in their traditions.

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Kent Huffman
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41 views8 pages

Chapter 09

The document summarizes two African creation stories - one from Uganda called "Kintu Wins Mugulu's Daughter" and one from Nigeria called "The Origin of Death". The Ugandan story explains the origins of fruits, animals and death in their region and legitimizes the rule of Ugandan kings. The Nigerian story describes how a trickster lizard caused humans to perform the wrong ritual to banish death, resulting in its permanent presence among humans. Both stories provide insights into the cultural aetiology of death in their traditions.

Uploaded by

Kent Huffman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 9

African Creation
Stories
The Creation
• Comes from Uganda in east central Africa.
• Features Kintu, the legendary ancestor of the
kings of Uganda.
• Accounts for the fruits, vegetables, and animals
found in the Uganda of its time.
• Explains why the chiefs of Uganda, though they
are descended from the gods, are nonetheless
not immortal.
• The story is about a man who must perform a
series of tasks for a father so that he may marry
his daughter – a standard fairy-tale motif.
Kintu Wins Mugulu’s Daughter
• Mugulu’s sons steal Kintu’s cow: Kintu finds
alternate nourishment in the bark of a tree.
• Mugulu’s people prepare an enormous meal for
Kintu that he must eat all at once: he disposes of
it by a clever stratagem.
• Kintu must make a fire of stones with a soft
copper axe: he talks to the axe, and it serves his
purpose.
• Kintu must identify his cow in Mugulu’s herd: he
gets help from a hornet.
Act 2: Kintu and Warumbe
• Kintu is to go back to earth from Mugulu’s
realm. He should leave quickly to avoid
taking Warumbe (“disease” or “death”)
with him.
• Kintu and his family delay too long, and
Warumbe returns to go with them.
• Kintu gets help from Kaikuzi, who is
unable to prevail over Warumbe.
Insights from the Story of Kintu
• Kintu is a historical figure, an ancestor of
the kings of Uganda who came from the
north, but the actual details of his life are
not known.
• The story legitimizes the rule of the kings
of Uganda.
• The story provides an aetiological insight
into the appearance of death among
humans.
“The Origin of Death”
• Comes from the Bura people of Nigeria in West
Africa.
• Theme of this story is “the message that failed.”
• It is the most common African myth about the
origin of death, with many variants all over
Africa.
• Many parts of West Africa have a tradition of a
trickster figure like the lizard in “The Origin of
Death.”
“The Origin of Death,” 2
• A worm is dispatched by the sky god to tell
the people how to banish death.
• Agadzagadza the lizard moves more
quickly than the worm and thus gives the
people the wrong information.
• The result is that the people perform the
wrong ritual, and death remains among
them.
Insights from “The Origin of Death”
• The role of the lizard as trickster is
paralleled in a great variety of African and
African-American tales, to be studied in
Chapter 23.
• The story provides an aetiological insight
into the appearance of death among
humans.

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