Stories of how the universe was born: Creation Myths (India, Africa) Part 1

Beautiful stories about the beginning of the universe among various tribes in India and Africa: Creation Myths (Part 1)

Knowledge, in my opinion, rises from questions being asked, answered and then saved. Knowledge systems across time might have come up due to the human curiosity of finding ways to explain the things around them that they couldn’t understand. The birth of the universe, for example, is a phenomenon that has been tried to be explained over time by humans in many ways. The Boshong tribe of Central Africa would explain that it was the God Bumba who vomited up the world and all the beings in it. These kinds of theories now passed on or read by others as mythologies were not just stories but were their knowledge system which connected them to what they think they understand. The universe has also been tried to understand by looking at it through the lens of science. The Big Bang has been deemed responsible for the birth of the universe and has been also known as the pointy after which the concept of time and space came in. But what led to the big bang and before is still unknown as there’s no common perception of it that history has passed down. History and evidence, in turn, plays a huge role in the construction of knowledge. Age old philosophies and literature dictated the world’s knowledge then and still does in some places, in some instances. But what changed the knowledge systems of the world?

Changes in knowledge systems can be traced back in time with archaeological and scientific research right to the earliest civilizations of the world. But for this paper, I will be focusing on one particular factor that bridged a relationship between nature and culture, i.e. the creation myths. Creation myths are tales deep embedded within various cultures and their folklore. They are tales of the creation of the earth and of everything on it, the trees, the animals, and man. These tales are symbolic narratives of how the world came into being and how humans found their place in this world. Several such narratives exist throughout the world and they are usually characteristic of the place they come from, the people that they come from. Hence, for my assignment I wanted to look at the various kinds of creation myths part of the folklore of various tribes and focus on how these stories not only represent their culture but also add on to the building of different kinds of knowledge systems of the world and their ideas of the conception of the very origin of the universe.

To start with, this paper will look at creation myths among tribes in Africa. The Efik people are a tribe in Nigeria and in their culture, oral histories and traditions play a huge part. According to their creation myth, the creator, Abassi, created two humans and then decided to not allow them to live on earth. His wife, Atai, persuaded him to let them do so. In order to control the humans, Abassi insisted that they eat all their meals with him, thereby keeping them from growing or hunting food. He also forbade them to procreate. Soon, though, the woman began growing food in the earth, and they stopped showing up to eat with Abassi. Then the man joined his wife in the fields, and before long there were children also. In the south Nigerian tribe Ekoi’s tale that narrated the beginning of the world there were two gods, Obassi Osaw and Obassi Nsi. The two gods created everything together. Then Obassi Osaw decided to live in the sky and Obassi Nsi decided to live on the earth. The god in the sky gives light and moisture but also brings drought and storms. The god of the earth nurtures and takes the people back to him when they die. One day long ago Obassi Osaw made a man and a woman and placed them on the earth. They knew nothing so Obassi Nsi taught them about planting and hunting to get food. Interestingly according to the Shilluk tribe of the Nile region, humankind was made out of clay by the creator.  In another western African tribal tale, two spirit people were accidentally sent down to earth by the sky god. Lonely, the people decided to create children from clay, but feel they must hide them when the sky god comes down. Because they are hidden in the fire, the children soon turn to various shades based on how long they had been exposed to the heat. Over time, these clay children grow up and move to various regions of the earth, ultimately populating it. Much like that of the Shilluk people, this story serves a two-fold purpose: it explains both the creation of man as well as accounts for the differences among him. This tale shows the West Africans value these differences because they feel that all men are created equal and should be treated as such. 

Among Indian tribes too we see that creation myths were not just stories that tried to explain the origin of the universe and the peoples but they equated the universe with the beauty of nature and we clearly see a celebration and worship of nature in these tales. The earliest Vedic text in the Hindu text, the Rig Veda, tells the tale of Purusha. He who had a thousand heads, eyes, and feet could envelop the earth with his fingers. The gods sacrificed Purusha and his body turned to butter, transforming into animals, elements, the three gods Agni, Vayu, and Indra, and even the four castes of Hindu society. Other tale includes the trinity of Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver and Shiva, the destroyer who all came together and created the whole cycle of the universe with the beginning and the end. But to notice here, are the narratives of the universe and its conception by the tribal people and how different they were from the mainstream mainland of the Indian subcontinent which could open up the probing into the debates of if the differentiation of the tribal people and their voices in India has been a long-standing phenomenon. According to one of the myths of the Garo tribe from the northeastern part of India,"what is now the world was a vast plain covered with water. There was no light and everything was dark. Tatara Rabuga (the supreme male deity) decided to make the world and he sent his servant, Nostu-Nopantu, in the form of a woman, to carry out his intentions." A similar kind of myth also exists deep within the folklore of the neighbouring tribe of the Khasis. Another north-east Indian people, the Mizos also explained the beginning of the world in a fascinating fashion. According to them, at the beginning of the world, there was no earth, man or any animal but only a God called Khuazingnu who was the creator of the Earth. The earth was very dry at this point so, in order to water the dry earth, Khuazingnu is said to have opened the windows of heaven and poured water on to the earth below bringing fertility.

Another tribe is the Santals of Orissa who were a nomadic tribe who moved from place to place in quest of agricultural land. According to their creation myth tale, the earth was completely covered with water which was an abode for the deities. Amon the deities the Sun and the Moon were paramount. The tribal people of Mundas also have an interesting take on the creation of the universe. According to their tales, in the beginning, the entire universe was covered with water, and there was not one inch of land to put one’s foot on. The three original and earliest lives were those of a Horo (tortoise), Karkom (crab) and a Lendad (leech). They all combined efforts and made the earth and the various living beings on it and the man was made by the creator out of clay.

Creation myths are stories that have existed all over the world and across human cultures. Every society has a story rooted in its most ancient traditions, of how the earth and sky originated. Most of these stories attribute the origin of all things to a Creator - whether God, Element or Idea. These creation myths have been passed down person to person, across generations and cultures since the beginning of time. Along with being parts of tribes, creation myths and theories have also found their place in ancient civilizations, cultures and modern scientific discourse. Although modern scientific discourse can tend to look upon myths and folklore of these likes as something that are ‘just’ stories, but we have to look at the fact that humans are defined by the fact that they tell stories, and particular myths reflect particular cultures, but they also reflect the human culture. These stories also reflect the multiplicity of the human minds that build into the consciousness, the knowledge systems, the histories and even the present understandings of the world today. Of course, these stories are analyzed for their metaphors and aren’t true stories but they're obviously stories that have been very important to various cultures over time that stand for the self-identity of the people and cultures. Thus, creation myths and the knowledge system they built cannot be disregarded as they make up an important part of what we as humans have tried to make sense of the world, how we have linked it to science and religion and how we as humans define our origins as. 

P.P. 

Pic Creds: http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/origins2868-the-black-egg-pan-gu-and-the-world.html 

References 

Books

CHOPRA, S. (1992). Garo Myths: The Environment as Lexicon. India International Centre Quarterly, 19(1/2), 90-100.

Oraon, K. (2002). Dimension of Religion, Magic and Festivals of Indian Tribe: The Munda. Kanishka Publishers, Distributors.

Patnaik, N. (2002). Folklore of Tribal Communities: Oral Literature of the Santals, Kharias, Oraons and the Mundas of Orissa. Gyan Books.

Sen, G. (2013). Where the sun rises when the shadows fall: The North-east.

Links

https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/mitos_creacion/esp_mitoscreacion_0.htm