African Mythology
African mythology is surrounded by gods, ‘orishas’, and power play just like the European and American myths too. However, there is very little spoken of these gods today because of the prejudice that religion has brought in the telling of these folktales. Unlike European mythology which still holds its ground in the culture of Europe, African mythology is fast losing its relevance in the modern sphere. For example, lemanja is still a great African myth but rarely talked about by Africans themselves.
Africa is rich in culture and its traditions catch the eyes of its Western counterpart, that is the same situation when it comes to its mythology. The African mythology, mostly related to Nigerian religion and culture, is characterized by the presence of an all-powerful god, Olorun. This god is supreme but represented across various parts of the African continent by her Orisas (demi-gods) who are accountable in all of their dealings to Olorun.
These representatives, the Orisas, thus opined the creation of humans as they could only be true rulers if they have subjects to lord over. African mythology has it that before the use of clay, the Orisas had tried other means to create the first humans; water, steel, wood, iron, and the rest of it. In their failure to successfully create humans using these items, one of the Orisas whose name was Oxala, suggested that they try clay to create humans. This was successful and from then on, humans were created across all regions of Africa, with each Orisas having a territory for her jurisdiction.
The beautiful African Mythology became quite choked up by the activities of the slave trade where the antiques and heritage of the African people were destroyed, or at best shipped to Europe. Even the slaves who could take the myth they believed in across to Europe found it hard to continue in the worship of these myths because of the reign of Catholicism across all parts of Europe. Hence, African mythology became subjugated to its European counterpart and that explains its little exposure today.
