Mythological Africans Podcast

In the ever fascinating world of the internet, the word “narcissist” lurks under just about every person’s tongue, waiting to be lobed at any and every one whether or not it is deserved or appropriate. I want to believe most people who use the word know the Greek myth of Narcissus . I might be wrong. Much of what we consider modern psychology and psychiatry are inextricably tied to and have been d...

We end our August discovery of African urban legends this week. In the first episode, we heard the story of the showdown between Nyaminyami, the beloved and fearsome spirit of the Zambezi River and the engineers building the Kariba Dam. In the second episode we talked about the case of Epasa Moto, the territorial mountain god of Cameroon’s Bakweri people, and the annual Mount Cameroon race. In tha...

We’re discovering African urban legends this month on the Mythological Africans podcast. In the first episode , we heard the story of the showdown between Nyaminyami (the beloved and fearsome spirit of the Zambezi River revered by the Tonga of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique) and the engineers building the Kariba Dam. In that story, a series of dramatic events which occurred during the dam’s...

Most human communities have moved on from oral traditions as the primary means by which knowledge is collated and transmitted. Yet, folklore persists as urban legends. This is because our very human need to use stories to make sense of and memorialize the events of our lives is timeless. Urban legends are a type of folklore which emerged from the modern human context. They reflect the anxieties an...

Hello Friends! We spent the month of July getting to know some of the folklore associated with Lake Victoria. Normally, we would be moving on to a new topic but there are a couple more lake-related stories and aspects of folklore that I want to touch on before we do. And so in this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we will discover the stories of women who come from the lake, and then...

Hello friends! This week’s episode of the Mythological Africans podcast is inspired by a conversation with award-winning Ugandan author and film maker, Dilman Dila , who I had the pleasure of meeting at the African Book Festival. We return to those accounts of strangers who come from Lake Victoria, with some perspective from the Baganda of Uganda. In Luganda, the language spoken by the Baganda, La...

She is the world’s largest tropical lake and second largest freshwater lake by surface area, covering almost 69,000 square kilometers (43,000 square miles). Naturally, she is the largest lake on the African continent. Three countries: Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, lie along her shores. Burundi and Rwanda lie within her reach. To the peoples whose ancestral lands touch her waters, she is everything....

One of the most fascinating characteristics of the Nile is how it is often spoken of as one river but the location and lore surrounding each section of the river makes it seem, at times, to be different rivers. There is the bounteous silt-laden Egyptian Nile spreading its palm out at its Mediterranean delta. There is Abay, the Blue Nile, all 900 miles or 1,450 kilometers of it, rumbling only one n...

To the people of Ethiopia, Abay (the Blue Nile) is the River of All Rivers. Abay is a friend, a stranger and an enemy. It is a healer, a unifier and a giver, as well as a destroyer, a scatterer and a taker. Much has been written and said about what Abay means to Ethiopians but nowhere else has this been better recorded than in the poems and songs that have been composed about the river. Ethiopia i...

Midnight skin, fiery vertical eyes, long tails, donkey legs, big ears, and an insatiable taste for palm dates and little children, the Aman Doger is the stuff of Nubian nightmares. But what is it exactly? In this week’s episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we start with some Sudanese cities whose names are influenced by the Nile, and then meet this fearsome river creature of Nubian folklo...

The ancient Egyptian civilization emerged around 6,000 years ago. It is one of the greatest of human civilizations. Ancient Egypt owed its very existence to the river Nile. Its landmass consisted of the river’s fertile floodplain and delta. Its life force was driven by the river’s annual flooding. Its sole means of cross country transportation followed the river’s path. To the ancient Egyptians th...

May was a strenuous but exciting trek north through the Saharan desert, charting the North African mythical landscape. Like travelers from times past and present, we sought out the Tuareg to guide us on this journey. After all, who could be more qualified at trans-Saharan crossings than those who call it home? As we enter June, it is only fair that we rest our legs as we make our way back toward c...

This week, we travel even further north to the African Mediterranean coast where the Rif Mountains are located. The Rif Mountains are another Moroccan mountain range rich in history and mountain-related folklore. We’ll visit the town of Chefchaouen, whose name tells you just how much the surrounding mountains have impressed themselves on the minds of the people. In northern African (specifically M...

To most people, the name “Atlas” (in the context of mythology and folklore) refers to Atlas, the North African king from Greek mythology. Atlas sided with the Titans in their war against the Olympian gods and so was cursed to hold up the western sky on his shoulders. Accordingly, the highest peak of North Africa’s Atlas Mountain range (which stretches from Tunisia to Morocco) is the sky scraping J...

Deep in the Algerian section of the Sahara Desert, nestled in the southeastern* corner of the country, are the Tassili n'Ajjer and Ahaggar mountain ranges. The Tassili n'Ajjer range is familiar to the world as the largest open air museum with striking rock formations and prehistoric rock art for which it is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The Ahaggar is home to Mount Tahat, the high...

Hello Friends! For the month of May, we go north with our meanderings through the landscape of African geomythology. Come along as we cross the Sahara with the Tuareg, the African continent’s great desert nomads. We will travel through the desert where nature has been stripped bare, where nature has vanished and turned into a spirit. “ If you refuse a traveler a sip of water, the desert will deny...

Around 9:30 pm on the night of Thursday August 21st 1986, a roaring sound, muted like an approaching storm, arose near the area surrounding Lake Nyos in Cameroon’s North West region. In its aftermath there was a strange eerie silence. When dawn came, no cocks crowed to welcome the rising sun. No birds sang their pleasure at the steadily brightening day. No goats bleated their impatience to leave t...

In “ Legends of the Earth: Their Geologic Origins ”, American Geologist Dorothy Vitaliano asserts that the lack of widespread catastrophic flood myths from the African continent is one of the reasons why people who study such things came to question the plausibility of a global flood as described in the biblical account. There are, however, many flood myths from the African continent. In this epis...

In this episode of the MA Podcast, we introduce the concept of Geomythology (another term for the folklore of landforms). In the process, we also start our exploration of the kinds of stories African people have come up with to explain the landforms and landscapes of wherever they have found themselves on the continent. References * Belcher, Stephen. African Myths of Origin (Penguin Classics) (pp....

Hello friends, new and old! (New friends, read this post if you’re not sure what Mythological Africans is about.) Meanwhile, I am so thrilled to share this week’s MA podcast episode with you! We are starting out on one of my favorite aspects of studying folklore: the connection between folklore and landforms. If you grew up in a place with a distinctive geographical landform of any kind (mountain,...

Hello Friends! In this week’s episode, the last in our exploration of African trees and forests, we’ll acquaint ourselves with some arboreal friends and fiends from across the continent. We start with a tragic historical account of the felling of two great Baobab trees in Lokoja (Nigeria). Next, we learn, from Baganda (Uganda) folklore, why the African Tulip’s tree’s flowers are flame red. Finally...

Hello there! (And welcome to new friends! Read this post if you’re not sure what Mythological Africans is about!) Have you been following along so far this year? We’ve been talking about how the natural world shows up in African mythology and folklore. In recent episodes, we’ve focused on forests and trees, although we took a small detour, last week, to talk about my newly released book, The Watki...

Hello Friends! We interrupt regular podcast programming to bring you the news. The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is here! Our baby, all 1.25lbs of her, entered the world on March 11th. She’s currently #2 on Amazon’s list of top new releases in African Literature, and #5 in Folklore & Mythology. I’m so happy, and so proud, and so thankful for every single one...

The Nakayima Tree (Pterygota mildbraedii) is one of Uganda’s most well known cultural artefacts. A recent tragedy at the Nakayima Shrine, where the tree stands, highlights some of the perils of poorly informed eco-spirituality. In this episode, we explore the tree’s history and discuss the implications of the incident. References * Tragedy strikes Nakayima Tree Shrine in Mubende, leaving four dead...

If you grew up immersed in Christian theology like I did, you’re probably familiar with the Cedars of Lebanon. King Solomon famously used large quantities of this holy and most prestigious of wood to construct the temple which housed the Ark of the Covenant of the Israelites. In Northern Africa, Morocco and Algeria specifically, there is another kind of cedar tree: Cedrus atlantica , also known as...