We are still looking at African creation myths this month. This week, we examine a version of the creation myth of West Africa’s Mande-speaking people. I’m very excited to spend time on this story because it is one of the best documented and analyzed myths from the African continent. It is also rich in symbolism and communicates so much about how the people who claim it as theirs understand their arrival to and situation on earth.

References

* Dieterlen, Germaine. “The Mande Creation Myth.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, vol. 27, no. 2, 1957, pp. 124–38. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1156806. Accessed 23 Nov. 2025.

* Dieterlen, Germaine. “Mythe et organisation sociale au Soudan français.” Journal des Africanistes 25.1 (1955): 39-76.

* Jansen, Jan. “The Mande Magical Mystery Tour-the Mission Griaule in Kangaba (Mali).” Mande Studies 2.1 (2000): 97-114. (A Criticism of the Griaule Missions)

* Djenne-Djenno

* Scheub, Harold. A dictionary of African mythology: the mythmaker as storyteller. Oxford University Press, 2000. p51

Can’t Get Enough?

* Septennial re-roofing ceremony of the Kamablon, sacred house of Kangaba

* Niger Valley Civilizations

* Jeffreys, M. D. W. “Maize and the Mande Myth.” Current Anthropology, vol. 12, no. 3, 1971, pp. 291–320. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2741046. Accessed 24 Nov. 2025.

* Jansen, Jan, and James R. Fairhead. “The Mande Creation Myth, by Germaine Dieterlen, as a Historical Source for the Mali Empire.” Journal of West African History 6.2 (2020): 93-114.

* Engeström, Tor. “Some aspects of the Mandé myth problem.” Ethnos 26.4 (1961): 219-226.

Still Can’t Get Enough?

The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!

The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:

* Creation myths and foundation legends

* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created

* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)

I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!

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