DEATH, AND LIFE AND DEATH - THE GUINEA CREATION STORY

From the Kono people of Guinea comes this story which could be called the African creation story.  This version was published by Ulli Beier in 1966.

In the beginning there was nothing: neither matter nor light existed. In this world lived only Death, whose name is Sa, and his wife and their only daughter. Needing a place for his family to live, Sa eventually used his magical powers to create a vast sea of mud. They lived in this filth and instablilty for many years.

I guess one could say that a mud sea was a perfect place for Sa and his family.  Lets stop for a moment and ask the question - if Sa and his family were the only entities and Sa himself could create things, Sa would be a deity, right?  If you were a deity and needed to create a place for your family to live would you make a sea of mud?  I'm just saying...

Finally the god Alatangana came to visit Sa and his familty. Alatangana was appalled at the mess in which they lived, and he condemned Sa for creating such a dirty place that lacked light and life. To set things right, Alatangana first consolidated the mud into the solid earth. However, this lifeless expanse across which he could now walk still depressed him. First he made plants to cover the new earth, and then animals to live on it. Even Sa realized that Alatangana had made the world a much better place, and he took Alatangana in as his guest.

Ahhh, that explains it!  Actually, no it doesn't.  Where did this god come from and why wasn't this particular deity there from the begining to create a nice place to live?  I think Sa was stitched up to be the bad guy in this story and after all the plants and animals were created it kind of feels like Alatangana was being a bit of a prick.  It's like he was saying to Sa - you know, what you made is shit, look what I can do!  But lets just put that behind us and see what happens next.

Alatangana was wifeless, and eventually he decided he wanted Sa's daughter for his wife. Sa at first was diplomatic in refusing to let Alatangana marry his daughter, but finally he explicitly refused Alatangana's request. Alatangana, however, wooed Sa's daughter, and eventually they eloped to a distant region of the earth.

Alatangana seems to be a real bastard! 

Alatangana and his new wife set up a happy home amidst the paradise that Alatangana had created from Sa's sea of mud. They had fourteen children. Seven were girls and seven were boys, and of each four had light skin and three had dark. This did not distress Alatangana, but he and his wife were shocked to find that their children spoke different languages that the parents did not understand.

That awkward moment when your kids speak a different language...

Frustrated with this state of affairs, Alatangana finally went to Sa for advice. Sa explained that this was a curse that he had put on Alatangana's children because of the way Alatangana had stolen his daughter. Alatangana returned home, and eventually his children went off to founded the peoples of the world, the French, the English, and the other European peoples, and the Kono, the Guuerze, the Manon Malinke, and the Toma Yacouba of Africa.

So this story is kind of like the tower of bable... sorta, kinda... probably more of a story of spite come to think of it.  It's a "do unto others because they did unto you" story.

All these descendents of Alatangana and his wife still lived in darkness, because although Alatangana had made the life that covered the earth, he could not find a way to make light. As before, his frustration forced him to call on Sa for help, but rather than face his hostile father-in-law, he decided to send two messengers. He chose the tou-tou bird, a small red bird that is one of the first to arise each morning in the forest, and the rooster. These two birds went to ask Sa how the world could be lit so that the new peoples of the earth could see to work.

C'mon, you're a god and you send birds to confront the devil... sorry, Death?  What kind of a god are you that doesn't know how to make light?  Of all the creation stories this one has me asking the most questions... so far.  I digress, lets push forward...

When the two presented their problem to Sa, he invited them into his home and taught them a song with which they could call forth daylight. When the two returned to Alatangana, he was furious at the nonsense they reported about a song they had learned. He nearly killed them, but eventually he sent them on their way.

Schadenfreude!

Not long afterward, the rooster broke into song, and the tou-tou bird sang its first notes. For the first time, dawn began to appear, and soon it was day. The sun that they had called forth made its way across the sky, and when it set the stars appeared to provide faint light at night. Every day since has begun the same way, with the call of the tou-tou bird and the cry of the rooster.

What came first, the rooster or the sunrise?  Any farmer will know a rooster crows at the dawn but, whatever...

Alatangana was grateful for the gift that he now realized Sa had given to him and his children. Sa was not long, however, in calling for payment of the debt. He came to Alatangana and pointed out the good things that he had done despite Alatangana's theft of his daughter. Now he demanded that in return he could, whenever he liked, claim any of Alatangana's offspring. Knowing his guilt and his debt to Sa, Alatangana agreed, and so it is that Alatangana's children, the human people, must meet with Death whenever he calls for them.

OK, didn't see that coming.  Who knew that Sa, aka Death, aka The Grim Reaper was African?!  This is one of the many entities of the anorexic guy with the scythe that must have slipped under Wiki's radar.  My understanding of palaeoanthropology is the whole "out of Africa" theme (which is still in dispute) means we, for the sake of argument, originated from the great continent so this may be our very first understanding of the concept and explanation of death (the process not the entity).  My logic may be, and probably is, skewed so leave a comment if you have any thoughts on this.

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Thank you all

Justin