An African Creation Story

“An African Creation Story”

In class we were split into a number of groups and were responsible for explaining a story we were assigned. That was the same class we went over what taboo, magic, sacrifice, totemism and more was. All the stories were really interesting and hard to understand the first time you read them. It took time to break the story down and figure out what the real meaning was.

An African Creation Story was about a person named Bumba who was in terrible pain and didn’t know why. He strained and vomited up the sun, the moon, and the stars. But he was still in pain still he was unsure why. Later he vomited up nine living creatures that consisted of the leopard named Koy Bumba, the crested eagle named Pongo Bumba, the crocodile named Ganda Bumba, one little fish, Yo, Kono Bumba the tortoise, Tsetse the white heron, one beetle, Nyanyi Bumba, Budi the goat, and lastly men.

However there was only one white man like Bumba and his name was Loko Yima. All the creatures that Bumba vomited up produced other creatures. With this happening it caused all the creatures on earth to be made, from insects to animal with horns.

Finally when all the creatures were all made Bumba walked through the villages and said to the people “Behold these wonders. They belong to you.” With this being completed it made Bumba the “Creator, the First Ancestor”.

In this story some elements that were used were animism, ancestor veneration, myth, and rite of passage. This story opened my eyes to realizing that there could be countless ways a person could interpret this story. I came to this realization when I was talking amongst my group and there were so many different ideas and interpretations we came up with.