African Creation Stories
In all these stories there is a chief creator. One god, or creator, is in charge of populating the Earth and making men. Two of these stories have similar concepts in relation to the creation of men. Men being created out of clay is similar in the "Creation by Thought" story and "An African Story of the Creation of Man". It is also noticeable that in all these stories everything else, even animals, were created before men were created. These four stories embrace similar codes of ethics. For example, in the "An African Story of the Creation of Man", Juok expected man to work since he designed his hands for that purpose. Similarly, in the "Creation by Thought" story, the Earthcreator gave man a soul, a mind, the ability to talk and made man as a resemblance of himself. Therefore he was expecting man to behave like the creator.
There are also many differences among these four stories. For example, the origin of the creation. Each culture believes that man was created within them. Therefore, creation stories differ. Also the means of creating man are different. In these four stories man was created out of clay, out of women, and out of thought. In "An African Cosmogony" the most important characters of creation were animals. As stated in this story "Last of all came forth men."
The story I liked the most was "God and the Five Women". This story fascinates me since women are the center of creation. It is not usual to find women as the leading role in any of the creation stories I read. It also impressed me the way in which the Old Chief balanced the power of each of these Perfect women. The code of ethics of this creation story appears at the end when the Old Chief said that even though evil would surpass goodness in amount, at the end good would always win. This concept of good and evil is present in almost all of the creation stories I read. Certainly, all of this stories are a valuable explanation as to where we all came from.
An African Story of he Creation of Man
Creation by Thought
God and the Five Women