Origin of death stories

The origin of death is the theme of many myths. Such stories are found all over the world and, in Africa alone, hundreds of them have been recorded. The influential anthropologist, Sir James George Frazer collected stories from throughout the British Empire and devised four general classifications into which many of them could be grouped:
# The Story of the Two Messengers
# The Story of the Waxing and Waning Moon
# The Story of the Serpent and his Cast Skin
# The Story of the Banana
The Story of the Two Messengers
This type of story is common in Africa. In this story, there are two messages carried from the supreme being to mankind: one of eternal life and one of death. The messenger carrying the tidings of eternal life is delayed and so the message of death is received first. hurried ahead of the worm and, instead, told them to dig a grave, wrap the corpse in cloth and bury it instead. The people did this so when the worm arrived and said that they should dig up the corpse, place it in a tree, and throw mush at it, they were too lazy to do this and so death remained on Earth. This Bura story has the common mythic motif of a vital message which is diverted by a trickster.
In Togoland, the messengers were the dog and the frog, and, as with the Bura, the messengers go first from mankind to God.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu