African mythology books 101

hello welcome again to another mythology video today we're going to tackle Africa now Africa of course is very vast and there isn't really a it's hard to have a unifying mythology because there's so many different tribes of Africa and they all have their their own myths and legends but some folks try and do broad studies of them or at least make collections of stories from all over the area I'm going to start off with this book I've mentioned this series in other videos library of the worlds myths and legends and this one is on African mythology and the author is Geoffrey porringer I like this book it took a nice little systematic approach it went through various areas areas like for example Oracle's and divination which is a monsters secret societies and ancestors and all kinds of cool stuff I remember enjoying this book I think it's pretty good and like everything else in this series can't go wrong with them um one of my all-time favourite books not only on African mythology but on mythology in general is this very classic study which has some of my favorite stories it's called African Genesis and the authors are Leo 4 Aeneas and Douglas C Fox for bringing us and Fox this is a this is a classic study it retails I think it's more retellings than translations of some of Africa's great stories some of these stories are very funny some are very profound and yeah the incredible book another book I really liked I read many years ago this is more for young younger readers but I liked it all the same Oxford myths and legends puts this book out has this book out called African myths and legends and the author is the author is retold by Kathleen or nas okay so they're retellings of great stories what I remember about this one is I think I remember witches and tricksters like spider you know spiders a big trickster in African mythology and so this is a cute little cute little collection of stories easy to read you kids could enjoy them and everything else another book that I read a little more recently was this one put out by Penguin Classics which is a really amazing collection African myths of origin and this is a story selected and retold by Steven as the names even bulker if you can see that Steven bilker de l CH ER and it's put up by Penguin Classics African myths of origin this is a you know usually when you talk about African mythology we're usually talking about sub-saharan Africa usually if you talk about northern areas like Egypt sometimes it's called Egyptian mythology even though Egypt is in Africa but usually when you hear African mythology usually it's sub-saharan although this book's a little different this book actually takes some trips up north and actually has a section on Egypt which is very unusual so this is actually a really very thorough very thorough collection and I like the loss another book now this is getting old so this is getting into old territory a very old book put out by senate's uh it's a it's part of the myths old myths and legends series and it's simply called Africa this book this this book has some you know I get it might be a little outdated but it had some really fun stories and here I remember I remember stories about the dead and about you know the idea that the African idea about life beyond like beyond death and also something about a swallowing monster which I thought was very interesting kind of like a big worm that just goes around and devours everything I wish I could tell you more but I that's all I really remember because I read this book like 25 years ago but this is actually an old classic book on myths and legends of Africa now another book that is I thought was really good this is a pioneer this author is a is a great pioneer I think it was an anthropologist his name was Paul Rayden and he's the editor of this collection a book called African folk tales and and this is again a wonderful little you know just like the previous books general wonderful folk tales all over all over Africa so this book this book was was definitely a lot of fun to read now getting into getting into one one book that I have that is once the mythology of one specific tribe of Africa and this book was really great a very little book but I really liked it instead of being general surveys this is just on Yoruba yes and and the the the writers is woolly bear bleep bear it's a thin little book but it had some really wonderful beautiful profound stories it's got the creation story it has it has stories of let's see I remember some of the characters Shango and let's see su and these are interesting because I believe a lot of the gods that are mentioned here are actually part of I forget if it's a part of centered here or or voulu but a lot of you know the Yoruba tribe is a West African tribe so a lot of their gods and beliefs actually made it over to the new world so this is a beautiful little little book just on your opponents and shout out to Tiffany for first telling me about Yoruba myths now Africa also has epic literature just like just like Greece has the aleeah's and and Ireland has the cattle raid all the time there's some great epics that come from Africa I'm sure there's many I'm going to give you two that I read one of them is the great Mali epic called Sun jata and this is a penguin edition and this one is given to us by bomba bomba Suzhou and Bona Knut day and it's translated by Gordon Ennis Gordon Ennis but you know it's Penguin Classics and it's called Sun Java this is a strange little not strange it it's actually just unusual I haven't read an epic like this before but a boy who doesn't seem to be the hero type but then he gets bigger and stronger and he proves his worth and he fights the enemies of his people and they established the Mali Empire and and it's based on it's based supposedly on real events that once happened so so if you want to read an example of epic literature this is this is this is really good another another epic and this is the netbook the epoch of the Congo and it's called window the mundo epic and so epic of the Congo and this one is edited and translated by by book right over here by daniel by book and Kalambo see martine and if he could read it right over there but but I'm sure if you type in somewhere in window epic it'll come up the window epic mundo is actually the name of the hero of the story and and he is an extraordinary extraordinary character very very powerful and he he goes through adventures while he tries to find his father you know trying to find your father as a big is one of the great tropes of world mythology Joseph Campbell talks sometimes talks about that the myth of the boy who tries to find this father whether that's the subject of this of this I really remember enjoying those about being very you know being someone who grew up one Western epic literature as much as I love that the Glitter ature this is really great because it's so different but it's still epic now I'm going to give you one more book this book it's just insane I I found this at a used bookstore and look at this it's huge and look at the art I've never seen a book like this it's one of my favorites myths and legends of southern Africa and the author is penny Miller I think she's more of an artist than than a writer although she's probably both because I believe she did all this artwork so but boy what a tour de force and and and giving us the mythology of of Africa she goes she goes by tribe so she talks about she talks about the Bushmen and and and the people of the Cape and Anna Swasey and the Zulus and she goes by tribe and tribe and tells a story or two and and gives you illustrations I mean just look at the back I mean that's insane if you could track this book down it will be amazing I don't know if it's in print I'm sorry I can't give you mine penny Miller uh I mean you know I I mean look at that it's crazy any of this this book is a treasure ever I remember really devouring this book it is just so much fun and I really I really really just absolutely love the illustrations to this so so if you if you can't read any book here I mean I mean I don't know I sometimes have a hatchet list I would say I would say try and get this one you know this is great and if you can't find this one another book that I would recommend in terms of a general read is is is this book here is this book here I mean this is my hatchet list this is like shaving the list down to the bare essentials we don't want to read all these books this book this book I really liked the long African Genesis by for Bernie's and Fox I would say if you're going to read a single if you're looking for just one book well I mean the library of the world submits of legends of course is pretty Thor word too I mean if you're going to really miss any book on African mythology then you want to be very general and for this is very good but but you know it kind of has general flavor to it whereas this feels more intimate and I like this book a lot African Genesis okay so that's it for Africa that's all the books I have for African mythology and until next video happy reading

Channel: joeyraggs

Views: 1,470

Rating: 4.9101124 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: SnDf164cX6s

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017