African myths about Death How Death Comes to Mankind: San People Story - African Safari Campfire Stories

The Bushmen (San tribe - First people of Africa) share a story with the Hottentots and several other African races about the sending of the message of death to man. The Bushmen say that the moon sent an insect to man with the following message: 'As I die, and dying live, so ye shall also die, and dying live.' Off went the insect with his message, but his legs were rather short and, unable to see very well, he lost his way many times. Soon he was overtaken by an inquisitive hare, who found out the purpose of the insect's errand, and thought to himself, 'I will carry this message myself, and as it is an important one, it will bring me fame and glory.' He left the insect trailing along and bounded away. But the hare, being naturally hare-brained, soon garbled the message as he repeated it to himself over and over as he ran. He arrived at his destination and had his version of the message from the moon proclaimed to all men on earth: 'As I die and dying perish, in the same manner ye shall also die and come wholly to an end.' The moon, when she heard of this miscarriage of messages, took a stick and angrily hit the hare, striking a cleft in his nose and lip which remains to this day. He, in retaliation, scratched the moon, inflicting bruises and blotches on her face. Some, however, say that the hare let the end of his karos fall in the fire until it was scorched and hot, then hit the moon in the face with it, causing the dark 'burn' marks which are still visible today. The Hottentots also believe this story. They despise the hare, and will rarely eat its flesh. They say that it was the chameleon, however, and not the insect which first carried the message, and they mock its slow gait. The Bushmen also mistrust the chameleon and if they find a dead one in their path they cover it with twigs to avert misfortune. ****

Another Version
Origin of Death Myth of the Old Woman Who Hid Death
In the beginning times people lived happily without any fear of death. Now it happened one morning that God (Imana) was chasing death to exterminate it from the land of people. When God drew near to arrest (catch) death, death ran into a dog and possessed him. Then the dog quickly ran and entered into the small hut of an old woman who happened to be sitting near the fireplace warming herself. Then death spoke through the dog saying, "Hide me. If God comes inquiring about me, tell him that death is not here." The old woman, being surprised to see the dog and hear him speak, hid the dog under her bed. Then she went out and sat in front of her house. Suddenly God appeared with great speed. Seeing the woman, he halted and asked: "Lady, have you seen death?" "No, Sir," replied the old woman. "I am rather blind and death is not here. Maybe he passed by running." But because he knows everything, God said: "You have hidden death

Another Myth
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.[4] The Bantu people of Southern Africa, such as the Zulu, tell that Unkulunkulu, the Old Old One, sent a message that men should not die, giving it to the chameleon. The chameleon was slow and dawdled, taking time to eat and sleep. Unkulunkulu meanwhile had changed his mind and gave a message of death to the lizard who travelled quickly and so overtook the chameleon. The message of death was delivered first and so, when the chameleon arrived with its message of life, mankind would not hear it and so is fated to die.[4] Because of this, Bantu people such as the Ngoni will punish lizards and chameleons. For example, children may put tobacco into a chameleon's mouth so that the nicotine poisons it and it writhes in multi-coloured death.[4] Variations of the tale are found in other parts of Africa. For the Akamba, the messengers are the chameleon and the thrush while, for the Ashanti, they are the goat and the sheep.[4] The Bura people of northern Nigeria say that, at first, neither death nor disease existed but, one day, a man became ill and died. The people sent a worm to ask the sky deity, Hyel, what they should do with him. The worm was told that the people should hang the corpse in the fork of a tree and throw mush at it until it came back to life. But a malicious lizard, Agadzagadza,[5] 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.[6][7] This Bura story has the common mythic motif of a vital message which is diverted by a trickster.[8] In Togoland, the messengers were the dog and the frog, and, as with the Bura, the messengers go first from mankind to God.[4]