A thread of similarities between African myths/legends/beliefs and other cultures

So basically I’m huge nerd for old religions and myths, not only African but also Celtic, Greek, Nordic (although I obviously know more shit about African myths lol) and I noticed some similarities sooo here we go.

If I made a mistake please correct me (nicely omg)

1. Aido Hwedo and its cousins

In the Fon mythology of Dahomey it exist a giant rainbow serpent called Aido Hwedo ( sometimes Ayida or Aido Wedo) which assisted the non binary deity Mawy Lisa in creating the world.

arts: julie dillon ; flame shadow (DevianArt)

Basically AH was so big that to survive it has to eat a big amount of iron prepared by a bunch of red monkeys. They say that AH is supporting the earth by bending under it making sure everything in the universe stays in place.

Other say Ahh is wrapped around the earth, holding the sky, earth and sea.

art: http://www.susanneiles.com/aido.html 

However, when AH won’t have iron to eat anyone, it will start devouring its own tail for food, causing the end of the world.

If AH seem similar to you it’s for three reasons. The first on is because some people describe him in a ways similar to Asian dragons, you know a snake like creature sometimes with two or four legs, no wigs but horns, a long body representing the force of nature.

In other description AH does have wigs tho. The second reason is probably because AH is often represented in front of temples eating its own tail. This probably reminds you to the medieval Ouroboros.

The ouroboros is basically a serpent or a dragon butting it’s own tail. Europeans took it from the Greeks who themselves stole it from Phoenicians who copied the Egyptians who probably stole it from their fellow Africans.

But the imagery of the ouroboros was also reported in Mesopotamia, which I find super fascinating.

Now the third reason why AH could be similar to you is only valid if you are a fan of the Nordic mythology.

In the Nordic mythology the giant serpent Jörnugandr, son of Loki (this weirdo) is wrapped around the world just like AH and hold is tail in his mouth in order to maintain the oceans and everything in place.

art: valentinpereda
amulet: https://grimfrost.com/products/jormungandr-amulet-bronze

2. Mami Wata, the Jengu and their sisters the mermaids

arts: Rodolfo Gorrin ; laylafgore

Mami Wata is an Aqua deity in African, Caribbeans and African American religions/beliefs. Her appearance differs, she is sometimes a human with tentacles, or human with a crocodile tail, but most arts represent her as a human with a fish tail.

Art: Elsa MROZIEWICZ

The miengu (jengu in plurial) are water spirits originating from Cameroon. Miengu can be both male and female, with the upper body of a human and a long and serpentine fish tail.

Art:Oriana Menendez on DevianArt

Mami Wata and the Miengu are obviously very similar to the western mermaids, so it’s really funny when I see some of you acting like mermaids can’t be black. I can’t believe some of you managed to gatekeep half fish creatures, please. Anyway, next.

3- The Yumboes of the Wolof people

art by Andres Sanchez

Yumboes are good spirits with silver hair and who stand about two feet tall. They live beneath the Paps hills in Senegal.

Yumboes are also known under the name Bakhns Rakhna which mean good people. They are similars to the Irish and Scottish fairies called Good Neighbours, Fair Folk or Aos Sí who sometimes live under hills.

Art: https://www.google.com/amp/s/theillustrationist.com/2013/01/16/yumboes-african-creatures-myths/amp/

4- The Azizas

arts: Jacquar on DevianArt; HasaniClaxtonArt

Speaking about Fair folk, I know a lot of ignorant people think that fairies are only specific to Europe and Western cultures, but breaking news they kinda appear everywhere including in African myths.

The Azizas can be find in Dahomey tribes’ cultures. They are good spirits who look like tiny and glowing humanoid creatures with insect wigs.
They said to be extremely beautiful.

Arts: HasaniClaxtonArt ; http://gdbee.art 

5- The African werecreatures

Arts: Manzanedo ; Anisis on DevianArt

In Western countries you have the legends of werewolf and creatures who are half men half wolves, in some part of Africa we have werehyena.

Art: TeknicolorTiger

Depending on the cultures they are sometimes hyenas who can shapeshift into humans, or humans who turn into hyena during the night, or humans who can only turn into hyenas after rubbing themselves against a wood stick.

We also have werecat creatures (werelions, werejaguars, wereleopards, werepanthers) most of them are the child of human and a feline deity who hid under the traits of a human. These demi gods can shape-shift into lions, panthers, leopards etc.

Arts: Manzanedo DevianArt

- End of the thread, will do a part 2 later-