African Cosmology

The African Cosmology

With such a large continent as Africa, which has such a long and eventful history, there are a variety of different versions of the creation story. The cultural areas south of the Sahara zone have a major share in today's view of African cosmology. They shape the diverse views from the African space. Only in the core do the different cosmological views of the African peoples overlap. They all believe in a creator god who shaped the world.

Origin of the Earth

The order of space, the African cosmology, is closely linked to various African myths about the creation story. All life was created by a high god, similar to in Christianity. In the cultural areas, he is commonly referred to only as the Creator. He generated the universe and paradise, the place of heaven and earth, out of himself. To form humans, he created his heavenly children from clay, wood and his own blood, whom he sent to earth. They play a major role in the different cultural areas of Africa.

Heavenly Children

In East African cultures, the high god Mulungu was worshipped as an earth or ancestral god. He was revered throughout the East and Central African region, the original cradle of the cosmology of the black continent. As the head of the ancestors, he was worshipped for rain and fertility.
In the ethnic group of the Yoruba, the sky god Olorun still plays a role today, although his son Obatala is worshipped much more. He is considered the creator of humans, whom he shaped from clay. Obatala also appears in other cultural areas, for example among the indigenous people of Brazil.
Kalunga is the sky god who watched over people and punished them for ungodly behavior. He created the fertility bird, which is still worshipped today by women who wish to become pregnant.

Separation of Heaven and Earth

The sky gods lived together with the original humans for a long time before a fall from grace led to the division of heaven and earth. This loss of paradise is very similar to the Christian belief in Adam and Eve. The deities left the earth and left the ancestors behind. They are still seen as the protective gods of humans and are supposed to protect them from evil and misfortune. They watch over people, and even today they play the most important role in traditional African cultures. They are seen as the mediators between heaven and earth. The ancestors are not worshipped but merely venerated. By offering sacrifices, people try to win their favor.

The Path to Heaven

The loss of paradise, the separation between heaven and earth, is often symbolized by a rope in the cultures. People and sky gods could move between the worlds through the rope. When a person died, he climbed into heaven and was reborn back to earth; all people were immortal.

The fall from grace resulted in the rope being cut and people losing their immortality. From then on, only shamans had the ability to move between the afterlife and the ancestors. Their role in African mythology is controversial, yet even today they are seen in some cultures of the black continent as a link to the ancestors.