African Mythology

by Edward Geoffrey Parrinder

Very Good Hardcover Very Good+.Hardcover. Very Good+ Dust Jacket. 4to. Absolutely fantastic study of pan African mythology mixed with dozens of full page and smaller color photos of carved wooden masks and statues and African art showing the deeper meaning of Africa tribal spiritual life. Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Mali, Zimbabwe, Benin were the Castle and armor wearing Chieftains more 132pp. Large quarto size hardcover in great shape, Many outstanding illus.You get a lot punch with this winning book Three Geese In Flight Mythic books since 1977.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mythology, Africa, Folklore

142 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Ensiform · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great as a basic primer, and surprisingly fair in tone (except for one heading "How Others See Us" about African views of Europeans: only white people are "us," I guess). One problem: Rarely was the significance or historical meaning of a myth given. Great art illustrations though, beautiful & informative.

[Sidney Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Africa is the home, source and origin of world and religious MYTHS.

[Admoriea Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The African Mythology book is very insightful, Not only does it explain African culture and beliefs their beliefs from different points within the many African tribes. So not only did I just learn about African mythology I learned about all the different tribes mythology. It also gave me a better understanding of their traditions, and explains why they do specific things during significant events.Because I have now read this book I understand African art, patterns, Pottery so much better. It explains the diversity and Similarities of African Myths,fables and the traditional tales, and then retells many of the stories. I now understand that they do love and see the importance in animals and its seems as if they view animals similar to the way we view God.This book answered majority of my questions and inspired me to do more research and find the answers that weren’t answered in this book. It is a well written book, I wouldn’t say it his a book for grade school kids it's for a more mature and advanced audience. Also I am now informed that tropical African art was a way of telling stories,Interpreting every aspect of life its provides a sacred literature,giving beauty and solemnity to men I suppose. I am also now aware of how sacred the python is to Africa, For example even in some parts of the book many tribes believe that a very large python snake is what holds our earth together which was sent down by god to form mountains, rivers, valleys, and hills.

[Leon Connors · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very informational and interesting. I noticed a lot of similarities between their animal folktales and the ones I read about in childhood in America. Like the tortoise and the hare.

They also were really into snakes and apparently for a time had a more matriarchal society or beliefs ingrained in some of their myths. Which was interesting.

They didn't not consider death natural and had a lot of different myths on how death was created. My favorite was when some of them stole fire from gods mother three times and then she froze to death so humans gained fire but also gained death.

I also thought it was interesting that God was usually a normal guy with a wife, kids, or parents. They were very mean to twins at first but then started basically worshipping them.

And they believed children were born both male and female until they were circumcised to make them the correct single gender. Obviously circumcision especially for females is horrific and probably influenced by the Muslims or chirstians thatcamearound but their myth was interesting.

Just cool stuff I learned. There is so much more.

[Michael Kerjman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive work targeting a general reader not overburdened with knowledge of subject, following nice illustrated information.

[_blank_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

an amazing basis for further investigation

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first experience with African mythology, and this book was a great introduction and overview. Africa is an extensive continent with thousands upon thousands of tribes, each with their own unique culture and cycle of myths, yet borrowing from each other. African mythology is like a primal wellspring of all of the world's images smooshed together. When reading you might recognize parallels between other mythology of the Native Americans, Welsh, Japanese, Hebrew, Greek and many others. The book is easy to follow despite the daunting task of tackling such a vast subject.

[Damien Aminadoki · Rating 4 out of 5]

informative and useful..