West+African+Heroes

**Heroes of West African Mythology** by: Gabby Hunter

**Overview of West African Mythology Heroes**

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In West African mythology, mythological heroes are most often the ones who perform great feats or embodied important values. ( 4 ) In these myths, the heroes can either be a trickster, a warrior, of a hero in an animal fable. Anansi the spider is one of the hero tricksters in African mythology. Anansi wanted to know all the stories of earth so he could know how everything existed and then share it with everyone. Since everyone else was just going to pay for them, Anansi was the Hero to capture the Osebo leapord and bring it back to the sky god and no one else would have done that and that is why the sky god gave him all the stories of the world. In animal fables, a hero such as the Hare or the Tortoise may be smaller or weaker than the other animals such as an elephant or a crocodile, but with patience and cunning the smaller and weaker one will overcome then. They are heroes and good examples to people because they don’t like being pushed around or taken advantage of. Warriors are also considered heroes in African mythology such as Ogbe Babba Akinyelure. Heroes in African Mythology can take many forms and can be in many different stories. Overall, heroes in African mythology have meanings to why the heroes are the heroes in certain stories and all have a reason to be a hero. African mythology gives great morals and their stories have moral views to them. ( 1 ) ======

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Society that Originated African Myths**



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Like myths from other parts of the world, those of the African society reflect beliefs and values. African myths and legends are a meaningful part of everyday life. Some African myths deal with universal themes, such as the origin of the world and the fate of the individual after death. Before the modern era, they had relatively little contact with the rest of the world. The spread of Islam and Christianity has weakened the indigenous religions, myths, and legends of sub-Saharan Africa. However, the traditional beliefs have not disappeared. In some places, they have blended with new religions from other cultures and creating new myths, so that an African Muslim might combine Islam with the traditional practice of ancestor worship. (3) Myths and legends developed over thousands of years in Africa south of the Sahara. About 7,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Hottentot and the Bushmen began moving from the Sahara toward southern Africa. Such migrations caused myths and legends to spread from group to group and led to a mixing of myths and legends. The migrations also gave rise to new stories about events in the history of those peoples. The peoples of Africa did not use written language until modern times. Instead, they possessed rich and complex oral traditions, passing myths, legends, and history from generation to generation in spoken form. In some cultures, professional storytellers, griots, preserved the oral tradition. Written accounts of African mythology began to appear in the early 1800s, and present-day scholars labor to record the continent's myths and legends before they are lost to time and cultural change. African Mythology has changed over time for Africans and they are still changing but the myths they have are meaningful and have morals to them that everyone should read. ( 2)  ======