Animal Deities and Symbols in Africa

Chapurkha M. Kusimba

Curator, Department of Anthropology

Field Museum of Natural History



Frank J. Yurco

Research Associate

Field Museum of Natural History



Interaction between humankind and animals in Africa has profoundly affected Africa's cultural and ecological landscape. This interaction has be captured in the archaeological record, in ancient rock art, in more recent wood carving, and in oral traditions. Chroniclers, storytellers, and artists have passed on knowledge and ethnic experiences in the form of proverbs, legends, epics, and myths.



Many mythological and popular stories in African prominently feature animals (e.g. Beier 1966; Bleek and Lloyd 1911; Hambly 1949). Some were hunted for food, clothing, and shelter. Some were respected for the might, wit, and cunning. The belief that spirituality is deeply rooted in most aspects of African life may explain why man animals or composite animals forms were adopted as totems and as deities of particular groups and societies (Mbiti 1970; Hornung 1983). For example, the ancient Egyptians revered Sobek, the crocodile deity, and Sekhmet, the lioness, and some of the snake deities such as Edjo, the cobra, for their dangerous qualities. Seth, whom the Egyptians considered a trickster (Evans-Pritchard 1967; Hambly 1949; Te Velde 1977), was manifested as a hippopotamus, pig, or donkey. As a trickster, Seth was very much in African mold. Characteristic of frogs, lizards and insects were used to express aspects of deities. Composite animals forms in Egypt included Taweret, part female hippopotamus, part crocodile, and part lioness, and Bes, the bandy legged household deity, benign, but with a leonine face. Composite animal forms sometimes constitute the imagery of sub-Saharan masks. Other ancient Egyptians deities, like Hathor and Isis, both having cow aspects, were beneficent (Goedicke 1970). That both Egyptians and Kushites worshipped rams as deities, especially Amon of Karnak, underscores the cultural interaction between Egypt and the Nubian cultures of Kush (Kendall 1982). Rams have also had a spiritual significance among the Yoruba, Edo, and other West African peoples. Moreover, most of the animals of special importance in ancient Egypt have ritual and social significance in sub-Saharan Africa.



Thus, Egyptian religious culture depicted in engravings and in art and sculpture points to the common African substratum of Egypt's culture (Frankfort 1948). What have been interpreted as masked priests portraying animals deities in Egyptian ceremonies depicted in murals are reminiscent of common African rituals. The proliferation of animal representation in rock art in Africa probably illustrates the practical, emotional, and spiritual ties between Africans and animals. For example, depictions of people wearing animals masks and animals with discs, aureoles, and rods on their heads, often found together in southern Oran and Oued Djerat in Algeria, suggest people praying in front of animals (Ki-Zerbo 1981;670).



A myth of the San of Southern Africa, which tells of the sun growing tired of being carried on a zebra's back and taking refuge between the horns of a bull (Bleek and Lloyd 1911), is very similar to depictions showing an oxen bedecked with the solar disc in Egypt, southern Oran, and the Sahara. The origins of the cow-goddess Hathor may be rooted in a pan-Africanist myth (Ki-Zerbo 1981:669). KiZerbo makes a strong case for the cultural unity of Africa based on his analysis of prehistoric art:



Art of the Egyptian Nile flourished much later than that of Saharan and Sudan Africa. The Sahara representations of oxen with discs between their horns is much earlier than those of the cow-goddess Hathor. The hawk delicately carved on the sandstone plaque of Hammada el Guir is much earlier than the ram of Amon [known from the 12th Dynasty onwards]. When Andre Malraux looked at the animal heads at Oued Djera, he considered them to be "forerunners of the Egyptian animal deities." The same no doubt holds for the bird-headed goddess at Jabbaran. Semi-naturalism only appears in Egypt in the Gerzean period and is derived from Saharan ox period carvings . . . Egypt had a tremendous influence on the interior of Africa . . . but what is even more certain is that the prehistoric civilizations of the Sahara is earlier in time . . . It was only from the so-called "historic" period onwards that Egyptian civilization achieved that splendor as a result of which everything is now attributed. But where art and technology is concerned, the focal points were originally in the modern republic of the Sudan, in East Africa, and the Near East. Moreover, the prehistoric Sudan owed much more to southeastern influence that to those from the Near East (1981:676).



Thus, the ancient Egyptian belief that divinity can be manifested in any form has strong pan-Africanist roots. Among cattle-owning societies in Africa, cattle are symbols of wealth and serve to define as well as distinguish status. Old Kingdom tombs depict cattle as large parts of a noble's holdings. Cattle provided the means for forging new relations of cooperation and interdependence. Cattle were valued for milk and cheese, but were occasionally slaughtered for religious offerings (Beidelman 1960; Bloch 1971; Rigby 1969). In common with other African pastoralists, the Egyptians practiced horn deformation on special cattle. Egyptians worshipped cattle as beneficent deities. Deities with bovine aspects echoed the importance of cattl in Egyptian society. Apis, the bull deity of Memphis, was a national deity. A bull with special markings and color was sought and, once located, was enshrined at Memphis with great honor. When the Apis died, he was embalmed with solemn ceremony and buried in the vast catacombs at Saqqara, called the Serapaeum. It should be noted that some ox masks of the Bidjogo peoples of West Africa and Apis bulls have a triangular forehead design. Besides Hathor and Isis, Neith and a lesser-known deity, Bat, occasionally were depicted in bovine form. Cow deities provided milk and nourishment for the pharaoh.



Egyptian myths and stories feature cattle. In the Story of the Two Brothers (Lichtheim 1976:203-210), a pair of brothers are grazing animals, and one brother takes on the appearance of a bull. Cattle formed an important part of the booty in Egyptian and other African military raids on neighboring peoples. The Maasai, for example, believe that God gave them al the cattle in the world. They thus feel that they have strong kinship ties with cattle (Rigby 1992). This culture is well myth of many African societies, in the archaeological record, and in modern African religious and cultural practices. Animal deities and animals, then and now, continue to play a central role in everyday spiritual, cultural, and economic life of African people.





References Cited



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