Page 33 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 26
P. 33
Community
framework. of civilization to civilization to farming. The earliest creation
It is distinctly possible, then, humankind and sometimes also stories, as such, place recurring
that there is new science to serve as founding members of the emphasis on the numbers two
be found in the Egyptian original families of mankind. and eight.
hieroglyphs, those remarkable The deep story includes more A third concept of great
5,000 year old drawings whose intimate details. Typically the importance to the earliest
mysteries could well provide unformed universe is described religions is the idea of the
important clues to modern as an egg that contains all of cardinal points of the Earth
scientists. Moreover, the very the seeds, or signs of the world. – north, south, east and west.
existence of those astonishing In some cultures these signs are Such can be seen, for example,
symbols among the texts of represented as the letters of the in the four corners of the
ancient societies calls for an alphabet, but in others they are Jewish tallis (prayer garment),
adjustment in the way we simply identified as the seeds or the Great Pyramid of Egypt,
understand and interpret our of the world to come. Implied deliberately aligned with the
history. Moreover who were throughout are a basic set of four cardinal points.
those “agents of god”? principles. The first is that of twin-
ness. For the Dogon, the universe Dogon Symbols and
Themes of the Ancient actually consists of two creations, Meanings
Creation Stories one that we can see and one that
we cannot. The same pattern can Amma or Amen (Atum) then
The oldest creation stories be seen in the dominant Egyptian represents, as it were, the first
center on a surprisingly creation traditions of Heliopolis living cell, which emerged
constant set of themes. If we and Hermeopolis, both of which from the waters of the ancient
look at the themes that appear describe an initial set of emergent ocean, described by modern
in the Dogon religion, we find godlike entities created in pairs. scientists as a kind of primal
that they can be grouped into soup. A pairing is then formed
two distinct storylines, which A second guiding principle is by mitosis, a form of cell
Scranton calls the surface story the pairing of male and female. division. This process of
and the deep story. The surface The self-created god, in many splitting results in a matching
story line included some or all societies. Is both male and pair of new cells, each with the
of the following : first, a self female, such as Atum (or Amen) same chromosomal makeup as
created god emerges from the in Egypt, followed by four male the original cell.
waters of chaos. The Dogon and female pairs, in the pattern
called such Amma, and the of both the Ogdoad of ancient The eight ancestors of the
Egyptians Amen (Atum). Egypt, and our own spectrum of Dogon, much like the first
This self-formed god/goddess integrators, so to speak. We can eight emergent Egyptian gods
creates four sets of masculine- see this pairing also reflected in and goddesses, could be seen
feminine pairs. In Heliopolis the traditional organization of as an example of the more
these eight, overall, constituted Egypt into two lands, one called complicated reproductive
the so called Ogdoad : Shu and Upper Egypt and the other Lower process called meiosis. The
Tefnet, Geb and Nut, Isis and Egypt. In modern Dogon culture, Dogon describe the journey of
Osiris, Seth and Nephythis. a plot of land is divided between the eighth ancestor as entering
These take the role of those who farm and others who the womb of the earth, and it
educators who teach the skills forge the tools and implements of is a journey each of the eight
ISSUE 26 | APRIL 2024 33
