To most people, the name “Atlas” (in the context of mythology and folklore) refers to Atlas, the North African king from Greek mythology. Atlas sided with the Titans in their war against the Olympian gods and so was cursed to hold up the western sky on his shoulders. Accordingly, the highest peak of North Africa’s Atlas Mountain range (which stretches from Tunisia to Morocco) is the sky scraping Jebel Toubkal of Morocco found on the western edge of the mountain range.
Atlas the Titan might dominate western mythological conceptions of the Atlas Mountains but to the people villages nestled in the crags and valleys of the Atlas Mountains, Sidi Chamharouch looms larger. In this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we meet this other great mythical figure of the Atlas Mountains.
References
* Kitab al-Bulhan - “The Book of Wonders” (14th Century)
* Modalités de célébration du rituel à l’arbre de sidi Chamharouch
* Mahdi, Mohamed. “La danse des statuts.” Pratiques et résistances culturelles du Maghreb (1992): 85-112.
* Maʻrūf, Muḥammad. Jinn Eviction as a Discourse of Power: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Modern Morrocan Magical Beliefs and Practices. Vol. 8. Brill, 2007. p 92, 107-108, 211, 218
Can’t Get Enough?
Read
* The Sultan of Others: Ritual and Politics in the High Atlas by Rachik Hassan
Listen
Meanwhile…
The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!
The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:
* Creation myths and foundation legends
* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created
* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)
I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!
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