You meet three of the main protagonists and hear a central conflict in Libyan writer Ibrahim al Koni’s “The Bleeding of the Stone” in the first sentence of the book.
“Evening was coming,” he writes, “the flaming disk of the sun sinking slowly down from the depths of the sky as it bade farewell, with the threat to return next morning and finish burning what it hadn’t burned today, and Asouf plunged his arms into the sands of the wadi to begin his ablutions, in readiness for his afternoon prayers.”
Sun, desert sand, and humans. It is an age old conflict. The Sun’s beef with the land which constitutes the Sahara desert is millions of years old, playing out in 20,000 year cycles of harsh intimacy and soothing distance, depending on which way the planet tilts. Humankind entered the picture less than 50,000 years ago and quickly sided with the desert against the Sun. But the desert is a fickle ally and, as al Koni documents in intimate detail in his stories, no one knows this better than the humans, plants and animals who call it home.
In this episode of the Mythological Africans podcast, we introduce the Sahara as a geographical land form and reflect on some of the stories that have emerged from its long history.
References
* Sahara climate cycle reveals desert turns green every 20000 years
* The Sahara Is Millions of Years Older Than Thought
* The Sahara Desert flooded for the first time in decades. Here’s what it looks like
* A Wetter, Greener Sahara Could Reshape Global Weather — Especially Hurricane Season
* The Bleeding of the Stone by Ibrahim al-Koni. Interlink Publishing Group Inc.
Can’t Get Enough?
* Read: The latest edition of the MA Newsletter
* Listen: The fascinating world of Tuareg Camel Folk Music
Still Can’t Get Enough?
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 (Including the Tuareg Foundation Legend)
* 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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