Stephen Belcher was born in Cairo, Egypt, and spent much of his childhood in Africa and Europe. He holds a doctorate in Comparative Literature from Brown University and has taught in the history department at Pennsylvania State University. He is the co-editor (with John W. Johnson and Thomas Hale) of Voices from a Vast Continent: Oral Epics from Africa, and the author of Epic Traditions of Africa. He is currently teaching at the University of Kankan in the Republic of Guinea.

African Myths of OriginIntroduction
A Note on the Text
List of Maps
Part I. Some General Themes
Stories About Hunters
1. The San Peoples of Southern Africa
2. Pygmies of The Central African Forests
3. The Songhay Hunters of the Niger River
4. The Origin of Hunters' Associations: Sanen and Kontron of the Manden
5. How Hunters Learned about Magic
6. The Animal Bride I: The Changed Skin
7. The Animal Bride II: Sirankomi
The Cattle-Herders
8. Khoi-Khoi Cattle Stories
9. Fulbe Stories of Cattle
10. The Maasai of East Africa
11. The Great Lakes I: The Origin of Cattle (Rwanda)
12. The Great Lakes II: The Story of Wamara (BaHaya)
13. The Chagga of East Africa: Murile
Tricksters
14. Uthlakanyana, the Zulu Child Trickster
15. Stories of Moni-Mambu of the BaKongo
16. Ture, the Zande Trickster
17. Eshu of the Yoruba
18. Legba of the Fon
19. Ananse the Spider, of the Ashanti
Part II. Stories of Kingdoms and Peoples
Ancient Africa
20. Egyptian Stories
21. Ethiopia
Peoples of the Upper Nile and East Africa
22. The Oromo of Southern Ethiopia
23. The Shilluk of Southern Sudan
24. The Luo of Sudan and Uganda
25. The Gikuyu of Kenya
26. The Swahili of the Coast
Kingdoms of the Great Lakes
27. The Kingdom of Bunyoro
28. The Kingdom of Buganda
29. The Kingdom of Rwanda
30. The Kingdom of Burundi
Central East Africa
31. Nsong'a Lianja, Hero of the Mongo
32. The Kuba Kingdom of the Bushoong: Mboom and Woot
33. The First Kings of the Luba
34. The Kingdoms of the Lunda
35. The Bemba of Zambia
The Peoples of Southern Africa
36. The Shona of Zimbabwe
37. The Nguni Peoples of Southern Africa: Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi
38. The Khoi-Khoi: Stories of Heitsi-Eibib
The Central Atlantic
39. The Yaka of the Kwango River
40. The Kingdom of Kongo
41. The Fang of Gabon and Cameroon
42. Jeki la Njambe of the Duala
43. The Bamun Kingdom of Cameroon
From the Forest to the Niger
44. The Igbo
45. The Kingdom of the Nupe: Tsoede
46. The Jukun Kingdom of the Kororofa
47. The Bachana and Bata of the Upper Benue
The Peoples of the Coast
48. The City of Benin
49. The Yoruba of South-western Nigeria
50. Borgu and the Legend of Kisra
51. The Fon and the Kingdom of Dahomey
52. The Akan-Ashanti and the Baule of the Forest
The Mossi Plateau
53. The Founding of Gonja
54. A Dagomba Hero
55. The Mossi of Burkina Faso
56. The Dogon of the Bandiagara Escarpment
Lake Chad and the Central Sudan
57. The Sara and Sow of Lake Chad
58. The Kingdom of Bagirmi
59. The Kingdoms of Kanem and Bornu
60. The Hausa
The Kingdoms of the Western Sudan
61. The Songhay Peoples of the Middle Niger
62. The City of Djenne
63. The Soninke
64. The Maninka and the Empire of Mali
65. The Bamana of the Middle Niger
The Peoples of Senegambia
66. The Mandinka of Senegambia
67. The Sereer of Senegal
68. Njaajaan Njaay and the Wolof
69. The Futa Tooro
70. Malick Sy and Bondu
71. The Tuareg of the Sahara
Sources and Further Reading
Index