Olódùmarè
Olorun
Key Attributes
The supreme creator; distant in the sky.
Story
The source of all àṣẹ. Olódùmarè does not usually act directly in the world but entrusts its shaping to the orisha.
Look For in the Land
The open sky; light above all.
A2A World · Field Guide 12 of the World’s Mythologies
West African Mythology Field Guide
Yorùbá · Akan · Mande · Fon
Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Mali and the West African coast and Sahel
West Africa holds some of the world’s richest living mythologies, carried across centuries by priests, diviners and griots — the hereditary keepers of history, genealogy and song.
This guide draws on four great traditions: the Yorùbá orisha, the Akan stories of Anansi, the Mande epic of Sundiata, and the Fon cosmos of Mawu-Lisa. Through the Atlantic diaspora these traditions also shaped belief and storytelling in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and beyond.
20 entries · 4 sections · opens your print dialog — choose “Save as PDF”
© A2A World LLC 2026
Context
How West Africa Holds Its Myths
West African myth is primarily oral. It lives in praise poetry, divination verses, proverbs, drumming, masquerade and the performance of griots. Written collections are recent and record only part of a living, changing body of knowledge.
Principal Sources
Ifá divination literature (odù Ifá) of the Yorùbá, recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Epic of Sundiata as performed by Mande griots (e.g. the version recorded by D. T. Niane, 1960). Akan Anansesem (spider stories). Fon traditions of Dahomey.
The Griot
In Mande societies the griot (jeli) is a hereditary historian, musician and adviser. Griots memorise genealogies and epics over generations and perform them with the kora or balafon. A society’s memory lives in their voices.
Àṣẹ
In Yorùbá thought, àṣẹ is the power to make things happen — the life force by which the creator brings the world into being and which flows through the orisha, people, words and objects.
I · Creation
How the World Was Made
Sky, water and the first land.
Ọbàtálá and the Creation
Key Attributes
Orisha of purity, clad in white.
Story
Ọbàtálá descends from the sky on a golden chain with a snail shell of earth, a hen and a palm nut. He pours out the earth onto the waters, and the hen scratches it into land at Ilé-Ifẹ̀.
Look For in the Land
A chain from the sky; a bird scratching soil; land spreading on water.
The Shaping of People
Key Attributes
Clay figures given breath.
Story
Ọbàtálá shapes human beings from clay, and Olódùmarè breathes life into them. In one telling, after drinking palm wine he shapes some imperfectly, and becomes protector of those born with differences.
Look For in the Land
Figures of clay; a potter at work.
Mawu-Lisa
Fon
Key Attributes
Twin creator of moon and sun.
Story
In Fon tradition the creator is a pair: Mawu, female, linked to the moon and night; Lisa, male, to the sun and day. Their balance orders the world.
Look For in the Land
A sun and moon paired; two figures joined.
Aido-Hwedo
Fon
Key Attributes
The rainbow serpent who carries the creator.
Story
The great serpent carries Mawu as she shapes the world; its winding body forms rivers and valleys, and it coils beneath the earth to hold it up.
Look For in the Land
A serpent coiled in a circle; a winding river; a rainbow.
II · The Orisha
Powers of Nature and Life
The Yorùbá orisha, honoured across Africa and the Americas.
Ṣàngó
Shango
Key Attributes
Thunder and lightning; a double-headed axe.
Story
Remembered as a powerful early king of Ọ̀yọ́ who became the orisha of thunder. He hurls thunderstones and is drummed for with the batá drums.
Look For in the Land
A double axe; a ram; storm clouds.
Yemọja
Yemoja, Yemanjá
Key Attributes
Mother of waters.
Story
Orisha of the Ògùn River in Nigeria and, in the Americas, of the sea. She is mother of many orisha and protector of women and children.
Look For in the Land
A woman in flowing water; waves; shells.
Ọ̀ṣun
Oshun
Key Attributes
Sweet waters, love, fertility.
Story
Orisha of the Ọ̀ṣun River. Her sacred grove at Òṣogbo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where an annual festival is held.
Look For in the Land
A river through a forest; a mirror; brass.
Ògún
Ogun
Key Attributes
Iron, the forge, roads.
Story
Ògún clears the path through the forest with his iron machete so the other orisha can come to earth. He is patron of all who work with metal.
Look For in the Land
A blade; a cleared path through trees.
Èṣù
Eshu, Elegba
Key Attributes
Messenger; guardian of crossroads.
Story
Èṣù carries offerings between people and the orisha and opens or closes the way. Stories show him testing people with ambiguity — a famous tale tells of a hat red on one side and black on the other.
Look For in the Land
A crossroads; a figure in two colours; a gateway.
III · Tricksters & Tales
Anansi and the Wisdom Stories
Cleverness, greed and the gift of stories.
Kwaku Anansi
Akan
Key Attributes
The spider; trickster and storyteller.
Story
Anansi is small but clever, often greedy, and usually outwits those stronger than himself. His stories travelled to the Caribbean, where he is Ananse, Nancy or Aunt Nancy.
Look For in the Land
A spider; a web between branches.
Anansi Buys the Stories
Key Attributes
How stories came to the world.
Story
The sky god Nyame owns all stories. Anansi pays his price by capturing the python, the hornets, the leopard and the fairy Mmoatia, and the stories become Anansi’s — and everyone’s.
Look For in the Land
A python, hornets, a leopard; a box of stories.
Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom
Key Attributes
Why wisdom is shared.
Story
Anansi tries to hide all the world’s wisdom in a pot at the top of a tree. Struggling, he is advised by his young son to tie it to his back; in frustration he drops it and wisdom scatters across the world.
Look For in the Land
A pot at the top of a tree; something spilling.
Tortoise
Ìjàpá
Key Attributes
Yorùbá trickster.
Story
The cunning tortoise of Yorùbá and Igbo tales — in one, he tricks the birds into lending him feathers to fly to a feast in the sky, then falls, and his shell cracks into pieces.
Look For in the Land
A tortoise; a cracked, patterned shell.
Sky and Earth Separate
Key Attributes
Why the sky is far away.
Story
Several West African traditions tell that the sky once lay close to the earth until a woman pounding grain struck it with her pestle, and the sky withdrew upward.
Look For in the Land
A woman with a raised pestle; a mortar; a lifted sky.
IV · Epic & Place
Sundiata and the Sacred Land
Kings, heroes and holy places.
Sundiata Keita
Sunjata
Key Attributes
Founder of the Mali Empire (13th century).
Story
Born unable to walk and mocked as a child, Sundiata rises one day on an iron staff, which bends, and grows into the ruler who unites the Mande peoples.
Look For in the Land
A figure rising on a staff; a bent iron bar.
Sogolon
Key Attributes
Sundiata’s mother; the buffalo woman.
Story
Foretold by a hunter, Sogolon is a plain woman linked to the spirit of a buffalo. She marries the king of Niani and bears Sundiata.
Look For in the Land
A buffalo; a woman with a hunter.
Sumanguru
Soumaoro Kanté
Key Attributes
Sorcerer-king of Sosso.
Story
A powerful blacksmith-king whose magic makes him invulnerable, until Sundiata learns his secret and defeats him at the Battle of Kirina with an arrow tipped with a white cock’s spur.
Look For in the Land
An arrow; a rooster; a blacksmith’s forge.
Ilé-Ifẹ̀
Key Attributes
Sacred city of the Yorùbá.
Story
Where the land was first formed and the first people were made. Its classical bronze and terracotta heads are among the masterpieces of world art.
Look For in the Land
A crowned head; a hill rising from flat land.
The Niger River
Joliba
Key Attributes
Great river of the Mande world.
Story
The Niger carries the history of Mali; rivers throughout the region are honoured as spirits, and many orisha are identified with particular rivers.
Look For in the Land
A great river curving through dry land; a river with an inland delta.
A Note on Names, Versions and Respect
These are living religious traditions practised by millions in Africa and the diaspora. Many sacred matters are reserved for initiates and are not included. Names and spellings vary by region and language; note the source a telling follows.
© A2A World LLC 2026 · a2aworld.ai/field-guides/west-african