Obscure Mythology R: Ruwa, A supreme god of the Chagga in Tanzania

     Welcome back to my next installment of Obscure Mythology A-Z. I messed up the Chapter numbers a few letters back and have yet to rectify it on my older posts so I decided just to bypass the number for today. Here we are on R, almost done with the alphabet and this project. Like I said once I am done with this I will be getting back to the world of the weird and mysterious. It has been fun researching all these obscure myths and I will miss doing this but I am also nearly ready to tackle some other awesome and intriguing stuff as well! I had envisioned doing this A-Z project in a month or so but that would have required posting just about everyday when I started this and this summer with all of its twists and turns were not going to allow that to happen but I am glad to be back on the computer and doing a blog a week, it is better than not doing this at all. I’ve stated it a million times but I will say it again, writing, researching and sharing my thoughts are my therapy and I’ve needed it lately! Today’s installment comes from the Chagga people of Africa (located in what is now Tanzania) and it has a few recognizable themes, which is one of the main reasons I did this project. It still amazes me after 15 plus entries that so many myths and legends from around the world are similar. You will definitely see that in today’s post. Keep in mind that these myths are thousands of years old, passed down orally for generations, they precede the Bible, Torah or Quaran or any other religious text by thousands of years. How can these stories be so similar from so many different places before the written word? That is why I do this, to start these debates, to spark something in your mind to question everything you’ve been taught and to think for yourself. Here is Ruwa:

Ruwa: a supreme god of the Chagga in Tanzania.

Ruwa made the first humans, who were immortal, and placed them in a garden on earth where they were forbidden to eat the fruit of just one plant, the yam called Utaho. The serpent of death tempted them and they ate some of the yam, losing their immortality. The plant itself was taken up to heaven and restored.

Another version says that Ruwa gave humans the power to renew themselves by sloughing their skins as a snake does. This worked for some time than failed.

(The Dictionary of Mythology, an A-Z of themes, legends and heroes. J.A. Coleman)

                                                             above image: the official badge of the Chagga Chieftain.

See what I mean about being very familiar? That is the story of Adam and Eve yet it is thousands of years older than the bible. We also see the similarities between the serpent and the forbidden fruit! Now some skeptics say that these tribes must have incorporated Christian themes in their stories as explorer’s and missionaries entered Africa but these stories are way older than that! The west didn’t even really begin exploiting Africa until the 19^th Century and these stories were already thousands of years old. Sure Christians have been in Africa for about 2,000 years but that was mostly in the north, especially Ethiopia, but these stories precede Christianity or Judaism. Tribal societies pass down their myths and legends through oral traditions and even have an appointed story teller or two who’s only job is to be taught the ancient stories, preserve them and share them with the next generation. It is already a known fact that mainstream religions like Christianity have incorporated or flat out stolen ancient pagan rituals and stories for their own so why wouldn’t they steal stories about creation and the first men and women? Every organized religion around today (except Scientology, that’s just pure Sci-Fi) can trace its roots back to ancient religions or rites. The Sumerian tales of Gilgamesh closely parallel the biblical story of Noah and the Ark while the story of Osiris shares many similarities with the biblical stories of a certain guy names Jesus. They even share the same birthday (December 25^th) which just so happens to fall right around a very important ancient religious “holiday”, the Winter Solstice. This is not a mere coincidence I can guarantee you that.

Did you notice how in this tale it wasn’t a certain person who was tempted to eat the fruit but the group as a whole? Of course the Bible had to blame Eve because they had to establish that woman was inferior to man and the reason we have original sin and mortality today. The leaders of the early Christian church had to find a way to get the tribal savages their missionaries were enlightening to diverge away from the matriarchal hierarchies most of them had known for tens of thousands of years, so they vilified the first woman Eve (although we all know from my L entry that there was in fact a female before Eve, Lilith and she was kicked out of Eden for demanding to be treated as an equal, the bible then vilified her by making her a consort of the devil) in attempt to put them in their place, in their minds. Early catholic leaders also dismissed, rewrote or destroyed any gospels or stories centered on Mary Magdalene and Mary, Jesus’ Mother, for fear that women would believe they were equal to man. Even in today’s society we deal with sexism some middle eastern countries still give women no rights at all yet we know through research and artifacts that women were paramount in ancient societies and religions. It is yet another attempt to divide us as a whole. The truth is humans, Homo sapiens, could not exist without women and with the technology of the 21^st century men are not even really needed. This is what researching ancient and obscure myths and stories can lead you to. I could go on for hours but I have two small children who demand a lot of my attention so unfortunately for me and perhaps fortunately for you I must end this. I did want to touch on the last part of the entry about how the other version says humans could slough their skin and renew themselves. I have found this a very common myth in African circles especially, while most Native American myths incorporate humans being made of mud from the aftermath of the great flood. I will look more into these similarities in future posts and hope to find more examples in my future research. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope that I may have ignited a spark in a few of you to research this and other myths, mysteries and legends. Until the next time take care and as always…………….PEACE………………………………..

                                                          above image: women of the Chagga tribe. women play a prominent role in the tribe and were not blamed 

                                                          specifically for eating the forbidden yams.