The First Artist was a Woman with No Name

The Story of Creation

After a brief but frantic search around their home turned up no missing bodies, footprints, or explanations of the disappearance of their tribe, the Woman and Ngobi collapsed by the fire pit. There was no slaughter, no signs of struggle, nothing to indicate their tribe moved on and left them behind, more like they disappeared into thin air. The only thought racing around the Woman's mind was that it was the antelope spirit, or the spirit of some other animal they hunted and killed.

"We have to do something," Ngobi said after a stretch of silence. The Woman shook her head and shrugged, asking him what they could do that they haven't already tried.

"Anything! We must have done something to make the spirits angry. What other reason could they have for acting now? We've been hunting them for years and nothing like this has happened before." Ngobi kept talking but the Woman was tuning him out, thinking back to the night she saw the spirit rise from the smoke, turning over each detail in her mind until she had a headache from the effort.

Ngobi returned from the hunt. He called her over to help skin the antelope. He cleaned the animal skin. She cleaned the animal skin. She cut herself. They washed her hand in the stream. Ngobi cured the skin with fire and... 

The realization hit the Woman like a stick between the eyes. She pulled the animal fur off her back and looked at it, her eyes catching on the rust-colored splash on its edge. She cut herself and bled on the animal pelt. Her mother's voice came back to her then, telling a story of blood and power.

"We came from the earth and sea," Wangara said. The Woman perked up. She had never heard this story before. Most of her mother's stories start the same, but never before had she heard of humans coming from the earth and sea. The others in the tribe must have caught it too because, as one, everyone leaned in closer, eager to hear the tale and history Wangara would spin tonight.

"Before us. Before the plants and animals that prowl in the night. Before even the rains that cleanse the land or the mountains that pierce the sky, when the world was brand new, there were only three beings: the earth, the sea, and the sky. They were responsible for the creation of everything, with help of course but that is a story for another time. As they were making all the birds and animals, plants and clouds, they worked together, each adding a little bit of themselves. Nature grew and flourished, and a natural order of sorts emerged from there.

"Despite their creation work, there was tension between the Three. One day, out of spite for the power the sky held, the earth and sea decided to make the next creature alone, something that would belong to only them. The earth and sea created humans and created them stronger than any other animal.

"A creature like this would not go unnoticed, especially to the sky's all-seeing eyes. When they discovered humans and the betrayal by the earth and sea, they grew angry. Not with us, as we didn't play a part in our own creation, but with the others. The sky turned all their creations against the earth and sea, and the world was in turmoil. Nothing and no one was safe from the onslaught.

"The humans before us remembered where we came from and so they approached our creators and begged, 'Parents, please, tell us how we can help you.' But they only received a whisper of a response, in the rains and streams and dust and mountains, 'There is power inside you. You are the only thing that can save us now.' And then silence fell as the world raged around them."

Wangara stopped her story, building the tension as she took the time to make eye contact with each person in the circle around her. At some point while she was talking, she stood up, raising her hands above the fire, the brilliant flames illuminating her black skin in a golden glow. Everyone was rigid in their seats, eager to hear how the humans fought back, about the power within them. When the suspense was almost too much to take, Wangara took a deep breath and lowered her arms. She stared into the fire; the dancing flames reflected in her eyes.