the role of myth & the continuities in sacred + secret histories w/ Dr. Nubia Kia

Africa World Now Project

Image: John Biggers, Band of Angels: Weaving the Seventh Word, 1992-93

According to the Dogon, “in the beginning before anything existed there was the Supreme Being, Amma. Amma existed in the form of an egg divided into four parts by four bones [the clavicles], which were joined together. Apart from the egg, nothing existed, for Amma rested on nothing. The four arts of the egg represented the four elements: water, air, fire, and Earth. So, the fundamental elements already existed in the egg in embryo form. In the egg Amma had designed the world before it was created” [51]. Ultimately, Amma created the world through the creation of the signs and likewise will destroy it through the destruction of the signs …” [53].

We share this creation story, in part, for a number of reasons, but primarily because it is aligned with the assertion in Chukwunyere Kamalu’s, The Word at Face Value: An Abridged Account of Dogon cosmology, that “mainstream scholarship on the cosmological world of the Dogon of Mail in West Africa, has become a battleground over what an African people can and cannot know” [11].

Dr. Nubia Kia asserts that, “myths in Africa are similar to what Joseph Campbell calls “living myths.” He uses living myths to distinguish them from the connotative usage of myth meaning “a lie.” Living myths signifies the opposite of the connotative construct. J.J. Bacofen argues that the origins of history can only be revealed through myth since in myth “lies the beginning of all development.”

Dr. Kia, quoting W.T. Stevenson, further explains the primacy of mythological discourse. According to Stevenson, “the essential character of our personal and social lives are shaped by myth, or it is by the power of particular myths which determine by way of determining our fundamental presuppositions, the way we shape our cultural, social, political, and economic lives. We do nothing of significance which is not informed by myth in a fundamental way, and the more significant our act, the more this is true. It is the symbols within the context of myth which give rise to all thought [Kia, A River of Prophecy: Constructing a Sacred History of African Americans].
Mythic symbolism attempts to explain the spiritual nature of peoples and their inseparable connection to a universal order. Therefore, if someone wishes to pervert an idea, the most effective means is to reverse the sacred symbols or icons associated with the idea or ideas [Kia, A River of Prophecy: Constructing a Sacred History of African Americans].

Today, AWNP’s Tasneem Siddiqui sits down with Dr. Nubia Kia, to explore the relationship between myth & its continuities in sacred + secret histories.

Nubia Kai received a Ph.D. in African historical literature and film from Howard University, an MA degree in African Languages and Literature from the University of Wisconsin.

Her work has been published in Black Scholar; Black World; Essence Magazine; Black American Literature Forum; Catalyst; Obsidian; Moving Out, Journal of Black Poetry; Left Curve; Journal of African Literature Association, Black Camera: International Film Journal; Journal of African American History, to name a few.

Her book, Kuma Malinke Historiography: Sundiata Keita to Almamy Samori Toure, is an extensive study of the mythology, epics, poetry, and expository narratives of the Mali Empire. She has been an ardent researcher of comparative religion, anthropology, mythology, and Africana studies for over thirty years.

Professor Kai is also a poet, novelist, and playwright who has received a number of awards, including two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, six DC Commission on the Arts Awards, and the Larry Neal Writers Competition.

She has two collections of poetry, Peace of My Mind and Solos, a collection of fables, The Sweetest Berry on the Bush, and an historical novel, I Spread My Wings And I Fly.