Observations on Bushman folklore

The recent regulation declaring dolphins as ‘non-human persons’ in India has caught quite a lot of global attention and has triggered a lot of discussions regarding this new category. The idea of ‘non-human persons’ though is not a new one, indigenous folklore from South Africa going back several thousands of years talk about animals as persons at length in their stories. 

The Mantis and His Friends

‘The Mantis and His Friends -a collection of Bushman folklore’ is a rich anthology of stories collected by anthropologists the (Late) Dr. W.H.I. Bleek and the (Late) Dr. Lucy C. Lloyd is one such example. It is not new to hear about animals behave like humans in ancient folklore, right from Aesop’s fables to the Jataka tales animals have played a significant role in the folktales of the world. However what I found extremely intriguing is the way the Bushmen address the animals in their stories. In several cases they are referred to as ‘persons’. In the beginning I ignored it as a grammatical error, but as I read on I saw that a much deeper and spiritual role at play in the lives of the Khoi-San.

“Ah, a person is here! Kwamang-a’s shoe’s piece!” says the Mantis"                                                                                                      -(Excerpt from The Mantis makes an Eland).

“The young Ichneumon said: “Hi, stand, hi stand, stand!” And the Mantis said: “What does my brother think he has seen yonder?” And the young Ichneumon said:"A person is yonder, standing yonder.” -(Excerpt from The Mantis makes an Eland).

In both instances, the characters refer to an Eland, which is an antelope found in the African savannas, as a person. I was really fascinated by this idea blurring the lines that divides humans from the other members of the animal kingdom.

Over the years mankind has detached himself more and more from nature and settled to seek asylum in the comfort of technology and his own kind.  It is the superiority complex of mankind, which is the root of several of the problems mankind and the nature faces today. This absurd obsession of mankind is such that he is almost oblivious to the fact that he himself is an animal. What we can comprehend from the ancient texts and mythologies though is that humans were once in tandem with nature and its elements. 

The Bushmen believe that all their folktales and mythologies came from an earlier time, a time when their ancestor’s lived together with the animals. A time when they could talk to them and live with them like other humans. In several bushman narratives there are stories about the shamans and the other members of the tribe with supernatural prowess assume the form of an animal. Studies on the San rock paintings suggest that often during the trance dance the shaman assumes or mimics an Eland, the rain animal, to extract the animal’s potency. In other stories they say the man who hunts an eland, believes that their souls become one from that point on. Hence he behaves like he would if he were shot so that the eland falls down dead. It is a beautiful relationship between man and nature that these folktales talk of, one of respect and mutual dependence.