The Ancient World (HUM 124 - UNC Asheville)/Texts/The Chameleon Finds (Yao Story)

Overview

"The Chameleon Finds" creation story of the Yao people of East Africa is a short text but gives us insight into the culture of these people. It starts off like many other creation stories, mentioning that plants and animals were on the Earth before the existence of humans, and then goes further into telling us about how humans came to be. The chameleon in the story goes fishing and ends up catching a man and a woman in the net, who are the first humans to be on the Earth. The chameleon then puts them in the dirt to allow them to grow to the size that we know humans are today. However, when the animals observe the humans, they realize just how destructive in nature they are as they make fires that burn everything down and hunt and kill the animals for food. The animals (specifically the Chameleon and the Gods) then retreat from the Earth away from the negligent humans, thus making the world without Gods.