"Elephantos"50/40 Painting

The Kenyan kamba myth tells us about how elephants originated. A very poor man heard about Iwonya-Ngiya (translated as "He who feeds the poor"). He decided to go and find Iwonya-Ngiya, but it was a very long journey. When he finally arrived, he saw countless cows and sheep, and there, among the green pastures, was the large house of Iwonya-Ngiya, who kindly received the poor, heard about his needs, and ordered him to give him a hundred sheep and a hundred cows. “No,” said the poor man, “I don’t want charity. I want the secret of how to get rich. " Iwonya-Ngiya thought for a moment, then took out a bottle of some remedy and gave it to the poor man and said: "Spread it on the marked tooth on your wife's upper jaw, wait until it grows up, and sell it." The poor man followed this strange direction, promising his wife that they would soon become very rich. After a few weeks, the tusks began to grow and he saw that they had grown into tusks as long as his arm. Then the poor man persuaded his wife to pull out these "teeth". He took them to the market and sold them for a herd of goats. After a few weeks, the wife's teeth began to grow again, and grew even more than the previous pair, but she did not allow her husband to even touch them. Not only her teeth, but her whole body began to grow and become heavier, her skin became thick and gray. In the end, she jumped out of the door and fled into the forest, where she has lived ever since. There she gave birth to her son, who was also an elephant. From time to time her husband visited her in the forest, but she did not give in to persuasion to return home. She had more and more children, all of whom were elephants. This is where elephants came from and why they are as smart as humans. In South Africa, they told a tale about a girl who grew up so tall and fat that no man wanted to marry her, and she was also accused of witchcraft. She was kicked out of the village and sent to the wild forests herself. There she met an elephant, who began to speak politely to her in good Zulu. She agreed to stay with him, and he helped her find a wild cucumber and other fruits of the forest. She gave birth to four children, all of whom were very tall and strong, who became the ancestors of the Indhlovu clan, the rulers of the mountains. In African legends, the elephant is usually described as very kind and noble, so that he feels sorry even for bad character and behavior. Wachanga in Tanzania believe that the elephant was once a man, but as a result of misfortune he lost all his limbs with the exception of his right arm, which now serves as a trunk. Ashanti in Ghana say that the elephant is a human ruler from times past. When they find a dead elephant in the forest, they perform a burial rite, as is customary with the head of the clan.