KHOISAN MYTHOLOGY

Just at the DNA of Khoisan people have proven to be of great value in genetic studies, their stories holds similar importance as theirs is one of the oldest stories ever told. Here are the mythical creatures rocking Khoisan culture

CAGN , KAANG OR KAGGEN is a trickster god who created everything. He can also shape shift and his favourite form is the praying mantis. He is either extremely foolish or completely smart while his favourite animal is the eland

COTI is the wife of CAGN. Their union gave birth to the Eland and it became Cagn's favourite child. Cagn fearing the eland looked different from his other children hid it on a secluded cliff so he can grow in peace. It was almost successful until one day when Cagn's sons, Cogaz and Cewi went out hunting; they spotted the eland and killed not knowing their father's love for the creature. Cagn was furious, he told Gewi to put the blood from the dead eland into a pot and churn it. Blood spattered from the pot onto the ground and turned into snakes. Cagn was displeased. Next, Gewi scattered the blood, and it turned into hartebeests. Again, Cagn was not pleased. He told Coti to clean the pot and add more blood from the eland, with fat from the heart. She churned it, and Cagn sprinkled the mixture on the ground. It turned into a large herd of eland. This was how Cagn gave meat to his people to hunt and eat. The San attribute the wildness of the eland to the fact that Cagn's sons killed it before it was ready to be hunted

HEITSI-EIBIB is the legendary hunter, sorcerer and warrior who cursed the lion to walk on ground instead of nesting on trees. The god is believed to have died and resurrected a thousand a thousand times hence his many funeral cairns around South Africa. It is customary to throw a stone on them for good luck. As far as cultural heroes go, he the king of Khoisan folklore

TSUI'GOAB is the sky deity that controls thunder and lightning. It is believed he dwells in red heaven located in the east, as opposed to Gaunab's black heaven

GAUNAB is a god of sickness and death who is engaged in an eternal battle with Tsui'goab

GA-GORIB is a beast who lived on the edge of a pit. It would trick people into throwing stones at it, but the stones would always bounce back from the creature's hide, and the thrower would fall into the pit. When the hero Heitsi-eibib met the beast, he refused to throw stones until Ga-gorib turned away from him, whereupon he cast a stone that knocked Ga-gorib into its own pit. In another version of the same story, Heitsi-eibib wrestled with the Ga-gorib and was thrown to the pit repeatedly, but could not be kept down. In the end, the Ga-gorib is again thrown to his own pit by Heitsi-eibib

AIGAMUXA (singular Aigamuchab) are a race of man-eating, dune-dwelling creature that are mostly human-looking, except that they have eyes on the instep of their feet. To see, they have to go down on hands and knees and lift one foot in the air. This is a problem when the creature chases prey, because it has to run blind