Elves and Fairies of West African Folklore

Most of us are familiar with elves, dwarfs, sidhe, satyrs, nymphs and the Tuatha de Danann- but what of their equivalents from the African continent? Here are a few of the “good folk” that wander the grasslands and forests of West Africa:

1) The Aziza/Azizan:

According to Carol Rose’s scholarly “An Encyclopedia of Sprits, Fairies and Leprechauns”, the Aziza are the “little people” of those communities which formerly made up the Dahomey Kingdom in West Africa (whose borders existed within the modern nation of Benin). They inhabit the deep forests and had a relationship with the hunters who ventured into them. The Aiziza have conferred some of their knowledge of supernatural powers onto these hunters, who in turn have since introduced this knowledge to human society. For this, the Aziza were propitiated.

The “Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology” by Theresa Bane gives similar information, but adds: “Considered to bring luck with them, the Aziza were often called upon by the native people for assistance in hunting and luck in general.”

The book “African Myths of Origin” by Stephen Belcher records a story from the Fon (the dominant ethnic group of the Dahomey Kingdom), wherein a hunter whose wife suffered from leprosy came across a mound of earth inhabited by an azizan. The azizan spoke to the hunter, who never saw it with his own eyes, and presented him with a remedy composed of plants from the forest. The azizan offered to provide more remedies if the hunter returned with descriptions of the ailments that afflicted his people. The hunter returned on multiple occasions and the azizan kept his word. Eventually, the king of the country himself visited the mound and, after making various offerings, told the azizan “that in his land they had no means of curing sicknesses, and asked the azizan to provide him with remedies.” The azizan “gave the king of the country many of the Vodun [gods] who are now worshipped there [...] and the king took them back.”

The gods referred to here are the deities of the Fon religion, or Vodun. Fon religion and folklore survived in the New World in the form of Voodoo.

2) The Mmoatia:

According to Carol Rose, this is the title given to a group of Little People in West African folklore. The Ashanti believe that they are the “guardian spirits” of the wilderness and of the animals that live there.

“The Annotated African-American Folktales” by Maria Tartar and Henry Louis Gates Jr. records a number of Black American folktales as well as their African analogues. The collection has a West African tale titled: “How the Sky God’s Stories Came to be Known as Spider Stories.”

In this tale, Anansi the Spider (a trickster hero) asks the Sky God Nyankapon for the price of his stories. The Sky God replied that “They cannot be brought for anything except Onini the Python, Osebo the Leopard, Mmoatia the Fairy and Mmboboro the Hornets.” Anansi then agrees to capture all of these things and bring them back to the Sky God.

Anansi tricked the Mmoatia by creating a doll with yams in her hand and plastered with tree sap. When one of the Mmoatia spotted the doll, she was fooled into thinking it was a real child, and asked it for some yams. Anansi through his trickery made the doll appear to reply by nodding its head. After bringing along one of her sisters, they ate the yams, but when they thanked the doll there was no reply. Enraged, one of the sisters slapped the doll and her hand became stuck to the sap. Her sister prompted her to strike it with her other hand and then to push it with her stomach, but the other fairy only became more stuck. Anansi then revealed himself and took the fairy, along with a captured python, leopard and hornet’s nest, to the Sky God, whereupon Anansi received the great deity’s stories.

3) The Ijimere

The Yoruba (an ethnic group primarily found in Nigeria) are known for their profound impact on the cultures of the Black Diaspora and for the vitality and longevity of their traditional beliefs. A sizeable portion of the Yoruba still practice their ancestral traditions in West Africa, and their religious influence includes New World manifestations of their faith such as Santeria and Candomble.

According to Rose’s encyclopedia, Ijimere is “the collective name for a group of spirits in the West African Folklore of the Yoruba People.” These “little people” inhabit the depths of the forests and the wild places in the country of Nigeria.