In the time before memory, when the world was young and unmarked by the footsteps of countless generations, the Creator looked upon the earth with loving eyes and breathed life into the first humans. These earliest children of the divine were crafted from the same sacred clay, shaped by the same gentle hands, and given breath from the same eternal spirit. Their skin bore identical hues, warm and beautiful like polished wood. Their voices carried the same melodic cadence, speaking words that flowed like honey from a common tongue. They lived as one vast family beneath the endless sky, sharing their joys, their sorrows, and their dreams without division or discord.
For countless seasons, peace reigned over this unified human family. They worked together to till the fertile soil, built shelters side by side, and gathered around common fires to share meals and stories. Children played together regardless of parentage, their laughter echoing across the valleys like music. The elderly shared their wisdom freely, and the strong helped carry the burdens of the weak. It was a golden age of harmony, where cooperation flowed as naturally as water from a spring.
But as the generations passed and their numbers grew, something began to shift in the hearts of these once-peaceful people. Perhaps it was the natural restlessness that comes with abundance, or maybe the pride that grows when challenges become too few. Whatever the cause, the seeds of discord began to sprout among the Creator’s children.
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First came the whispered criticisms around the evening fires. “Our family works harder than theirs,” some began to murmur. “We deserve more of the Creator’s blessings.” Others would nod and add their own complaints: “Look how they waste the gifts we’ve been given, while we use everything wisely.”
Soon, these whispers grew into heated arguments that shattered the peaceful night air. Groups began forming based on who agreed with whom, and what had once been one great family started fracturing into smaller, suspicious clusters. Each group became convinced of their own superiority, claiming they were wiser in their decisions, stronger in their labors, more deserving of divine favor than their neighbors.
“We understand the Creator’s will better than anyone else!” proclaimed one group, their voices rising with righteous indignation.
“No, we are the ones who truly follow the sacred ways!” shouted another, their faces flushed with anger and pride.
The arguments grew louder and more bitter with each passing day. Where once there had been cooperation, now there was competition. Where there had been sharing, now there was hoarding. Where there had been love, now suspicion and resentment took root like thorny weeds.
From the heavens above, the Creator watched this transformation with a heart heavy with sorrow. The divine eyes that had once sparkled with joy at the sight of humanity’s unity now filled with the weight of profound disappointment. The beautiful harmony that had been the Creator’s greatest pride was crumbling into chaos and hatred.
“My beloved children,” the Creator sighed, the sound like wind through ancient trees. “If they cannot live in peace as one people, sharing the same appearance and speaking the same words, then perhaps they must learn wisdom through a different path. I must set them apart, so that they may discover in their own ways what it truly means to be human.”
With divine hands that moved like gentle storms across the sky, the Creator began to reshape the destiny of humanity. But this was not done in anger rather, it was an act of profound love and wisdom, a chance for growth through new experiences.
The Creator gathered all the quarreling people together in a vast plain, where they stood in confused and angry clusters, still arguing among themselves. But as the divine presence settled over them like morning mist, their voices gradually fell silent, and they turned their faces upward with a mixture of fear and wonder.
“My children,” the Creator’s voice rolled like distant thunder across the gathering, “you have forgotten that you are family. Since you cannot find harmony in sameness, I will give you diversity, so that you might learn to find beauty in difference.”
Then began the great transformation that would reshape the human story forever.
To some groups, the Creator gave the blazing gift of the sun its fierce heat and brilliant light became their inheritance. As this divine fire touched them, their skin deepened and darkened, growing strong and resilient to bear the intensity of solar rays. They would become the children of scorching deserts and sun-baked savannas, their bodies perfectly adapted to thrive where others might wither.
To other groups, the Creator bestowed the crystalline gift of cold the pure snow and ancient ice became their domain. Their skin grew pale and fair, like moonlight on fresh snow, and they learned to wrap themselves in heavy furs and woven warmth. They would become the people of frozen tundras and mountain peaks, finding beauty and sustenance in landscapes others might find forbidding.
Yet another group received the emerald gift of forests and rivers thick, lustrous hair that moved like water, swift feet that could navigate root and stone, and tongues that could dance and sing like the birds themselves. They would become the guardians of deep woods and flowing streams, living in harmony with creatures others might never even glimpse.
And so it continued, as the Creator distributed gifts with perfect wisdom. Some received the golden gift of deserts, learning to find water in the most barren places. Others were given the rocky gift of mountains, growing strong by climbing toward the sky. Still others received the blue gift of seas, learning to read the winds and tides like sacred texts.
As each transformation took place, the people looked at themselves and their neighbors with growing amazement and confusion. Their reflections in still water showed faces they barely recognized. Their words, when they tried to speak, came out in sounds their neighbors could no longer understand. The unity they had once known was dissolving before their very eyes.
“Creator,” they called out in their various new tongues, some melodic, some sharp, some flowing like water, others crackling like fire, “why have you divided us? Why are we no longer the same?”
The Creator’s voice, now the only sound they could all still comprehend, carried infinite gentleness and infinite wisdom: “You quarreled when you were identical, believing that sameness should breed harmony. Now you are many and varied, so that you may discover the true value of difference. Though your skin may be different colors, though your tongues may speak different words, though your customs may follow different paths, you remain what you have always been all of you are my children. When you learn to love each other not despite your differences but because of them, when you see the beauty in variety rather than the threat, then you will have found true wisdom.”
And so the great scattering began. The newly diverse peoples spread across the earth like seeds carried on the wind, each group drawn to the lands that matched their divine gifts. They built villages that reflected their unique natures, cities that showcased their particular strengths, and nations that embodied their special relationships with their chosen environments.
Over time, their customs grew as different as their appearances. Their languages evolved into hundreds of distinct forms of beauty. Their art, their music, their ways of celebrating life and honoring death all became wonderfully, brilliantly varied.
Yet in their hearts, in the deepest chambers where truth lives beyond the reach of surface differences, they carried the eternal reminder that they were children of one Creator, branches of one great tree, notes in one magnificent song that was still being written across the endless story of humanity.
The Moral Lesson
This profound Cameroon creation tale teaches us that human diversity is not an accident or a punishment, but a divine gift meant to enrich our understanding of what it means to be human. The story reveals that our differences in appearance, culture, and language were given to help us learn the deeper lesson that true unity comes not from sameness, but from recognizing our shared humanity despite surface differences. When we embrace diversity as a blessing rather than a source of division, we honor the Creator’s original intention and discover that our varied gifts make us stronger together than any one group could ever be alone.
Knowledge Check
Q1: Why did the Creator make all humans different according to this Cameroon folktale? A: According to this creation story from Cameroon, the Creator made humans different because they were quarreling and claiming superiority over each other despite being identical. The Creator divided them to teach them the value of difference and help them learn to love each other in their diversity rather than fighting in their sameness.
Q2: What gifts did the Creator give to different human groups in this African creation myth? A: The Creator gave each group environmental gifts that shaped their appearance: some received the sun (developing dark, strong skin), others received cold and snow (developing pale skin), some got forests and rivers (with thick hair and swift feet), while others received deserts, mountains, or seas, with bodies and languages adapted to their specific environments.
Q3: What was the original state of humanity before the division in this Cameroon legend? A: Originally, all humans were identical they had the same skin color, spoke the same language, and lived together as one unified family in peace and harmony, sharing everything and working together without discord or division.
Q4: What lesson about diversity does this Cameroon creation folktale teach? A: The story teaches that human diversity is a divine blessing meant to help us appreciate differences rather than fear them. It shows that true unity comes from loving each other despite and because of our differences, recognizing that we are all children of the same Creator regardless of our varied appearances and cultures.
Q5: How did the people react when they first saw their transformed appearances in this African myth? A: The people were confused and amazed when they saw their new appearances and heard their changed languages. They could no longer understand each other’s speech and looked different from one another, leading them to ask the Creator why they had been divided.
Q6: What cultural values does this Cameroon creation story represent about human relationships? A: This folktale represents African values of unity in diversity, the importance of recognizing shared humanity across different groups, respect for divine wisdom in creating variety, and the understanding that differences should be celebrated as gifts rather than sources of conflict or superiority.
Source: Cameroon folktale, as retold from Shadows in the Firelight
