Woyengi comes to us from a creation myth of the Ijaw people of Nigeria. Though it was first recorded at around AD1700, it probably dates to around 2700BC. The myth says that among nothingness something sparked and created time. In that second, Heaven and Earth were formed and Woyengi was sent to Earth from a lightning storm. All Woyengi found on the empty Earth was a chair, a table and a flat stone called the Stone of Creation. Not knowing what else to do, Woyengi scooped up handfuls of mud and sat in the chair, propping her feet up on the stone. With the mud, she moulded many dolls, sat them on the stone and then blew her breath across their face. She asked them if they wanted to be male or female, and gave them the correct reproductive organs. After this was done, Woyengi lined the dolls up on the table and asked them what kind of work they’d like to do. When they’d chosen, Woyengi sat them down and pointed to two streams. “Now you must follow the right stream and it will carry you to where you must be in the world,” she said. The stream filled with rocks and rapids belonged to the dolls that had chosen a life of importance or power. Those that had chosen and easy life were sent down a calm, clear stream with dangerous quicksand in the shallows. The streams carried the dolls into the world and into the lives they had chosen
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