The Fulani Creation Story

At the begining there was a huge drop of milk
Then Doondari came and he created the stone
Then the stone created iron;
And iron created fire;
And fire created water;
And water created air.
Then Doondari descended the second time.
And he took the five elements
And he shaped them into man.
But man was proud.
Then Doondari created blindness, and blindness defeated man.
But when blindness became too proud,
Doondari created sleep, and sleep defeated blindness;
But when sleep became too proud,
Doondari created worry, and worry defeated sleep;
But when worry became too proud,
Doondari created death, and death defeated worry.
But then death became too proud,
Doondari descended for the second time,
And he came as Gueno, the eternal one.
And Gueno defeated death.

Doondari - an ancestral figure and source of creation
Gueno - Supreme and divine 'God' of life and death

- A Selection of African Poetry (Revised and enlarged edition), Introduced and annotated by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent, Longman Group Limited, 1976