Tradition / Region: Chad Mythology
Alternative names: The Luminous Green Snake
Category: Snake
The Myth
In an origin myth from Chad about Alifa’s tribe and the giant Sao people, enormous snakes with glowing green eyes appear in a hidden land beyond Lake Chad.
After God destroys the violent world with fire from the sky, Alifa and his people wander across the ruined earth until they reach the shores of a vast lake. There they meet a giant fisherman who carries Alifa across the water in a gigantic pirogue to a marvelous land inhabited by giants.
In this place, Alifa sees children as tall as palm trees playing peacefully with lions, panthers, and rhinoceroses.
Among these creatures are huge snakes with luminous green eyes.
The serpents slither around the limbs of the giant children and play strange games of hide-and-seek with them. The story describes the land as a place where animals and people live together in complete harmony and where evil is unknown.
The snakes are not shown attacking anyone or behaving violently. Instead, they are simply part of this strange and peaceful world of giants, enormous animals, colossal trees, and sacred abundance surrounding Lake Chad.
The tale presents the Green-Eyed Snakes as mysterious creatures belonging to the ancient age of the Sao giants, before conflict and corruption entered the world again.
Sources
Seid, J. B. (2007). Told by starlight in Chad (K. H. Hoenig, Trans.). Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.