West African mythology

Shared West African mythology refers to myths found across the region of West Africa. Some of these myths traveled across the Atlantic during the period of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to become part of Caribbean, Cuban or Brazilian mythology, with some endemic changes.

Features of West African mythology include:

• Mami Wata or Water Spirits
• Abiku
• Ogbanje
• River Snake
• Ancestral Spirits (This falls into religion and/or reincarnation belief systems as much as myth)
• Anansi or Trickster
• Nifoya
• Serer creation myth