VThis is how the Ewe peoples of the West African coast explain the advent of the world:
“At the beginning of all existence was a Calabash. She filled time and space. She was the All. Separated horizontally in the middle, its cover formed the Sky and its section the Earth. Heaven was male and contained Water. The Earth was female and her entrails were smoldering on Fire. The entire Calabash was therefore Heaven, Earth, Water and Fire. Life was born from the initiative of Heaven which, one day, sent its Water on the surface of the Earth. The Earth welcomed the first Rain, which, with its freshness, made plants germinate. These metamorphosed, some into animals, others into men. Heaven and Earth brought into contact by the Rain, sent forth Lightning, which triggered the primordial impulse, setting in perpetual motion the Heaven and the Earth themselves, as well as the Water and the Fire that one and the other contained ”.