anchored in a common African spiritual heritage
that can be traced back to the Kemetic religious and
philosophical thought. Indeed, the idea of Ra, the
almighty deity that was represented by the power of
the sun, is an old, ancestral idea among Africans.
Ancestral spirits who watch over daily activities, pro-
mote social harmony, and create a sense of account-
ability among a community’s members to preserve a
balanced and harmonious order of creation where
spirit and matter are inseparable are anterior to any
other influences among West Africans.
Therefore, human beings must pay tribute to
these deities, honor them with rituals, and feed
them with various symbols of veneration. Further-
more, humans cannot make use of any place pro-
tected by a Zin without asking permission by
means of rituals performed by the local peoples.
For a Zin will die for lack of honor, and praise is to
a Zin is very much as it is to every human being.
Although they live much longer than people,
they do not live forever; they get old and die. They
have human names like Ibrahima, Zin of the
Hombori mountains, or Ka, Zin of the Hombori
fields. They get married, they have children, and
sometimes they leave their place of origin either to
raise a family somewhere else or by being defeated
in a local war among rivals. Ibrahima, for
instance, is said to have entered the Hombori
mountains through the great western canyon,
where he settled with his wife and children after
being chased from Gao.
Zin may take many different shapes, but they are
commonly described as serpents, and their power
may even take over further regions if they make
alliances among themselves. For instance, the Zin
of Tondi Tyirey mountain in Anzourou may well
ask the Zin of the wind to blow away the rain from
the Anzourou people if they fail to perform the
proper rituals.
There are many different traditions concerning
these deities, many different narratives varying with
the places and the peoples who must respect them,
about their struggle with more powerful deities like
the Holey or their alliances with Yumban, the mas-
ter of the Yumban sea near Yatakala in Niger, or
Farka Bera, the master of the forest in Ossolo.
Ana Monteiro-Ferreira
SeealsoDivinities
FurtherReadings
Parrinder, G. (1967).African Mythology. New York:
Bedrick.
Rouch, J. (1960).La Réligion et la Magie Songhay
[Religion and Songhai Magic]. Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France.
ZOSER
King Zoser was the founder of the Old Kingdom
that started with the 3rd dynasty, better known as
the Pyramid Age. His name was mentioned on the
Palermo Stone the same way as other founders of
dynasties, in red ink. The number of years he actu-
ally ruled was never confirmed; some say that it
was 19 years while others suggest that it was close
to 29 years. He was the son of the last ruler of the
2nd dynasty, Khasekhemwy, whose identity has
sparked a sort of debate among scholars due to
the existence of two similar names from the same
period: The first was Khasekhem (the shining
power) and the other Khasekhemwy (the two
shining powers). Most scholars have suggested
that these were two names for the same person,
but before and after the unification of Egypt. King
Zoser was the hereditary heir to the throne, much
influenced by the policies of his father as well as
the new innovation in architecture, which was the
use of stone instead of mud brick. The reign of
Zoser is characterized by two major themes; the
first was the famine, and the second was the con-
struction of the first huge stone building in the his-
tory of the world around 2700 BC. During his
reign, a striking famine took place in Egypt as a
result of the low flow of the Nile for 7 years. The
details of this critical period in the history of
Egypt are recorded on a stela, known as “the famine
stela” erected at Aswan during the Ptolemaic
period. It narrates the story and the advice given
by Zoser’s wise architect and vizier, Imhotep, who
suggested that the king should go to Upper Egypt,
to the first cataract, the residence of the god
Khnum, to pray to him and give offerings so the
god would start the annual inundation. King
Zoser followed the advice, and directly afterward
the Nile flooded and Egypt was saved after a long
period of suffering. People remained faithful and
Zoser 743