00:11In the mythology of the Afik people of Nigeria, Abasi was the supreme god, and creator, who lived in the
00:19sky.
00:20Abasi was the father of humanity. His wife, Atai, was the mother of humanity. Like many other African gods, Abasi
00:30had a dual nature and thus, was seen as two gods in one.
00:35The first nature was called, Abasi Oiyong, meaning the god above, and the second called, Abasi Esong, meaning the god
00:45below.
00:46Abasi and Atai created, or had two children who were the first man and woman. The children wanted to leave
00:53heaven and settle on earth.
00:55Now, Abasi did not want anyone to compete with him, so he decided that the people he had created could
01:03not be allowed to live on earth.
01:06Abasi was worried that if allowed to go into the world, the two children would raise a warrior race that
01:13could turn against him.
01:14His wife, Atai, disagreed with him in that view. She persuaded Abasi to allow the couple to settle on earth.
01:23Abasi finally permitted them to do so, giving them two conditions, that they could neither grow their own food, nor
01:31could they have children.
01:33To help make it unnecessary for the couple to grow crops or hunt, Abasi rang a bell to summon them
01:39to the sky, where they ate all their meals with him.
01:43Over time, curiosity got the better of the couple. They sought to explore the world in which they lived in.
01:51And in spite of their promise, the children soon began to work at growing food. The woman, began to till
01:59the soil and produce food.
02:01Her husband agreed that the food she grew was better than the food Abasi gave them, so he joined her
02:07in the fields. Subsequently, the couple stopped having meals with Abasi.
02:13They also began to mate and began to have children. And in no distant time, the earth was full of
02:20their offspring.
02:22They had disobeyed and broken the promises they made to their heavenly parents.
02:27Abasi lamented to Atai that he had been right about not letting humans live on earth, they had forgotten him.
02:34Atai reassured him that humans would never be his equal. To keep humans in their place, and to save the
02:42world from overpopulation, Atai gave humanity two gifts, namely, argument, and death.
02:49Death killed the human couple, and argument caused disagreements among their children. And so it is that humanity fights and
02:58dies.
02:59Despite all this, even though Abasi never visited earth, he did not forget about humankind, which was made up of
03:08his children's children.
03:09Abasi used Deepakism, a fertility goddess who took the form of a vulture to fly between heaven and earth, to
03:18let him know what was happening below. Thus, good people could be rewarded and evil ones punished.
03:39you
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