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Faro, a MythSource painting
African

Faro

01Identity

Faro in African tradition

Belcher's account begins with Mangala's egg, which held seeds and two pairs of beings. One being woke first, tore free as Pemba and made an earth that was sterile. Pemba planted seeds, and Belcher says the earth was polluted by the use of residual blood for moisture. The male part of the other pair was sacrificed and came to earth as water. Belcher names him Faro, spirit of the waters, represented by twin catfish, and places his ark at the mountains of Kri. Leeming gives a different sequence: Faro takes fish form, is sacrificed, and his body becomes sixty trees. Mangala restores him in human form and sends him in an ark to Mount Kouroula with the first ancestors, animals and plants. These are separately attributed Mande tellings, not one continuous chronology.

SourceAfrican Myths of Origin: 64THE MANINKA AND THE EMPIRE OF MALI· Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II: Mande

Top questions

The quick answers

02The myths

The myths of Faro

1 myth, with sources recorded for each.

Faro Comes to Mande

Belcher's Maninka account begins with Mangala's egg containing seeds and two pairs of beings. One being wakes earlier than the others and tries to take over creation. It tears free as Pemba, carrying part of the matrix from which he shapes a sterile earth. Pemba plants seeds, and Belcher says the earth was polluted by the use of residual blood for moisture. The male half of the other pair is sacrificed and comes to earth as water. This being is Faro, spirit of the waters, represented by twin catfish. In Belcher's telling, he arrives in a great ark at the mountains of Kri, in Manden.

Leeming's telling also connects Pemba with an impure earth, then identifies the other twin as Faro, a fish. Faro is sacrificed to atone for Pemba's sin; his body is cut into sixty pieces, which become trees. Mangala then brings him back to life and gives him human form. Leeming's Faro travels in an ark made from sacred placenta to Mount Kouroula, with the first eight ancestors, animals and plants. The two accounts both describe Faro's sacrifice and ark journey, but differ in how they tell his transformation and arrival.

Faro Comes to Mande, a MythSource painting of the scene

2 sources· checked 2026-09-26

  1. 1Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-IIT1
  2. 2African Myths of OriginT1
03Different accounts

Different accounts

›Belcher's Maninka account presents Faro as water represented by twin catfish and places his ark at Kri. Leeming's Mande account gives Faro fish form, then human form, and places his ark at Kouroula. These are distinct tellings; the locations and transformations are not combined here.

    The accounts that differ: African Myths of Origin, 64THE MANINKA AND THE EMPIRE OF MALI; Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II, Mande

    From “Faro Comes to Mande”