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Kanu Masala, a MythSource painting
Limba

Kanu Masala

01Identity

Kanu Masala in Limba tradition

Kanu Masala appears in a Limba story told by Karanke Dema in 1964 and recorded by Ruth Finnegan. The telling follows Adamu and Ifu, two people brought into a world where they first find nothing to eat. Kanu shows them fruit-bearing trees, gives them food and forbids them one tree. The story draws on the familiar Adam and Eve plot, but Finnegan presents Dema’s performance as a Limba telling with its own account of how people came to work and how humans became enemies of a particular snake.

When Adamu and Ifu eat the fruit, Kanu calls them to answer for it. He hears their explanations, then addresses the snake and the two humans in turn. His judgments send the snake into the bush and assign hardship and work to the people. The account connects these decisions to the way Limba people describe their lives and their hostility toward the snake. Kanu’s role is not simply to create the first people: he also establishes the consequences that close this teller’s story.

SourceOral Literature in Africa (Ruth Finnegan, 2012): Chapter 12, “Prose Narratives: I. Problems and Theories,” Limba story of Adamu and Ifu told by Karanke Dema, printed pp. 314-317

Top questions

The quick answers

02The myths

The myths of Kanu Masala

1 myth, with sources recorded for each.

Kanu Masala and the Prohibited Tree

In Karanke Dema’s Limba telling, Kanu Masala brings Adamu and Ifu into a world with no other people. After two days without food, they ask Kanu for help. He shows them fruit-bearing trees and says they may eat from them, except for one tree that is forbidden. For a long time they live on the fruit and do no work.

A snake called bangkiboro persuades Ifu to eat from the forbidden tree. She eats and later gives some of the fruit to Adamu, who also eats after first refusing. When Kanu arrives, both hide. He calls Adamu and asks why he disobeyed; Adamu blames Ifu, who says the snake gave her the fruit. Kanu questions the snake, then sends it into the bush, where people will kill it. He tells Ifu that childbirth and work will bring suffering, and tells Adamu that men will have to work, build homes and farms, and give wealth in order to marry. The teller connects these judgments to Limba life and to people’s hostility toward the snake, then closes the story.

Kanu Masala and the Prohibited Tree, a MythSource painting of the scene

5 sources· checked 2026-10-03

  1. 1Oral Literature in Africa (Ruth Finnegan, 2012)T1
  2. 2Oral Literature in Africa (Ruth Finnegan, 2012)T1
  3. 3Oral Literature in Africa (Ruth Finnegan, 2012)T1
  4. 4Oral Literature in Africa (Ruth Finnegan, 2012)T1
  5. 5Oral Literature in Africa (Ruth Finnegan, 2012)T1