“In some places, such as Nri, the royal python, éké, is considered a sacred and tame agent of Ala and a harbinger of good fortune when found in a home. The python is referred to asnne ‘mother’ in areas where the python is revered, it is a symbol of female beauty and gentleness. Killing of the python is expressly forbidden in these places and sanctions are taken against the killer including the funding of expensive human sized burials that are given to slain pythons.” (x)
“A public levy is made for giving elaborate burial rites when the python dies from natural causes. Every python has a human soul within it; this must be liberated by ritual after the death of the reptile. Any offence against the snake is an offence against the ancestor.” (x) p15
THAT’S. SO. SWEET.
Okay, want to know the practical reason for this:
What do ball pythons eat?
Rodents.
Ball pythons are sacred in central Africa for the exact same reason cats are in north Africa and the middle east.
They are guardians of the granary.
That and they’re docile. They curl up into a ball when scared rather than biting or feinting biting. (While constrictors aren’t venomous, some may behave like a viper and mock strike to drive off threats if startled). While they can bite, accidental bites are less common, they’re not going to strike you for accidentally reaching or stepping too close.
So they not only protected granaries, but they didn’t pose a threat to people as compared to other sorts of snakes which may bite or in the case of venomous ones, pose a threat to people and live stock.
So they fulfill the two key things humans like in other animals
1) Helpful to us 2) Not harmful.
They were called “Royal Pythons” because they’re calm enough that you can wear them like jewelry, which some royalty did. It’s human nature to like animals that let us touch them, hold them, use them as we see fit and don’t hurt us. Even among Christian Igbo the snakes are seen as a positive animal, a gift from god, because humans tends to see animals as “good” or “bad” based on if they pose any threat to us.
And that actually is fairly practical for humans to do, to distinguish ‘dangerous’ from ‘non dangerous’ and develop negative prejudices against ‘harmful’ and positive feelings towards “non-harmful/helpful” animals.
One, @neil-gaiman is one of the best things in this world and I love him.
But TWO, and more importantly as regards this post:
If you didn’t grow up in the 1980s or 1990s, you may not remember Reading Rainbow. It was a show where LeVar Burton would take you on a tour or activity that was related to the book the show was about to read out loud for you, and then a narrator would read the book (sometimes Burton, sometimes someone else). At the end, Burton would tie the activity and the book together, and then say there were lots of other great books like it, “but don’t take my word for it.” Then you’d get book recommendations from a couple of school-aged kids, different ones in most episodes. It, along with Wishbone, was part of a PBS effort to promote childhood literacy. Many of the books the show shared were also culturally diverse–I was a little kid at the time and so obviously remember the actual titles of very few, but I remember multiple books about Black and Latine kids, titles set in different time periods, and at least one about a Chinese character. The activities for these episodes often focused on the culture of the child in the book, but not in a weird tokeny way–like one was a book I think was called The Patchwork Quilt and the tour part was talking about how cool and important quilting was in history and to certain cultural communities. Sadly, the show was cancelled in 2003, and although Burton spearheaded a Kickstarter that made the show available in classrooms, nothing like it has ever aired on TV again.
Having watched Reading Rainbow from preschool until I was in fifth or sixth grade, I cannot overstate how expertly Burton will do this. And so I am asking: IF YOU PERSONALLY KNOW ANY AUTHORS OF CHILDREN'S’ BOOKS, OR ARE SUCH AN AUTHOR YOURSELF, PLEASE REACH OUT TO TRY TO GET MORE BOOKS INTO HIS HANDS. This is a wonderful project–and sadly, who knows how long we’re going to need it.
One, @neil-gaiman is one of the best things in this world and I love him.
But TWO, and more importantly as regards this post:
If you didn’t grow up in the 1980s or 1990s, you may not remember Reading Rainbow. It was a show where LeVar Burton would take you on a tour or activity that was related to the book the show was about to read out loud for you, and then a narrator would read the book (sometimes Burton, sometimes someone else). At the end, Burton would tie the activity and the book together, and then say there were lots of other great books like it, “but don’t take my word for it.” Then you’d get book recommendations from a couple of school-aged kids, different ones in most episodes. It, along with Wishbone, was part of a PBS effort to promote childhood literacy. Many of the books the show shared were also culturally diverse–I was a little kid at the time and so obviously remember the actual titles of very few, but I remember multiple books about Black and Latine kids, titles set in different time periods, and at least one about a Chinese character. The activities for these episodes often focused on the culture of the child in the book, but not in a weird tokeny way–like one was a book I think was called The Patchwork Quilt and the tour part was talking about how cool and important quilting was in history and to certain cultural communities. Sadly, the show was cancelled in 2003, and although Burton spearheaded a Kickstarter that made the show available in classrooms, nothing like it has ever aired on TV again.
Having watched Reading Rainbow from preschool until I was in fifth or sixth grade, I cannot overstate how expertly Burton will do this. And so I am asking: IF YOU PERSONALLY KNOW ANY AUTHORS OF CHILDREN'S’ BOOKS, OR ARE SUCH AN AUTHOR YOURSELF, PLEASE REACH OUT TO TRY TO GET MORE BOOKS INTO HIS HANDS. This is a wonderful project–and sadly, who knows how long we’re going to need it.
