An epic, heroic work by an expert in mind-body healing, Clyde Ford's Hero with an African Face presents the guiding myths of traditional African civilizations. Picking up where Joseph Campbell left off, Ford examines themes that animate the tales of sub-Saharan African peoples before Christian and Muslim contact. The results of his quest are fascinating and profound.Some myths he uncovers bears close resemblance to the Judeo-Christian tradition. The similarity of the creation myth of the Mbuti of the Ituri to the Garden of Eden in Genesis, for example, is astonishing. Other stories and symbols, unique to Africa, have the power to enrich the world's store of cultural understanding.
From the rock art of the Bushmen of Southern Africa, dating to some 30,000 years ago, to the sophisticated cosmology of the Bantu, Ford accesses a mythic tribal wisdom in touch with the human Unconscious. He argues for its transformative power in healing a collective soul wounded by centuries of slavery and racism.