In any case, the following African peoples – to mention a few – have Flood stories: the Yuroba, Efik-Ibibo, and Ekoi of Nigeria; the Bakongo, Basonge and Bena-Lula of the DRC, and the Masai, Komililo-Nandi, Kwaya and Kikuyu of East Africa. Some, like that of the Masai, are so close to the biblical story in Genesis 7 that they surely emanate from a common source. Let me briefly recount the Masai Flood-story.
The world was once heavily populated and the people were sinful and did not heed God. However, they refrained from murder until one day Nambija (Cain) hit Suage (Abel) on the head and killed him. At this, God resolved to destroy everyone except a righteous man called Tumbainot (Noah) and his two wives, their six sons, and their wives. They were instructed to build an ark and then fill it up with animals of all sorts. After adequately provisioning the ark, they entered it. God sent a long period of rain and the ark drifted on the flood that ensued. When the rain stopped, Tumbainot sent out a dove but it returned tired so he knew that it had found no land to rest. Several days later, he attached an arrow to the tail feather of a vulture and loosed it. When the vulture returned without the arrow, Tumbainot knew that it must have landed on carrion, which retained the arrow, and that the flood was receding. Soon, the ark landed on a steppe and four rainbows appeared, one in each quarter of the sky, thus symbolising the end of God’s wrath.
