WALA LANG
WHERE DID WE COME FROM Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (Google images)
Science tells us that we all originated from Africa. Some 1.9 million years ago, the first early human species, Homo habilis, was in Tanzania, in the rocky and barren Olduvai Gorge.
The species evolved and from Africa spread northwards to the Middle East and Europe and then eastwards across Asia and the Americas. Recent archaeological finds in Kalinga of stone tools and bones of butchered extinct rhinoceros suggest that an early human species was here as early as 700,000 years ago.
Homo sapiens, our species, appears to have emerged about 300,000 years ago, which comes to 12,000 generations. That’s a lot of great-great-…-great grandparents. All memory of Africa was lost and peoples have since wondered, “Where did we come from?”
The Old Testament’s Book of Genesis relates Christian and Hebrew account of creation, thus: Verse 8, “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being,” Verse 21, “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh,” and Verse 22, “And from the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him.”
The popular Filipino story of creation is of Malakas and Maganda. There are different versions and the origin of the story is unclear. One version goes something like this:
Maguayen, goddess of the sea, and Kaptan, god of the sky, were quarreling. The goddess hurled waves and tsunamis to the sky and the god fought back with rain, thunder, and lightning. He also dragged the ocean’s bottom for boulders and threw them down as well, forming the Philippine islands. The god of the air, Magaul, mediated. He made himself into a bird and flew from one to the other seeking peace. Finally Maguayen and Kaptan reconciled at the horizon where, indeed, sea and sky meet.
Along the way, the quarreling Kaptan and Maguayen fell in love and became parents to a seed that grew into a giant bamboo. One day Magaul, still a bird, alighted by the bamboo and heard a voice coming from inside the giant bamboo. He was wary but a delicious-looking lizard jumped on the bamboo. Instinctively, Magaul pecked, the bamboo split, and released the first man Malakas the Strong and the first woman, Maganda the Beautiful.
The narrative apparently came from the so-called Provedano Manuscript, supposedly written in 1578 by Diego Lope de Provedano on the island of Negros and the customs of Visayans and Negritos. The manuscript was discovered by Jose E. Marco, who also found the Code of Kalantiaw, the legends and myths of Negros by Rev. Jose Maria Pavon, a manuscript on a calendar of ancient Filipinos. Fr. Jose Burgos’ novel La Loba Negra, and other incredible treasures that have since been proven fake. Indeed, Marco has been described as Philippine history’s greatest fraud.
Malakas (strong) and Maganda (beautiful) are Tagalog words and it is not clear when they first appeared as names of the first man and woman.
More reliable is the account of the 16th-century conquistador Miguel de Loarca who wrote, among other things, about the Tinguian of Abra and the adjoining highlands. One of the Tinguian myths is also about a quarreling sea and sky. A large bird had nowhere to land and provoked the fight. The sea hurled waves up and the sky made peace but later took revenge by showering down the rocks that formed the islands of the Philippine archipelago.
The Ifugao story of creation is so similar to Adam and Eve that it might have incorporated missionary tales. The supreme god Mak-nongan created Uvigan, the first man. Uvigan had the whole earth to himself but was lonely so Mak-nongan created Bugan, the first woman, to keep Uvigan company. The supreme god warned them not to eat the fruit of a certain tree that was evil. The two obeyed and lived for many years in innocence, happiness, and peace. One day, though, Bugan tasted the forbidden fruit, found it delicious, and enticed Uvigan to try it. She said that Mak-nongan need not be so selfish because there was more than enough for everyone. The god was displeased. Uvigan and Bugan’s children were uncontrollable and Uvigan died. The rice terraces ran dry and wilted and famine followed. Bugan pressed her breasts to give milk to her starving children until the milk stopped and blood flowed out instead. Mak-nongan took pity and the terraces once more productive, but with rice that was partly white and partly red in memory of Bugan’s milk and blood.
Brits Louis and Mary Leakey began excavations in Olduvai Gorge in the 1930s and are responsible for most of the discoveries of hominin fossils in the area. Their conclusions on the creation of humankind may be more accurate, but certainly what most others believe is more interesting.
Note: The stories in this article were drawn from the website everything2.com and the work of U.P. Professor Damiana L. Eugenio, Philippine Folk Literature (Quezon City: University of the Philippines and The U.P. Folkloriss, Inc., 1981).
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