How the Sky and the Earth Made People is a children's cultural story drawn from the oral traditions of Malagasy elders. Through story and image, the book shares an origin narrative that explains the relationship between sky, earth, and humanity, reflecting Malagasy understandings of creation, balance, and community. Created to help preserve ancestral knowledge, this book supports cultural learning and storytelling for young readers while honoring the Indigenous oral traditions of Madagascar.
How the Sky and the Earth Made People is a children's cultural story drawn from the oral traditions of Malagasy elders. Through story and image, the book shares an origin narrative that explains the relationship between sky, earth, and humanity, reflecting Malagasy understandings of creation, balance, and community. Created to help preserve ancestral knowledge, this book supports cultural learning and storytelling for young readers while honoring the Indigenous oral traditions of Madagascar.
Sabosty (Zamani Zady), a Malagasy elder, holds a relaxed pose in the photo that credits his contribution to this simple, yet profound Creation story authored by Stephanie Zabriskie. The text is one of two children's books released by Humancultures, a program dedicated to the preservation of African and Indigenous peoples' life, land, and culture through sustainable development, cultural preservation, and human rights.
The group, founded by Zabriski in 2018, supports communities that the major parts of the world often overlook or hide from consideration. They care about the kind of countries that U.S. President Donald Trump once dubbed "sh*thole."
How the Sky and Earth Made People lifts Sabosty and those other residents of the Malagasy Republic, on the southeast African island of Madagascar, to a rich place among the world's cultures. The narrative teaches that even people in a small nation on a comparatively tiny island have a beautifully insightful take on how humankind came into existence.
As the Malagasy tell it, there was once only sky (Zanahary) and earth (Ratovantany). Those spheres felt the emptiness between them. The text gives the full narrative in English and French, the island's principle language. As the Holy Bible states, "the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." The Malagasy imagine the two spheres -sky and soil - separate and silent. As in the Bible the act of human creation made the world complete.
Even today, human life is dependent on the earth and the sky. At every turn, despite pollution, the two spheres compliment its preservation. As a simple example, the land brings forth food and other necessities nourished by rain from the sky. Humans cannot live without food and water. The Malagasy elders teach that people are made of earth and sky that is why the atmosphere should be revered and the land should be treated as sacred.
Adults as well as children can learn and be entertained by the profound Creation tale in How the Sky and Earth Made People. Humanculture's other children's book, How Masai Women Spoke to Cows, provides a similar insight from that tribal culture found in northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. If you and your children want to expand your global knowledge, works like this provide an important start.