in Ashanti, God sent a sheep and a goat with a message of immortality; the sheep arrived first, but perverted the message (sometimes the roles are reversed). In Calabar a dog, and later a sheep, were sent by man to God; the sheep returned first and reported that the dead were to be buried; the belated dog returned with a now useless message of resurrection. In Togoland the dog was sent as a messenger from man to God, but a frog intervened, arrived first, and told God that man prefered to die, thereby gaining for himself the immortality of which he robbed mankind. The Hausa of Nigeria have a story of the chameleon and lizard essentially similar to that of the southern Bantu.
At first sight it might appear that a Hamitic original for these tales would be difficult to prove, but it is significant that the animal-messengers were usually a sheep and a goat. These domesticated animals, however, are not indigenous to Africa, but were brought there from Asia by Proto-Hamitic peoples. The inquiry of God by man does not seem to be a significant variant. The Hausa are a Negro people, but they are overlorded by the pastoral Fula, who very probably have a Hamitic origin, and from whom the tale could have been derived.
Finally, the Ekoi of southern Nigeria, on the borders of the Cameroons, and hence in contact with Bantu-speaking peoples, narrate that the Sky-god, Obassi Osaw, sent a message of death by a frog and of immortality by a duck; the duck lingered on the way, so men are mortal.
The frog thus appears in two distinct regions in the west, where he brings the message of death to man. Presumably the frog robbed man of immortality. As during the dry season frogs aestivate, their subterranean passivity and the awakening to vitality when the rains come might very well be regarded as a renewal of life.
In the majority of the stories the deity was willing to grant immortality to man, but was thwarted.
