About the book: 2013 / Mythology and folklore of Africa are considered against the background of data on the distribution of folklore and mythological motifs in the Old and New Worlds and information about the most ancient history of the African continent. The first narratives appeared in Africa no later than 30–40 thousand years ago (some perhaps 60–70 thousand years ago) and were brought to Eurasia and Australia by early sapiens. However, until the onset of the Holocene, in the territories south of the Sahara, isolated by the desert zone from the rest of the world, the processes of cultural genesis proceeded extremely slowly. African mythology and folklore, known from materials of the 19th-20th centuries, reflect the massive penetration of plot-forming motifs of Eurasian origin to sub-Saharan Africa. In general, the folklore and mythological traditions of Africa are significantly poorer than the Eurasian and American ones.