Our final African dragon myth is of Ouagadou-Bida, protector of Ghana.
As Ghana developed trade routes and began to prosper, Ouagadou-Bida emerged from a cave and pledged to protect the new kingdom as long as they sent their most beautiful girl to him every year. For many years the people agreed, the dragon protected them, and the kingdom of Ghana prospered.
However, when a lovely girl named Sia was chosen, her true love could not bear the thought of losing her. Instead, he lay in wait outside of the dragon's cave and cut off its head in a surprise attack. Many times the dragon's head grew back, but eventually the young warrior won and save the love of his life.
Yet without the dragon's protection, the kingdom of Ghana fell to a terrible drought, causing all of its people to gather their belongings and abandon their homeland.
Rachel chose this myth as the full color drawing for our African chapter in A Discourse on Dragons. She used the Kenyan sand boa (Eryx muelleri) as her inspiration, picture on the right. These snakes have unique eyes designed to help them look over the sand while they are buried in it, and a tail which they use to push themselves forward while tunneling underground.
Stay with our blog as we continue to share short stories and sneak previews of our book, Discourse on Dragons! Next week, we'll start posting dragon myths from the Middle East. Stay tuned!
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