Before Theogany — Peter G. Bailey

The story is set in tribal pre-historic southern Sudan eight thousand years before Christ and before Hesiod of Boeotia was reputed to have written the Theogany, his Greek version of how the universe was created from chaos and the role the Greek Gods played in its creation. There was no written language at the time and the ancient Egyptians were in their conceptual stages of forming the most advanced and complex civilisation then known. In the wilder, greener regions to the south, primitive hunter/gatherer tribes roamed the plains and forests taking a living anywhere it could be found. Iron was unknown, but the cutting properties of flint and obsidian were utilised in the form of weapons used for hunting, defence and attack. Vast herds of grazing animals provided the main nutritional source for the hunters and shrubs and forests provided fruits, leaves and berries to add variety to their diet. Life was harsh and decrepit old age unknown. Besides the toll taken by predators, death came to the tribes through the senseless attrition of other tribes with each jealously guarding its own identity and fighting each other for the possession of breeding females and hunting space. Because they kept apart the basic language they all possessed gradually took on tribal differences still reflected in the numerous languages used throughout Africa today.