As the total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8 draws near, Associate Professor of History Olatunji Ojo is thinking beyond North America and examining how the eclipse might be perceived by people in Africa.

Ojo, whose teaching and research focus on African history, said there are major differences in how different populations will experience the celestial event based on access to the path of totality and to educational and scientific resources.

“While there are many areas of Africa that will be aware of the technical reasons for the eclipse, there will still be a sizable number of people who cannot explain the eclipse scientifically,” Ojo said.

Many of these people will instead rely on their cultural belief systems for answers in the form of stories and myths, some of which have been passed on through generations of shared oral history, he said.

These stories also provide historians a glimpse into the solar system and conditions of a certain time, including weather patterns, natural disasters or environmental changes, he said.

Ojo points to the documented experiences of Ali Eisami, a young Kanuri boy from what is now Nigeria who experienced a solar eclipse in November 1808.

Eisami remembered walking on the street one afternoon and when it was suddenly as dark as night.

“The entire community, frantic with fear, flooded their mosque believing their god was angry and that bad things would happen. The Imam prayed till the eclipse ended and ‘everything was back to normal,’” said Ojo.

Two years later, a series of catastrophic events, including a locust invasion in west Africa that destroyed livestock and crops, led to widespread famine and starvation. Around the same time, an epidemic claimed the lives of people and animals while a war destroyed much of Kanuri society.

“The Kanuri people attributed the series of devastating events to the eclipse, perceiving them as manifestation or representation of their god’s anger,” Ojo said.

Fast-forward to March 2006 when another eclipse was observed across Nigeria and parts of Africa. Even with increased access to science and safety information, there was still a curiosity about what would happen after the eclipse.

“Similar to what we have seen locally from the media and government here in Canada, in 2006, the African people received more safety and scientific information ahead of the eclipse so their understanding was deepened, but the myths were still told,” he said.

According to Ojo, this tells a deeper story about humans’ innate desire to explain and assign meaning to the natural world as a way of understanding their purpose — an idea that transcends borders and is central to studying humanities.

Ojo said that, even with modern-day scientific knowledge, solar eclipses will continue to have complex meaning beyond a function of the solar system for many people from different backgrounds across the globe.

“Stories about the eclipse are rooted in cultural heritage,” Ojo said. “Whether attributing an eclipse to human’s relationship to water, a cosmic rainbow, ties to animal mythology, or prognosis into the future, they tell a valuable story about how societies have contextualized solar events through time.”