African Skies

The planetarium show will explore the African Skies and African astronomical mythology. The diverse African peoples have a large body of cosmological legendary tales which are short, often humorous, and always educational. The sun, moon, and stars were used to keep calendars which was used to determine planting, fishing, hunting, and yearly festivals. The tradition of using songs to convey information about the sky that would be useful to people on earth saw further development in the "Follow the Drinking Gourd" (MIDI). African-American slaves used this navigation song to determine the direction of their flight to freedom from slavery. The underground railroad used the big dipper (Ursa Major) to orient people on which direction was north in the little dipper (Ursa Minor). Come to the planetarium and you too will learn that the night sky still has useful information about life on earth.