Our second dragon is Bida from the mythology of the Soninke people of West Africa. According to the legend, the people of Wagadu sacrificed ten girls to it every year. In exchange, the snake made Gold rain from the sky.
One year, they decided to sacrifice a girl called Sia, the most beautiful girl among the Soninke. But her lover, Mamadi, didn't want to lose her and decided to kill Bida. He sharpened his sword until it could cut a grain of millet and followed the procession to Bidas well.
Every time the snake got its sacrifice, it came out of the well three times, before it grabbed the girl. But this time, when it came out the third time, Mamadi chopped off its head with one blow. While falling, the head cursed Wagadu to remain without its rain of gold for seven years, seven months and seven days.
When they heard the curse, the people of Wagadu became angry with Mamadi. He quickly snatched Sia and rode away with her to Sama-Markala, where his mother lived. They sent his uncle Wagana Sako, who had the fastest horse in town, after him, but Mamadis mother owned another horse that was nearly as fast. Three times Wagana Sako caught up to Mamadi before he could reach Sama-Markala, and all three times, he decided to spare his nephew and lied to the people about having missed him.
Mamadi and Sia didn't get a happy end, but that's a story for another day.
I think it's interesting that this one has a similar structure to other tales of the St. George type, but instead of celebrating the hero, the people try to kill him because the dragon, while demanding sacrifice, also brought wealth to the town. The reason for this is probably the fact that pythons are seen as symbol of prosperity in Soninke culture.
Sources:
3. Der Kampf mit dem Bida-Drachen in Leo Frobenius (1921), Spielmanns-geschichten der Sahel, Diederichs, pp. 64-72
David C. Conrad, Humphrey J. Fisher (1983), The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The Local Oral Sources*, History in Africa , Volume 10 , pp. 53-78, https://doi.org/10.2307/3171690, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171690
S.A. Minton Jr., M.R. Minton (1973), Giant Reptiles, scribners, ISBN 9780684132679
L. Tautain (1887), Légende et traditions des Soninké relatives à l'empire de Ghanata…, Bulletin de géographie historique et descriptive, 9/10, pp. 474-475
