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Malevolent spirit. Traditionally driven away in an annual expulsion
ritual by firing guns and shouting loudly, emptying houses of
furniture and beating the interiors with sticks, the abonsam
was finally driven into the sea. The ritual was preceded by four
weeks of total silence in the area.
ADRO (Lugbara - Lake Albert, East Africa)
Tutelary god. The personification of grass fires and whirlwinds who,
in antiquity, created mankind. Thought to live in the vicinity of rivers
with many wives and children.
AGE (Fon - Benin, West Africa)
God of animals. Revered by hunters in the savannah regions.
AJALAMO (Yoruba - Nigeria, West Africa)
AJE (Yoruba - Nigeria, West Africa)
AKONGO (Ngombe - Zaire, Central Africa)
ALA (Ibo - Eastern Nigeria, West Africa)
ALATANGANA (Kono - Eastern Guinea, West Africa)
AMMA (Dogon = Mali, West Africa)
ANANASI (Various tribes)
ANYIEWO (Ewe)
AONDO (Tiv - Central Nigeria, West Africa)
APAP (Teso - Uganda, East Africa)
ARAWA (Suk and Pokot - Kenya and Uganda)
ARABATI (Bambuti - Congo, West Africa)
ASASE YAA (Ashanti - Ghana, West Africa)
ASHIAKLE (Gan - District around Accra, Ghana, West Africa)
ASIS (Suk and Pokot - Kenya and Uganda, East Africa)
ASTAR (Ethiopian)
ATAA NAA NYONGMO (Gan - District around Accra, Ghana, West Africa)
ATETE (Kafa - Ethiopia, Northeastern Africa)
AVRIKITI (Fon - Benin, West Africa)
AYABA (Fon - Benin, West Africa)
ABONSAM (West African - Gold Coast, ect.)
God of unborn children. According to legend, in some vague mythological
realm there exists rows of shelves with the spirits of the unborn. These were
the responsibility of Ajalamo.
Goddess of wealth. She is thought to appear as a fowl scratching the earth
and, in creation mythology, was sent down with Oduduwa, the earth goddess.
Creator god. The supreme deity considered to have given the world, and all
that is in it, form and substance.
Also known as Ale, Ana, Ani.
Chthonic fertility goddess. A popular deity who is also goddess of the
underworld linked with a cult of the dead (which rest in her womb). Her
temple is the Mbari, which contains a cult statue depicting the goddess
seated with a child in her arms and adorned with the cresent moon. She
is flanked by attendant deities. She enjoys a profusion of local shrines
which are well supplied with votive offerings. Serious crimes including
murder are considered offenses against her. An annual yam festival is
celebrated in her honor.
Creator god. One of two creator deities, the other is Sa. Alatagana created land
from swamp and placed vegetation on earth. According to legend he eloped with the
daughter of Sa and fathered seven boys and seven girls.
Creator god. He first created the sun by baking a clay pot until it was white
hot and coiling a band of copper around it eight times. He created the moon
in similar fashion but used brass. Black people were created from sunlight and
white from moonlight. Later, having circumsized the earth goddess, whose
clitoris was an anthill, he impregnated her and produced the first creature,
a jackal. Next he fertilized her with rain to engender plant life and finally
became the father of humankind.
The spider. A trickster. A creator god. Something of a scoundrel, but quite well liked.
Many amusing and fanciful stories are told of him.
The Great Serpent who comes out to graze after the rain. The rainbow is his reflection.
Creator god. An abstract principle who lives in the sky. He sends the sun each morning,
roars with the thunder the heralds his storms and is the creator of the earth.
Also known as Akuj.
Creator god. Regarded as a benevolent sky god who brings the rain to parched land.
Moon goddess. The two tribes share the same pantheon of deities. Arawa
is the daughter of the creator god Tororut and his consort Seta.
Creator god. Worshipped by a pigmy tribe living along the banks of the
river Ituri. He is considered to have created humankind from clay and
blood, covered with skin.
Also known as Asase Efua (Fante).
Chthonic fertility goddess. A major deity revered over a wide area of
Akan- and Fante-speaking Ghana. She has no temples or priests but days
(Thursdays) are set aside in her honor and no ploughing is permitted.
By tradition a farmer sacrifices a cockerel to her each year to ensure a good
harvest, sprinkling the blood on the ground. As the womb of the earth,
she represents the goddess of the dead and she is also goddess of truth.
Goddess of wealth. The daughter of Nai, god of the sea, she was born in the
ocean and came to land in a canoe. Her colors are red and white.
Sun god. These two tribes share the same pantheon. The younger brother of
the supreme god of heaven Tororut. In Nandi (Kenya) religion, Asis becomes
the supreme creator god.
Astral god. Identified in Axum Empire inscriptions from circa 200-400 AD.
Creator god. He engendered the earth and also controls the sun and the rain.
He causes disasters such as epidemics and earthquakes if his laws and rites are disobeyed.
Fertility goddess. She was assimulated into the Christian cult of the Virgin Mary,
but is probably the subject of an ancient fertility rite performed by women who
collect various sacred plants and throw them into the river. The festival is known
as Astar yo Mariam (Epiphany of Mary).
God of fisherman. Statues of this deity, in a sitting position, were placed
on the beaches and fishermen and local elders sacrificed to them annually to
ensure a good season.
Hearth goddess. The sister of Loko, god of the trees, whose wood is burned in
the home to cook food.
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