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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)
BACAX (Roman, North African)
BAGBA (West African)
BANGA (Ngbandi - Northern Zaire and Central African Republic)
BUADZA (Gan - district around Accra, Ghana, West Africa)
BUKU (Various West African peoples)
BUMBA (Boshongo - Bantu, Southern Africa)
CAELESTIS (Carthaginian - Northern Africa)
CGHENE (Isoko - Southern Nigeria, West Africa)
CHIUKE (Ibo - Nigeria, West Africa)
COL (Nuer - Sudan, North Africa)
DANH (Dahomey)
DEDWEN (Nubian)
DENG (Nuer and Dinka - Sudan, Northern Africa)
DIANG (Shilluk - Sudan, Northern Africa)
DOUDOUN (Nubian)
DXUI (Bushman; to the Hottentots, TSUI; to the Xhosa and Ponda, THIXO)
DZIVAGURU (Korekore (Shona) - Northern Zimbabwe, Southern Africa)
ESHU (Yoruba)
GUNAB (Hottentot)
GUA (Ga tribe of West Africa)
KIBUKA (Baganda)
LEZA (Central Africa)
MAWU-LISA (Ewe)
MULUNGU (East Africa)
The concept of a supreme being and creator is nearly universal
in Africa, although there are few temples to him. The titles which Africans have
given God are wondrous in their variety. A few of these are: Creator, Moulder, Giver
of Rain and Sunshine, he Who Brings the Seasons, He Who Thunders, Ancient of Days,
the First, the Limitless, the One Who Bends Even Kings, the One You Meet Everywhere,
the Firelighter, Great Mother, Greatest of Friends, the Kindly One, the Providence Who
Watches All Like the Sun, the Great Pool Contemporary of Everything, the Great Spider,
the One Beyond All Thanks, the Bow in the Sky, the Angry One, the Inexplicable.
NANAN-BOUCLOU (Ewe)
'NGAI (Masai)
NYAME (Ashanti)
NYASAYE (Maragoli, Kenya)
NZAME (Fan people of the Congo)
SAGBATA (Dahomey; to the Yoruba, SHAGPONA)
TANO (Ashanti)
TSUI' GOAB (Hottentots)
UNKULUNKULU (Zulu)
YO (Dahomey)
Resources:
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.
Local god. A rare example of a named deity from this region, thought to
have been worshipped as a cave god. Known from inscription at Cirta (Constantine).
Animistic spirit. Fetish who allegedly controls the wind and rain and
whose shaman keeps the winds locked in a huge pot.
God of clear waters. One of seven gods invoked at daybreak, the creator deity of
white-skinned people.
Also known as OLILA.
God of the wind. Also regarded as a storm god.
A sky god sometimes worshipped as a goddess. Buku created everything, even the
other gods.
Creator god. The progenitor of the world out of chaos. When he experienced
a stomach-ache he vomited the earth, sun, moon and, finally, all living things,
including humankind.
Moon goddess. The Romanized form of the Punic goddess Tanit. Elsewhere she
became sycretized into the cult of Aphrodite-Venus. Annual games were held
in her honor. She was brought to Rome in the form of an abstract block of stone
(like that of Kybele from Pessinus) and became popular there during the early
part of the third century AD; in this guise she was known as the "mighty
protectress of the Tarpeian hill."
Creator god. An abstract being who is embodied by a mediator in the form of a
sacred wooden totem, the Oyise. The god has no temples or priests.
Sky god. Regarded as a creator god.
Also known as CHOL.
Rain god. He brings rain and thunderstorms.
Souls of people killed by lightening have been described as colwic.
Also known as DAN AYIDO HWEDO.
Snake god. The Haitians know him as Dan Petro. The Rainbow Snake who encircles the
world, Danh is often protrayed with his tail in his mouth as a symbol of unity and
wholeness.
Also known as DEDUN.
God of riches and incense. Virtually unknown Egyptianized deity to whom sanctuaries
were dedicated by Tuthmosis III and who may have brought gifts from southern regions.
Usually found in anthropomorphic form but occasionally depicted as a lion.
Sky god. Considered to be a foreigh deity in the Nuer pantheon and a bringer of disease.
His daughter is the moon goddess. In Dinka religion he is a storm and fertility god
bringing lightning and rain.
Cow goddess. Living along the west bank of the Nile, the Shilluk perceive Diang as the
consort of the first human, Omara, sent by the creator god. Her son is Okwa, who married
the crocodile goddess Nyakaya. Thus the three main elements of Shilluk life are contained
in their religious beginnings - men (sky), cows (earth) and crocodiles (water).
Also known as DODONU.
God of Nile cataracts. Depicted as an antelope with twisted horns. His consorts are Sati and Anuket.
Modeled on the Egyptian ram god Khnum.
A creator god. In the beginning, Dxui took the form of a different flower or
plant every day, becoming himself at night, until he had created all the plants
and flowers that exist.
Chthonic mother goddess. Originally said to have ruled both heaven and earth and lived in
a palace by a sacred lake near Dande. She is depicted wearing magical substances. Her sacred
creatures are mythical golden sunbirds, probably modeled on swallows, a pair of which were
actually discovered in Zimbabwe.
A trickster. A shape-shifter, Eshu can change his form at will, and can even seem to be
both huge and small at the same time. Eshu confuses men and drives them to madness.
But Eshu also knows all human tongues and acts as a go-between for mortals and the gods.
The enemy of Tsui-Goab, Gunab lived under a pile of stones. Gunab kept overpowering
Tsui-Goab, but the god grew stronger after each battle. Because he killed so many,
Gunab is sometimes identified with death. Creator of the rainbow.
God of thunder, blacksmiths and farmers. Gua's temples are often found at blacksmith's
forges.
A war god sent to save the Baganda people. The king of the Baganda asked heaven for
assistance in war, and Kibuka was sent to aid them. Warned not to have anything to do
with the enemy's women, Kibuka neverthelessm made love to a woman prisoner. Unwisely,
Kibuka confided in her, and after escaping she told the enemy how Kibuka could be
killed, by firing arrows into the cloud where he was hiding. Kibuka flew off to a
tall tree to die, and a temple was built at the place where his body was found.
"The One Who Besets." Known to a number of peoples, Leza is the Supreme God who rules
the sky and send wind and rain. Leza sits on the backs of all people, and no one ever
breaks free of him. Leza is said to be growing old and so does not hear prayers as well
as he once did.
The great god and goddess of the sun and moon. Lisa is the sun and Mawu is the moon.
God, the Supreme Being.
The original god of the Ewe tribe, both male and female, Nanan-Bouclou is much too remote
for worship. In Haiti Nanan-Bouclou is remembered as the god of herbs and medicines.
Creator god. At birth, 'Ngai gives each man a guardian spirit to ward off danger and
carry him away at the moment of death. The evil are carried off to a desert, while the
good go to a land of rich pastures and many cattle.
Supreme God of Heaven, both the sun god and the moon goddess. Nyame created the three
realms, the sky, the earth and the underworld. Before being born, souls are taken to
Nyame and washed in a golden bath, Nyame gives the soul its destiny and places some of
the water of life in the soul's mouth. The soul is then fit to be born.
Chief god of the Maragoli. Spirits aid Maragoli's work, and they are represented by
round stones circling a pole which represents the god.
A vague and shadowy god whose likeness can't be captured in wood, stone or metal.
Nzame lived on earth with his three sons, Whiteman, Blackman and Gorilla. Blackman,
Gorilla and all their kinfolk sinned against Nzame, and so Nzame took all his wealth
and went to live with his son Whiteman in the west. Gorilla and his kin went
to live in the jungle. Without he wealth, power and knowledge of Nzame, Blackman and
his kin live a hard life of poverty and ignorance, ever dreaming of the western land
where dwells Nzame and his favored son, Whiteman.
God of smallpox. Sagbata's shrines were painted with a design of small spots. Sagbata's
priests fought small pox with both prayers and medical knowledge, and wielded great
power over the people because they had learned how to use dried scabs both to immunize
themselves against the disease and to spread it. Smallpox was considered a great
disgrace and its victims were ostracized.
The second oldest son of God, and god of the river of the same name. The gods of the
other rivers and families in the same region are all his family. Long ago Tano lost
a singing match with Death. Tano and Death sang defiance to each other for over a month,
but neither could win so they had to compromise. When someone is injured or falls ill,
whichever god arrives first will claim him. If Tano arrives first, the person will live,
but if Death arrives first the patient is lost.
"Wounded Knee," "Father of Our Fathers." A rain god who lives in the clouds, a great
chief and magician. Tsui' Goab made the first man and woman from rocks. Several
times Tsui' Goab died and rose again, to great joy and feasting. Men invoke Tsui'
Goab with the first rays of dawn and give oaths in his name.
"Old, Old One." Unkulunkulu was both the first man and the creator, a god of the earth
who had no traffic with the heavens. Unkulunkulu showed men how to live together and
gave them knowledge of the world in which they lived.
A trickster, neither god nor human. Yo's greed constantly gets him in trouble. Mawu
created him for no good reason. Yo is everywhere. You can't kill him, you can't eat
him, you can't get rid of him at all. Yo is the only one of his kind. One is enough.
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