Mawu-Lisa
Mawu-Lisa AfricaGod of the Fon, a warlike people of Dahomey. The turbulent history of the Fon kingdom, its defeats and its victories, is reflected in the composite character of the Fon pantheon. Gods were imported from conquered tribes, in order to secure their benevolence, and on occasions the usurpation of a foreign dynasty also led to important changes in worship. The dual deity Mawu-Lisa, for example, came from Aja, to the west of Dahomey.
Although Mawu-Lisa is thought of as a creator deity, the Fon sometimes say that there existed a god prior to Mawu-Lisa. This was Nana Buluku, an androgynous deity, and the progenitor of the dual creator. At the beginning of the present world, however, the Fon recognize only the existence of Mawu-Lisa and their offspring, vodu, sky gods and earth gods. It appears that Mawu-Lisa ‘created’, ‘shaped’, and ‘ordered’ the universe out of a pre-existing material.
In the dual Mawu-Lisa, Mawu is...
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