Among the more popular attributes
are the following: the molder, the bringer of rain, the one who thunders from
afar, the one who gives life, the who gives and destroys, the ancient of days,
the one who humbles the great, the one who you meet everywhere, the one who
brings sunshine, the one on whom we can lean and not fall, the one who is
father of little babies, the high one up, the immense ocean whose circular
headdress is the horizon, and the Universal Father-Mother.
Unquestionably,
however, the African idea of a creator God who brings justice to the Earth is
the most consistent description of the Almighty.
Among the Konso of Ethiopia, Wa'qha , the Supreme God, originated morality, social order, justice, and
fertility. Wa'qha gave the breath of life to humans who had been formed but could
neither move nor speak. When Wa'qha’s wife saw the state of
humanity, she pleaded with him to do something about human immobility and lack
of speech. Wa'qha then gave humans breath and humans began to speak and to move.
Yet when humans die, they must give breath back to Wa'qha. The Akan Nyankopon had
to deal with humans trying to reach God after he had retreated into a distant
abode. A woman wanting to reach God had her children stack pounding mortars on
each other until they almost reached God. They were one short of reaching God
when the woman thought that the only way to succeed was to have one of the
mortars taken from the bottom and put on the top to reach God. When this was
tried, the whole thing crashed to the Earth. Since that time, no humans have
been able to reach the distant abode of God.
The Yoruba God name Olorun is
derived from Orun, which means “heaven,” and Ol, the prefix for owner. The
myths of Olorun are less anthropomorphic than other divinities. He is
considered a cosmic force, ruler over all other gods. Controller of all life
and natural forces, he is the Supreme Being to whom man, nature, and lesser
gods answer. It is possible that one other god, Obatala (Great God) or Eleda
(Creator), which is also another name for Olorun, existed before him in the
Yoruba construction of their pantheon. However, Olorun created the Earth and
gave it to Obatala to finish. Although seldom referred to in proverb and myths,
Olorun is known by many names. Among them are:
Eleda —Creator;
Alaye —living; Owner of life;
Elemi —Owner of breath;
Alagbara gbagbo —all powerful;
Olodumare —almighty;
Oluwa —Lord. The term
Oluwa is used for other gods as
well, but none are as depended on as Olorun. His importance is reflected in
daily sayings such as Olorun Yioju ni re, “may God awake us well,” Biflorin ba
she, “if God Goes it,” and is he Olorun, “God has done it.” Despite his
prevalence in the Yoruba daily life, there is no regular worship of Olorun.
He is called on during times of
great dis-tress, when all other gods have failed. The Supreme God stands alone
in the African tradition. As the most ancient Africans believed, the aim of
humans was to maintain balance, order, and harmony to continue to beat back
chaos. One sees this at the beginning of religious history in the relationship
of the people of Egypt to their divinities.
This is possible because the
Supreme God also made possible lesser divinities whose job it was to assist
humans in the maintenance of harmony. A Supreme Deity is the progenitor of all
other deities. For example, Nyankopon, the truly great Nyame, is personified by
the sun in the culture of the Akan, the dynamic center of the state as the sun
is of the sky. He is the creator of all gods, and so many golden objects are
symbolic of his radiance.
The Queen Mother is the daughter of
the moon, but only the Supreme Deity is said to be a progenitor of gods. A
Vodun priest in Benin was once asked, “Where is the house of God?” to which he
replied, “Here, all around us. God cannot live in a mere house made by men.”
It was on the continent of Africa where
humans first built temples hoping to house the spirit of God. But this was soon
abandoned as the philosophical understanding increased to the point where
priests recognized that the Supreme Deity could not live in a finite house. One
could not build a house massive enough to contain the creator. Karnak temple in
Egypt is the world’s largest religious site. But after Karnak and Gebel Barkal,
Africa built no religious structure as large ever again, and no other people
have built anything as large as these two temples devoted to Amen. The
spiritual African knows that the Supreme Deity cannot be contained. Thus, Lake
Bosumtwi, a huge, perfect circle lake, but it does not hold the Supreme Deity.
It is sacred, but even the lake cannot house the Great Nyankapon.
Nzambi Mpungu, the Supreme Creator
of the Bakongo people of the Congo, is invisible and omnipotent, but he cannot
be contained. He intervenes in the creation of every person, indeed, in the
creation of everything. Humans render him no worship because he has need of
none and is inaccessible anyway. Therefore, Nzambi, the sovereign master, cannot
be approached. Yet it is Nzambi who watches every human being and then takes
him or her out of life into death. Families have small shrines in many
societies, and the father, mother, or head of family may simply salute the
Supreme Deity who created Heaven, the sun, and the Earth, but for strategic
living in the community of humans, it is the lineage deity and kinship
ancestors that are most important.
The Mwari Triad of the Shona who
live in the Belingwe region see the deity Mwari as the father, mother, and son.
This deity is related to the legendary king, Soro-Re-Zhou, for whom a cave is
named in the Matopo Hills of Zimbabwe. Given the numerous titles found just
among the Shona people of Zimbabwe, it should come as no surprise to the reader
that the complexity and diversity of the idea of God in African cultures are
fundamentally philosophical issues.
For example, one can see Mwari as
the Supreme Being above all men and nature, Creator of good and evil, the
Source of Life, who represents fertility and at the same time know, as most
Africans know, that Mwari is not a daily guide for humanity. Other African
people have shown that their names for the deity reflect their philosophy and
way of life as well.
What are your thoughts?
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