LITMIR.BIZ

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take you.’”¹²

      Mwari is the most common name for God among the Shona of Southern Africa. The metaphors surrounding Mwari exist in closest association with the female principle. For instance, the metaphor for God most commonly used among the Shona is Mbuya (grandmother). The VaHera substitute Mbuya for Mwari when they refer to Mwari’s powers of creation and fertility. Runji is another God as mother metaphor used to depict the Creator God. This Shona word means “needle,” which, like lightning, metaphorically sews the heavens and earth together. The craft of sewing (kusona) among the Shona, moreover, is not only traditionally associated with women: all women are expected to know how to sew.¹³

      The female image of God is also reflected in the Shona metaphor for God as muvumbapasi (molder or fashioner of things). Another popular metaphor used for God among the Shona is musikavanhu. This metaphor speaks to the fact that God is both male and female. Among the Shona, the word kusika is associated with the kindling of fire with two sticks. One of the sticks has a hole in it, in which grass is placed, and the other stick, musika, is twisted in the hole until fire is created. This fire-making tool symbolizes male and female organs.¹⁴ The female image of God is also expressed in metaphors that depict God as dziva/dzivaguru and chidziva chopo. These metaphors associate God with water. Water is regarded by the Shona as a symbol for the universal mother, who is the source of all life. The Shona also have metaphors that clearly depict God as male. One is sororezhou/wokumusoro. Sororezhou means “elephant head” or father, and wokumusoro means “he who dwells on high.” Thus, in Shonaland, God is both male and female.¹⁵

       The Genderless or Dual-Gender African God

      Among the Malagasy of Southern Africa, the Supreme God is Zanahary or Andriamanitra. The source of life, creator of all things, and the founding and primary ancestor of the Malagasy, Zanahary is believed to be both male and female. She/He is both celestial and terrestrial. The earthly Zanahary created humans from clay or wood, and the heavenly Zanahary breathed life into them. Zanahary is a supreme judge of moral justice. She/He judges tangena¹⁶ ordeals and distinguishes between the innocent and the guilty. Zanahary also sees in the darkness as well as in the light.¹⁷

      In the western part of the continent live the Diola of Casamance, who call the Great God Emitai. Emitai is both male and female. She/He is believed to have “made everything, even the little ants.”¹⁸ She/He is all-knowing, the provider of the necessities of life, and a source of aid in times of trouble. Emitai is closely associated with rain and fertility, She/He communicates with humans through dreams and visions and selects certain people to reveal Her/His moral teachings.¹⁹

      The Dogon of Mali, neighbors of the Senegambia and the Diola, refer to the Creator God as Amma. Amma is the maker of the earth, life, fertility, and rain.²⁰ The word amma, like many African words, has more than one meaning. In addition to referencing the Dogon Supreme God, the word can also mean “to grasp, to hold firm, or to establish.” The Dogon believe that Amma holds the world firmly in both hands. Although commonly written about as male, the metaphor of Amma as the God who gives life and fertility invokes the female principle. To this end, the Dogon consider Amma to symbolize both male and female principles. Amma is therefore more appropriately characterized as genderless or as being of dual gender.²¹

      The Maasai, Embu, Meru, and Gĩkũyũ of Kenya call their genderless Great God Ngai. Ngai created the world and is sometimes referred to as female, as is suggested in the saying, “Naamoni aiyai,” which means “The She to whom I pray.” Ngai manifests in two forms: Ngai Narok, the good and benevolent Ngai, who is represented as black; and Ngai Na-nyokie, the angry Ngai, who is represented as red. In neighboring Tanzania, among the Haya people their Great God, Wamara, rules the universe. Wamara is neither male or female, and Her/His role is not gender-specific. Wamara is supreme among all other deities and spirits and is the sovereign of the souls of the dead. Haya women play a central role in the worship of Wamara. The new moon sacrifice performed in Wamara’s honor is marked by the gathering of the clan, and the offering of coffee beans, banana beer, and grass by the women.²²

      Whereas the vast majority of African groups describe a gradual formulation of the world or universe in stages, the ancient Egyptians reference a time before creation, a time before the appearance of land and light, during which four pairs of male and female forces emerged out of chaos. This is in agreement with the African belief in the importance of dualities and balance in their worlds. The male and female forces appeared simultaneously. Nun (m) and nunet (f) represented the watery expanse, and lack of solidity. They were the god and goddess of the ocean. Heh (m) and hehet (f) represented unending time, a lack of time. They were charged with raising the sun. Kek (m) and keket (f) represented darkness or a lack of light. Their mission was to produce the gloom of the night in which light would emerge. Finally, tenem or amun (m) and tenemet or amaunet (f) represented a lack of direction, wandering. They were the forces of mystery or the hidden. These eight forces that existed before creation, or the Hermopolitan Ogdoad, represent the Egyptian early stage of creation, which continued with the emergence of Ra and the first generation of deities.

      Creation proper was then ordered by the ancient Egyptian principal Creator God, the Sun-God, Ra. Ra was also called Atum, Atem, or Tem, the “Complete One,” who created, completed, or finished the world. This universal God of the Egyptians rules heaven, earth, and all other gods. Atum is connected to a pair of male and female forces: Shu, the air and moisture that carry the sky, and Tefinut, the female supplement of Shu. Shu and Tefinut are offshoots of Ra or Atum; they are expressions of Atum’s function.²³ South of Egypt, in the land of the Nubians, the Great Creator God of the Shilluk people of Sudan is Juok. Juok is formless and invisible, and like air is believed to be everywhere. Juok is more powerful than any deity or human, and is worshipped through Nyakang, the first king and founder of the Shilluk nation.²⁴

      To summarize, the dual nature of God is consistent with the broader cosmological principles of numerous African nations—that of a duality, a pairing and/or balancing of opposite forces (the idea that male and female principles make a complete whole). The Igbo of eastern Nigeria express this concept in the adage, “where one thing stands, something else will stand beside it.” It is this duality, this complementarity, this balance, that is symbolically expressed in most facets of African religions, culture, and sociopolitical organization. And the most powerful of these spiritual forces is the genderless African Great God—the highest-ranking monarch of the African spiritual political constituency.

       Great God’s Helpers: Goddesses

      Great God’s helpers are the lesser gods and goddesses. They are personifications of natural phenomena. They are powerful and worshipped. The Egyptian goddess hathor is a prehistoric goddess from whom all other gods and goddesses derived. Usually depicted as a woman with the head and ears of a cow, she personified the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood.²⁵ The Egyptian goddess nut is the goddess of the sky. She regulates the times of the day by swallowing the sun in the evening and giving birth to it in the morning. Nut is hathor’s sister and is wife to geb, the Egyptian god of the earth. With geb, nut gave birth to the gods and goddess osiris, horus, seth, and isis. Nut belongs to the first family of the deities in Egypt.²⁶ Nut’s daughter, isis, is a goddess of healing. Her Pylon Temple was a great center of healing.²⁷ Another Egyptian goddess, qadesh (the holy one), is the goddess of love, sensuality, and fertility. She is most commonly depicted riding on the back of a lion, sometimes standing up, holding snakes, lotus buds, or papyrus plants—all symbols of fertility. Egyptians also worshipped qadesh as the goddess of nature.²⁸

      Figure 1.1. Narmer Palette, Egypt, ca. 3100 BCE—Royal Ontario Museum. Photograph by Daderot, 20 November 2011.

      In Nubian country, buk

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