Deities
Followers of traditional African religions pray to various secondary deities (Ogoun, Da, Agwu, Esu, Mbari, Thiorak, etc.) as well as to their ancestors. These secondary gods serve as intermediaries between humans and the creator god. Most indigenous African societies believe in a single creator god (Chukwu, Nyame, Olodumare, Ngai, Roog, etc.). Some recognize a dual or complementary twin god such as Mawu-Lisa. For example, in one of the Yoruba creation myths, Olodumare, the supreme god, is said to have created Obatala, a secondary deity, who then created humans on earth. Olodumare then infused those human creations with life. "Some societies also deify entities like the earth, the sun, the sea, lightning, or Nature. Each deity has its own priest or priestess."
Read more about this topic: Traditional African Religion
Famous quotes containing the word deities:
“The cloud was so dark that it needed all the bright lights that could be turned upon it. But for four years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what a cost!”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“The gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beasts upon them. Jupiter
Became a bull, and bellowed; the green Neptune
A ram, and bleated; and the fire-robed god,
Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)