Fawafa
Fawafa, or Fawaafa, is the serpent divinity of the Batammariba of Togo and Benin. All Batammariba groups affirm a common origin as 'children of the Serpent': the great female snake, invisible and living underground, is said to have incubated at Dinaba the eggs from which the first ancestors came forth. Dominique Sewane glosses the name as 'the clan's titular serpent', and each clan maintains its bond with its serpent. In Suzanne Preston Blier's account of Batammaliba religion, Fawafa is likewise the python deity associated with men's initiation, and serpent deities exist in male and female forms; the primordial ancestral Fawaafa of the origin narrative is female. The serpent cult is closely tied to the earth goddess Butan and stands under the supreme solar creator Kuiye.
Domains
- serpents
- initiation
- ancestral origins
Powers
- to incubate and hatch the eggs from which the first human ancestors emerged
- to watch over and protect the clan that venerates it
Relations
- subordinate to: KuiyeKuiye, the solar creator, is held to have made both gods and humans, and the serpent deity belongs to the order of divinities beneath the supreme sun.Blier, Suzanne Preston. The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. (secondary)
- subordinate to: ButanThe subterranean serpent is intimately bound to the cult of the earth goddess Butan; Sewane describes the Batammariba serpent ritual as belonging to one of the oldest cults of the Earth Mother.Sewane, Dominique. Le souffle du mort: Les Batãmmariba (Togo, Bénin). Paris: Plon, coll. Terre Humaine, 2003. (secondary)
Sources
- Fawafa (Fawaafa) is the great invisible female serpent of the underworld who, at the mythical place of origin Dinaba, hatched the eggs from which the first Batammariba ancestors emerged, and who presides as python deity over men's initiations.: Sewane, Dominique. Le souffle du mort: Les Batãmmariba (Togo, Bénin). Paris: Plon, coll. Terre Humaine, 2003. (secondary); Blier, Suzanne Preston. The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. (secondary); UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba (World Heritage nomination dossier no. 1140), 2004. (secondary)