Kuiye

Kuiye is the supreme deity of the Batammariba (Tammari, 'Somba') of the Atakora in north-western Benin and northern Togo. Identified with the sun itself, Kuiye created both the gods and the first human beings and is conceived as simultaneously male and female, which earns the epithet 'Our Father and Our Mother.' The divinity is thought to keep a 'sun village' beyond the western horizon, and Batammariba tower-houses are oriented to face south-west toward that abode. Like every living being, Kuiye is held to possess a corporeal form (also called Kuiye) and a soul, Liye, the latter being the luminous disc that crosses the sky by day. Kuiye is paired with the earth goddess Butan, who is described variously as the divinity's twin and as its wife, completing a sky-above and earth-below cosmic order.

Domains

• sun and solar light
• creation of gods and humans
• cosmic order and orientation

Powers

• to create the gods and the first human beings
• to be the body of the sun crossing the sky

Epithets

• Our Father and Our MotherSuzanne Preston Blier, The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression (Cambridge University Press / University of Chicago Press, 1987). (secondary)

Relations

• twin sibling: ButanThe earth-and-underworld goddess Butan is described as Kuiye's complement, regarded either as the deity's twin or as the deity's wife.Suzanne Preston Blier, The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression (Cambridge University Press / University of Chicago Press, 1987). (secondary)
• spouse: ButanIn the paired sky–earth scheme of Batammariba cosmology Butan is also taken as the consort of the solar Kuiye, the two governing heaven and earth between them.Dominique Sewane, Le souffle du mort : la tragédie de la mort chez les Batãmmariba du Togo, Bénin (Plon, collection Terre humaine, 2003). (secondary)

Sources

• Kuiye is the supreme, androgynous solar deity of the Batammariba, creator of gods and humans, who dwells in a sun-village in the western sky.: Suzanne Preston Blier, The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression (Cambridge University Press / University of Chicago Press, 1987). (secondary); Dafon Aimé Sègla, 'Chasing the Shadow of the Sun: The Batammaliba's Binary System of Time,' Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, vol. 501 (2016), p. 277. (secondary)