Wuro
Wuro is the supreme creator god of the Bobo (Bobo-Fing / Bobo Madaré), a Mande people of western Burkina Faso and Mali. He is held to be wholly unrepresentable and is never depicted in sculpture or described in human terms, such representation being considered impossible and profane. Bobo cosmogony recounts that Wuro shaped the world from a primordial ball of mud and ordered all things into balanced, opposing pairs — village and bush, domesticated and wild, male and female, culture and nature, farmer and blacksmith, human and spirit — the equilibrium of which is precarious and easily disturbed by human action such as harvesting crops from the bush. When creation was complete and humans had to assume their own destiny, Wuro withdrew from the world but left behind a part of himself, his son Dwo, so that a relationship between humanity and the creator would endure. The Bobo distinguish two great epochs: the time of Wuro, when the universe was made, and historical time, which began when Wuro gave humanity Dwo.
Children
Domains
- creation cosmogony
- cosmic order balance
Powers
- to order all of creation into balanced opposing pairs
- to fashion the world out of a primordial ball of mud
Epithets
- WuroGuy Le Moal, 'Les Bobo: nature et fonction des masques', Travaux et documents de l'ORSTOM 121, Paris: ORSTOM, 1980. (secondary)
Relations
- creator of: DwoWhen Wuro withdrew from the world he left behind a part of himself, his son Dwo, so that the rupture between humanity and the creator would not be total; Dwo's many manifestations are mirrored in the variety of Bobo masks.Metropolitan Museum of Art, curatorial entry for a Bobo Bolo helmet mask, citing Guy Le Moal and Christopher D. Roy on Bobo cosmology. (secondary); Guy Le Moal, 'Les Bobo: nature et fonction des masques', Travaux et documents de l'ORSTOM 121, Paris: ORSTOM, 1980. (secondary)
Sources
- Wuro is the unrepresentable creator high god of the Bobo, who formed the world from a ball of mud, ordered it into balanced opposing pairs, then withdrew, leaving humanity his son Dwo as intermediary.: Guy Le Moal, 'Les Bobo: nature et fonction des masques', Travaux et documents de l'ORSTOM 121, Paris: ORSTOM, 1980. (secondary); Christopher D. Roy, 'Art of the Upper Volta Rivers', Meudon: Alain et Françoise Chaffin, 1987. (secondary)