Supreme Being / sun-high-god of the Chaga (Wachagga, Chagga) of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Documented by the classic ethnographies of Dundas (1924) and Gutmann (1926). Whether Ruwa is the sun or dwells in it was, Dundas notes, unsettled among the Chaga themselves. Classified deity (high-god).
Domains
sun
providence
Powers
provide sustenance and deliver from distress
Epithets
Ruwa
Sources
Dundas, C. (1924). Kilimanjaro and Its People: A History of the Wachagga, their Laws, Customs and Legends. London: Witherby, pp. 107-109.
Gutmann, B. (1926). Das Recht der Dschagga. Munich: C. H. Beck.
Dundas, C. (1924). Kilimanjaro and Its People. Witherby.