Ruwa

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.