Ruwa
Chaga · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
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 The Sun and supreme god of the Chaga, merciful liberator and giver of lifeBruno Gutmann, on the Chaga of Kilimanjaro (secondary)
Sources
- Ruwa is the Chagga Supreme Being whose name is identical with their word for the sun; he is supreme above all other powers and the ultimate arbiter of fate, though distant from daily life.: Dundas, C. (1924). Kilimanjaro and Its People: A History of the Wachagga, their Laws, Customs and Legends. London: Witherby, pp. 107-109. (reference); Gutmann, B. (1926). Das Recht der Dschagga. Munich: C. H. Beck. (reference)
- Ruwa is regarded chiefly as liberator and provider of sustenance rather than creator of humankind; his abode is associated with the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.: Dundas, C. (1924). Kilimanjaro and Its People. Witherby. (reference)