Zu

Zu is the immanent, active aspect of the divine in Dan religion: the holy spirit-power that emanates from the distant creator Zlan and permeates daily life. Because Zlan is unreachable, it is zu that people actually address, harnessing it by fashioning an object or mask for the power to inhabit, and receiving its guidance through dreams and divination. The Gio and southern communities use the cognate term du for this mediating force; du also names the individual soul that every being receives at birth and that, at death, may pass into another person or an animal. Sources differ on how sharply zu and du should be distinguished, some treating them as dialectal names for a single power, others separating the impersonal spirit-force from the personal soul.

Domains

• spirit force
• mediation
• soul

Powers

• mediates between humanity and the creator
• embodies itself in a consecrated object
• communicates through dreams

Relations

• parent: ZlanZu emanates from the creator Zlan and carries his power into the human world.Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Dan (African people)', describing zu as the holy spirit of Zlan. (secondary)

Sources

• Zu is an immanent holy spirit-power emanating from Zlan that mediates between people and the creator and is contacted through dreams, divination and masquerade.: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Dan (African people)'. (secondary)
• Among the Gio the mediating spirit-power is called du, which is also the individual soul that may be reincarnated in another person or animal.: George Schwab, Tribes of the Liberian Hinterland (Peabody Museum, 1947). (primary)