Vodu of Iron and War

Vodu of iron, war and smithing; child of Mawu-Lisa and brother of the other great vodu. The English descriptor leads name.primary; the Gbe name Gu stands in alt/term. Cognate of the Yoruba Ogun and the corpus figure fon_gu. Typed deity. Documented for the Ewe by Ellis (1890) and Parrinder (1961) and for the cognate Fon by Herskovits (1938).

Parentage

• Twofold Creator Pair

Domains

• iron and metalworking
• war and weapons
• crafts and tools

Powers

• Forge iron and bestow on humankind the blade, the tool and the weapon
• Clear the primordial bush and open the roads, making the world fit for men
• Give victory in war and strength to the warrior's arm

Relations

• sibling: Earth Lord of Smallpox
• sibling: Vodu of the Bush and the Hunt
• sibling: Trickster-Linguist of the Crossroads
• sibling: Thunder God of the Storm
• equated with: Gu
• equated with: Ogun

Sources

• M. J. Herskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom (1938), vol. 2, the iron-vodu Gu.
• E. G. Parrinder, West African Religion (2nd ed. 1961), Gu the iron- and war-god, counterpart of Ogun.
• A. B. Ellis, The Ewe-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (1890).