Geno, the Eternal One

Geno, also Gueno, is the supreme creator deity of the pastoral Fulɓe of the western Sahel. Tradition-bearers gloss the name from a root meaning 'eternity', presenting him as the eternal and uncreated source of all things. In the celebrated cosmogonic recitation he draws the universe out of an original drop of milk, shaping in succession stone, iron, fire, water and air, and from them the first human being; when death in turn threatens to undo creation, the supreme being descends a third time under the epithet Doondari and overcomes death. Conceived as omnipotent and omnipresent yet remote from daily affairs, Geno does not show himself but works through the primordial serpent Tyanaba. The name survived the conversion of the Fulɓe elite to Islam and is widely used for God in Fulfulde to this day.

Domains

• creation cosmogony
• supreme sky divinity

Powers

• to create the world from a primordial drop of milk
• to descend in person and defeat death

Epithets

• DoondariUlli Beier (ed.), The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966). (secondary)

Relations

• creator of: Tyanaba, Primordial Serpent and Ancestor of CattleGeno does not manifest physically but acts upon the world through the great primordial serpent Tyanaba, which the tradition regards as his instrument and the first ancestor of cattle.Encyclopedia of African Religion, ed. Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama (Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2009), entry 'Fula (Fulbe)'. (secondary)

Sources

• Geno (Gueno), glossed 'the Eternal One', is the supreme and eternal creator of the pre-Islamic Fulɓe, who fashions the cosmos from a drop of milk and acts in the world through the serpent Tyanaba.: Ulli Beier (ed.), The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966), 'How the World was Created from a Drop of Milk'. (secondary); Encyclopedia of African Religion, ed. Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama (Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2009), entry 'Fula (Fulbe)'. (secondary)