Mother
Hausa · deity · living Bori tradition; pre Islamic roots · Recorded classification
Spirit-class figure entered as a deity (senior female iska). 'Inna' is the everyday Hausa word for 'mother'; 'Uwargona' ~ 'mother/owner of the farm field'. The Doguwa are a wild, dangerous category of bori spirits. Sources: Besmer (1983); Tremearne (1914).
Domains
- motherhood women
- illness affliction
Powers
- to seize a person with possession-sickness and trance
Epithets
- Inna The Mother; chief female spirit of the Bori, “Owner of the Farm,” bringer of the cool winds and of illnessFremont Besmer, on the Hausa Bori cult (secondary)
Sources
- Inna ('Mother'), also called Uwargona/Uwar Gona and identified with Bakar Doguwa ('the black, tall woman'), is a principal queen of Jangare and a senior female bori spirit, linked to the wild Doguwa spirits and to her adulterous attachment to Kuturu the Leper.: Fremont E. Besmer, Horses, Musicians, and Gods (1983) (secondary); A.J.N. Tremearne, The Ban of the Bori: Demons and Demon-Dancing in West and North Africa (1914) (secondary)