Supreme God
Ibibio · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Supreme sky-god and creator of the Ibibio and Efik of the Cross River. Foregrounded with his wife Atai as the origin-of-death narrative: his fear of rivalry leads to the prohibitions whose breaking brings mortality into the world. Classed as deity.
Domains
- creation
- sky
- death
Powers
- fashion the first man and woman
- impose the prohibitions on farming and procreation
Epithets
- Abasi The supreme creator and sky-god, who with Atai set the order of the worldIbibio/Efik ethnography (D. A. Talbot) (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: Death-BringerAtai, Abasi's consort, let the first humans settle the earth and sent death and discord to curb their rivalry with the sky-god.Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, vol. 2 (1926) (secondary)
Sources
- Abasi is the Ibibio/Efik supreme creator and sky-god who made the first humans, set the prohibitions on farming and procreation, and whose wife Atai loosed death and discord when the prohibitions were broken.: P. Amaury Talbot, Life in Southern Nigeria: The Magic, Beliefs and Customs of the Ibibio Tribe (Macmillan, 1923). (ethnography); Recorded Efik/Ibibio creation myth of Abasi and Atai. (encyclopedia)