Water Spirit
Ijaw · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Represents the owuamapu, the class of Ijaw water-spirits central to Delta cosmology, personified by their chief Adumu (Kalabari Owu). Spirit-class entities are classed as deity per registry rules; sex left unknown because the owu are a collective class with no fixed gender.
Domains
- rivers and waters
- fertility
Powers
- possess and whirl the masked dancers
Sources
- The owu/owuamapu are the Ijaw water-spirits governing rivers, fertility, and artistic power; Adumu is named as their head among the Brass and Kalabari Ijaw.: P. Amaury Talbot, Tribes of the Niger Delta (Sheldon Press, 1932). (ethnography); Robin Horton, "The Kalabari World-View," Africa 32 (1962). (ethnography)