Great Mother
Ijaw · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Supreme creator goddess of the Ijaw (Izon) of the Niger Delta. The Western Delta Ijaw conceive of the supreme being as feminine, hence Woyengi / Woyingi, glossed 'our mother.' She is classed as deity. Egbesu and Tamuno are sometimes named as related/regional faces of the supreme power.
Domains
- creation of humankind
- destiny and fate
- motherhood
Powers
- mould human beings from earth
- allot each person their chosen destiny
Epithets
- Our Mother The great mother-creator who moulds each person from earth and grants the destiny they chooseIjo (Izon) oral tradition; Gabriel Okara (secondary)
Relations
- rival: Childless SorceressReciprocal of ijaw_ogboinba.rival — Endowed by Woyengi at creation, the childless sorceress pursued the creatress to demand her recreating power and was defeated.Ulli Beier (ed.), The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (1966), Ijaw myth of Woyengi (primary)
Sources
- Woyengi ("Great Mother") is the Ijaw creatress who descends in lightning, moulds the first humans from earth, and lets each choose its own destiny.: "Woyengi," Encyclopaedia Britannica (online). (encyclopedia); P. Amaury Talbot, Some Nigerian Fertility Cults (Oxford University Press, 1927). (ethnography)