Tel

Tel is the creator and high god of Ingessana (Gaam) religion. The Gaam word tel is the verb 'to create,' and although outsiders long described the Ingessana as sun-worshippers, their teaching holds that the sun is only the foremost of the things Tel brought into being. Tel is the giver of life and of the ordered world, appealed to at shrines maintained in every village and called upon in the great crises of existence: drought, the sickness of a child, the barrenness of a woman. Sources differ on whether tel names the creator, the sun, or both at once, and the ambiguity is intrinsic to Gaam usage rather than a confusion to be resolved.

Domains

• creation
• sun
• life giving

Powers

• creates the world and every living thing
• answers appeals in drought, sickness and barrenness

Sources

• Tel is the creator of life and of the universe, worshipped at village shrines and called upon in crises such as drought, a sick child, or a barren woman.: "Ingessana people," Wikipedia (accessed 2026). (secondary); "People Groups: The Ingessana," AfriGO, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (afrigo.org). (secondary)
• The word tel is the verb 'to create'; scholarship cautions that describing the Ingessana as sun-worshippers misreads the sun as merely the most significant of created things rather than the creator itself.: M. C. Jedrej, Ingessana (Brill, 1995). (primary); "Ingessana people," Wikipedia (accessed 2026). (secondary)