Looa

Looa (also Lo'a, Looaa) is the supreme creator deity of the Iraqw of the Mbulu highlands in north-central Tanzania. She is conceived as female, the maker of the world and the giver of life, and is identified with the sun, the sky, and the rain. Iraqw speak of her in maternal terms as Ayi Looa, 'Mother Looa,' and the spontaneous cry in danger is Ayi ee Looa, 'O God, my mother.' A benevolent figure who brings health, fertility, and rain, Looa receives sacrifice and the morning prayers of those who turn to face the rising sun. Her femininity, secured by Iraqw grammatical gender, became a noted problem for Bible translators, who in places substituted the Swahili Mungu. Looa stands in fundamental cosmological opposition to Neetlangw, the dangerous being of the world below.

Domains

• sun and sky
• creation and life
• rain and fertility

Powers

• to create the world and give life
• to grant rain, health, and fertility
• to protect human beings

Epithets

• Ayi Looa
• Ayi ee Looa

Relations

• enemy: Neetlangw

Sources

• Mojola, Aloo Osotsi. 1995. 'A "Female" God in East Africa: The Problem of Translating God's Name among the Iraqw of Mbulu, Tanzania.' The Bible Translator 46(2). DOI: 10.1177/026009439504600206.
• Winter, E.H. 1966. 'Territorial Groupings and Religion among the Iraqw.' In Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, ed. Michael Banton, 155-174. London: Tavistock Publications.