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.