Hupila

Hupila is among the most important of the ukine, the named spirit-shrines through which the Jola relate to the remote creator Emitai. Kept in the home of every Diola family, Hupila is the guardian of the household and the patrilineage: it secures the health, prosperity, and fertility of its members and receives the offerings that bind the living to their ancestors. Like the other ukine it is understood to be an offspring of Emitai, an accessible power derived from the high god. The spirit is also feared for its capacity to punish, and shrines connected with Hupila were said to strike offenders by sending termites or fire against their rice granaries. Its cult expanded and diversified during the era of the Atlantic slave trade as families sought protection amid social upheaval.

Parentage

• parent: EmitaiRobert M. Baum, Shrines of the Slave Trade (Oxford University Press, 1999): the ukine are the first offspring of Emitai (secondary)

Domains

• family welfare
• fertility and health

Powers

• guards the well-being of the family and lineage
• afflicts those who neglect their obligations

Relations

• parent: EmitaiRobert M. Baum, Shrines of the Slave Trade (Oxford University Press, 1999): the ukine are the first offspring of Emitai (secondary)
• sibling: EhugnaRobert M. Baum, Shrines of the Slave Trade (Oxford University Press, 1999): the ukine collectively are the offspring of Emitai (secondary)

Sources

• Hupila is a named boekine, the household and lineage spirit-shrine that promotes family welfare, health, and fertility and that can punish neglect.: Robert M. Baum, Shrines of the Slave Trade: Diola Religion and Society in Precolonial Senegambia (Oxford University Press, 1999) (secondary)