Akwa is the Jukun deity of the ancestors, venerated as protector and provider at household shrines throughout Jukunland. Together with Kenjo he formed the most common pair of family cult-deities recorded by C. K. Meek, and his name is connected with the aku-ahwa ancestral masquerade and post-burial rites through which the Jukun dead were honoured and mediated to the living.
Domains
ancestors
protection
Powers
to protect the household and provide for its members on behalf of the ancestral dead
Sources
C. K. Meek, A Sudanese Kingdom: An Ethnographical Study of the Jukun-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1931)
Nathan Irmiya Elawa, "'The Eliminated Gods': The Christian Reconfiguration of Jukun Theism," Studies in World Christianity 28.2 (2022), 209-228
Victor Ukaogo and Adihikon Tanko, "Linguistic and Cultural Practices in Jukunland: Contrasting Features of Resurgent Tradition" (2020)