Daughter of Rain

The daughter of Va (Rain) is the wife of the culture hero Hwempetla and a pivotal figure of the central rain myth, though the tradition preserves her only by these relations and records no personal name for her. Hwempetla courts and carries her off against her father's warning that the union would loose rains without end; her abduction sets Rain storming across the earth in search of her. In cult she endures beside her husband: the graves of Hwempetla and his wife, long mounds ringed by hollow millstones and washed with beer, together mark the final station of the communal rain hunt.

Parentage

• parent: Vavan Beek, Walter E. A., and Henry Tourneux. 2014. Contes kapsiki du Cameroun. Paris: Karthala. (primary)

Domains

• rain lineage

Powers

• bind the hero to Rain through marriage

Relations

• parent: Vavan Beek, Walter E. A., and Henry Tourneux. 2014. Contes kapsiki du Cameroun. Paris: Karthala. (primary)
• spouse: Hwempetlavan Beek, Walter E. A., and Henry Tourneux. 2014. Contes kapsiki du Cameroun. Paris: Karthala. (primary)

Sources

• The daughter of Rain is carried off by Hwempetla and becomes his wife; her grave lies beside his and is venerated in the rain hunt.: van Beek, Walter E. A., and Henry Tourneux. 2014. Contes kapsiki du Cameroun. Paris: Karthala. (primary); van Beek, Walter E. A. 2025. 'Rain: The Arena of Power and Religion in Africa.' Human Ecology. (secondary)
• Her personal name is not preserved; she is identified in the tradition solely by her descent from Rain and marriage to the hero.: van Beek, Walter E. A. 'The Common Ground: African Notions of Power.' African Studies Centre, Leiden. (secondary)