The thila, tutelary nature deities of the Lobi

The thila are the working deities of Lobi religion: invisible nature spirits, intimately bound to the land, who occupy the rank between the remote creator and the human world. Each owns a place — a grove, a river, a hill, a household — and protects those who serve it while punishing breaches of the prohibitions it imposes. The thila have no voice of their own and reveal their will through the village diviner; they dictate the taboos that order daily life and demand the carving of wooden figures for their altars. Through these figures and through divination the otherwise unseen thila act in the visible world, making them the deities with whom the Lobi have constant practical dealings.

Parentage

• Thangba Yu, the withdrawn sky creator

Domains

• tutelary protection
• moral enforcement

Powers

• to protect a household or village from sickness, sorcery and misfortune
• to make their wishes known through a diviner
• to require the carving of wooden figures for their shrines

Epithets

• thil

Relations

• subordinate to: Thangba Yu, the withdrawn sky creator

Sources

• Henri Labouret, Les tribus du rameau Lobi (Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie, 1931).
• Piet Meyer, Kunst und Religion der Lobi (Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 1981).
• Christopher D. Roy, Art of the Upper Volta Rivers (Meudon: Alain et Françoise Chaffin, 1987).