Nyasaye
Luo · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Supreme Being of the Luo of East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania/Uganda). Name Nyasaye is widely shared in the Lake region. Distinct from Were (a regional/older name for the high-god) and from the juogi (spirits). Classified deity (high-god).
Domains
- creation
- omnipresence
- rain and fertility
Powers
- create the beginning of all things
- Grants prosperity, fertility and rain to those who sacrifice
Epithets
- Nyasaye The supreme God of the Luo, source of life, approached through the ancestorsLuo (Nilotic) ethnography (secondary)
Sources
- Nyasaye is the supreme creator of the Luo, omnipotent but remote, also called Obong'o Nyakalaga ('the one-of-a-kind, the all-powerful ubiquitous one'); the Luo are strictly monotheistic in this high-god.: Ogot, B. A. (1961). 'The Concept of Jok', African Studies 20(2), 123-130. (reference); Mboya, P. (1938). Luo Kitgi gi Timbegi. Kisumu. (reference)
- Nyasaye leaves the management of earthly affairs to lesser spiritual forces and is approached through the ancestral spirits (juogi).: p'Bitek, O. (1971). Religion of the Central Luo. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau. (reference)