Faro
Faro is the demiurge and water-divinity of the Mande cosmological world, closely bound to the Maninka landscape of the Upper Niger. In the creation narrative Faro is sacrificed and then restored to life by the creator, who sends the demiurge down to earth to repair the disorder that entered the world at its making; with Faro descend the first human ancestors, born in complementary pairs. Faro is lord of fresh water, of the annual flood that fertilises the floodplain, of rain and rainbow, and of the ordering force of the spoken word. Ritual offerings are made at riverbanks and pools that are held to be the divinity's dwelling. Sources differ on whether Faro is best understood as singular or as a twinned, androgynous being, and the figure is one the Maninka hold in common with the neighbouring Bamana, whose cosmology forms a related branch of the same Mande inheritance.
Domains
- water
- fertility
- speech and order
Powers
- governs rivers, rain, and the flowing waters
- restores order and life after primordial disorder
Epithets
- Faro — master of the watersAsante, Molefi Kete & Ama Mazama, eds. (2009). Encyclopedia of African Religion, s.v. 'Faro.' Thousand Oaks: SAGE. (secondary)
Relations
- parent: Maa NgalaBrought forth and dispatched by the creator Maa Ngala.Dieterlen, Germaine (1957). 'The Mande Creation Myth.' Africa 27(2): 124-138. (secondary)
Sources
- Faro is the Mande demiurge and water-divinity governing rivers, fertility, rain, and the ordering power of speech.: Asante, Molefi Kete & Ama Mazama, eds. (2009). Encyclopedia of African Religion, s.v. 'Faro.' Thousand Oaks: SAGE. (secondary); Dieterlen, Germaine (1957). 'The Mande Creation Myth.' Africa 27(2): 124-138. (secondary)