Thunder Cult-Power
Sogba, in its fuller form Sokogba, is the thunder power of Nupe religion, its name analysed as 'the axe of Soko' (Nupe sòkó 'God' joined to ègbà 'axe'). The Nupe hold that Soko, the sky god, causes lightning to strike thieves, and the sogba cult wielded this punitive thunder while also being sought out by women as a cure for barrenness. S. F. Nadel compared the cult directly with the worship of the Yoruba thunder god Shango and recorded that the thunder cult reached the Nupe from their Gwari (Gbagyi) neighbours; recent scholarship has argued, conversely, that the very name of Shango may derive from the Nupe Sogba. Like the gunnu festival and the kuti shrine-objects, sogba exemplifies the characteristic Nupe pattern in which sacred power resides in a cult and its emblems rather than in a richly personified god.
Domains
- thunder
- divine retribution
- fertility
Powers
- to strike thieves and wrongdoers with lightning
- to cure barrenness in women who seek the cult
Relations
- subordinate to: Sky GodThe thunder power is 'the axe of Soko': the lightning it wields is understood as the sky god Soko's own punishment of thieves, so the cult stands under Soko's authority and mediates his justice on earth.Sandro Capo Chichi, 'On the Etymology of the Yoruba Theonym Shango', Yoruba Studies Review 10, no. 1 (2025) (secondary); S. F. Nadel, Nupe Religion: Traditional Beliefs and the Influence of Islam in a West African Chiefdom (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1954) (secondary)
Sources
- Sogba, in fuller form Sokogba ('the axe of Soko'), is the Nupe thunder cult-power through which the sky god's lightning punishes thieves, which is also invoked to cure barrenness, and which ethnographers have compared directly with the Yoruba thunder god Shango.: S. F. Nadel, A Black Byzantium: The Kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria (London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1942) (secondary); Sandro Capo Chichi, 'On the Etymology of the Yoruba Theonym Shango', Yoruba Studies Review 10, no. 1 (2025) (secondary); S. F. Nadel, Nupe Religion: Traditional Beliefs and the Influence of Islam in a West African Chiefdom (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1954) (secondary)