Likube, the High One
Nyamwezi · deity · Nyamwezi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Likube, 'the High One', is the name under which the Nyamwezi of the Tabora/Unyamwezi region of central-western Tanzania address their single Supreme Being. He is a sky-and-cosmos god conceived as exalted and distant; everyday religious life turns instead on the ancestral spirits (masamva), who mediate between people and the High God. Before an offering of a sheep or goat is presented to the ancestors, the help of Likube is first invoked. In the ethnographic record the same deity also bears the names Limatunda (the Creator), Limi (the Sun) and Liwelelo (the firmament), each foregrounding a different aspect of the one High God.
Domains
- supreme sky deity
- ritual invocation
Powers
- to preside over the whole cosmos as the remote High God
- to be invoked for help before an offering is made
Epithets
- LikubeSerge Tcherkézoff, Dual Classification Reconsidered: Nyamwezi Sacred Kingship and Other Examples. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: Limatunda, the CreatorLikube ('the High One') and Limatunda ('the Creator') are two names of one and the same Supreme Being; the creative act is attributed to him under the name Limatunda.R. G. Abrahams, The Peoples of Greater Unyamwezi, Tanzania. London: International African Institute, 1967. (secondary)
Sources
- Likube ('the High One') is the principal name of the remote Nyamwezi Supreme Being, invoked before sacrifices that are otherwise mediated by the ancestral spirits.: R. G. Abrahams, The Peoples of Greater Unyamwezi, Tanzania (Nyamwezi, Sukuma, Sumbwa, Kimbu, Konongo). Ethnographic Survey of Africa, East Central Africa Part XVII. London: International African Institute, 1967. (secondary); Fr. Bösch, Les Banyamwezi, peuple de l'Afrique orientale. Bibliothèque-Anthropos III/2. Münster: Aschendorff, 1930. (secondary)