Nyamwezi · deity · Nyamwezi traditional religion; continuing · deity
Limi, 'the Sun', is one of the names borne by the Nyamwezi Supreme Being. Identifying the High God with the daytime sun expresses both his sovereignty over the visible world and his remoteness 'at a distance' from human affairs, a stance characteristic of the withdrawn high gods of East-Bantu religion. The name belongs to the same deity called Likube ('the High One'), Limatunda ('the Creator') and Liwelelo ('the firmament'); it is fitting for a people whose own name, Nyamwezi, is usually rendered 'people of the moon'.
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.
Serge Tcherkézoff, 'Black and White Dual Classification: Hierarchy and Ritual Logic in Nyamwezi Ideology,' in Contexts and Levels (JASO Occasional Papers 4). Oxford: JASO, 1985, pp. 54-67.