Limudimi, Guardian of the Bush

Limudimi, glossed 'the guardian of the bushes', is a named nature spirit of Unyamwezi, the country of the Nyamwezi of west-central Tanzania. Nyamwezi religion recognizes, in addition to the High God and the ancestors, non-ancestral spirits who influence human lives; among those recorded by name in Unyamwezi are limudimi, the guardian of the bush, and Lyangombe, founder of the uswezi cult, while the neighbouring Kimbu and Konongo country venerates the nature spirit Katabi. The bush beyond the villages, the source of game, honey, medicines and danger, thus stands under its own spirit guardian. The name carries the li- prefix that Kinyamwezi gives its great cosmic and spirit beings, such as Likube, Limatunda, Limi and Liwelelo. The spirit is so far documented chiefly in the work of the Tanzanian historian Salvatory Stephen Nyanto, who records it in both his 2015 and 2016 studies of Buha and Unyamwezi cosmology.

Domains

• bush and wilderness

Powers

• to keep guard over the bush beyond the settlements

Epithets

• limudimi

Relations

• subordinate to: Likube, the High One

Sources

• Salvatory Stephen Nyanto, 'Religious Experiences of Life after Death in Buha and Unyamwezi Cosmologies, Western Tanzania,' History Research 6(2), 2016, pp. 80-100.
• Salvatory Stephen Nyanto, 'Indigenous Beliefs and Healing in Historical Perspective: Experiences from Buha and Unyamwezi, Western Tanzania,' International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 5(10), October 2015.