Liwelelo, the Firmament
Nyamwezi · deity · Nyamwezi traditional religion; continuing · deity
Liwelelo, 'the firmament' or 'the cosmos', is the name under which the Nyamwezi Supreme Being is identified with the all-encompassing sky-vault and universe; it is explained as meaning 'present everywhere', expressing the High God's omnipresence. The name belongs to the same deity called Likube ('the High One'), Limatunda ('the Creator') and Limi ('the Sun'); the cognate Liwelelo is likewise reported among the neighbouring Sukuma as a name of the supreme creator. The four names together describe a single, remote sky-and-creator god approached in practice through the ancestral spirits (masamva).
Domains
- firmament and cosmos
Powers
- to encompass the whole world as the firmament
Epithets
- Liwelelo
Relations
- subordinate to: Likube, the High One
Sources
- 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.
- Salvatory Stephen Nyanto, 'Religious Experiences of Life after Death in Buha and Unyamwezi Cosmologies, Western Tanzania,' History Research 6(2), 2016, pp. 80-100.