Takhar

Takhar (Taahkarr) is a lesser divinity of the Serer people of Senegal, the Gambia and Mauritania, venerated as the god of justice and vengeance. Devotees who have suffered theft, injury or sorcery appeal to him for redress, bringing offerings to the foot of tall forest trees held sacred to him. He is conceived as the adversary of Tiurakh, the god of wealth, with whom he shares a dwelling in the highest trees of the forest. Both figures were recorded by French colonial-era ethnographers of Senegambia and discussed within the broader Serer religious system centred on the supreme being Roog.

Domains

• justice
• vengeance

Powers

• to punish wrongdoers and avenge injuries suffered by his devotees

Relations

• subordinate to: RoogLike all lesser divinities of the Serer pantheon, Takhar stands below the supreme creator Roog, to whom ultimate worship is directed.Thiaw, Issa Laye, 'La religiosité des Seereer, avant et pendant leur islamisation', Éthiopiques, no. 54, 1991. (secondary)
• rival: TiurakhTakhar, god of justice, is traditionally described as the adversary of Tiurakh, god of wealth; both are said to dwell in the tallest trees of the forest.Bérenger-Féraud, L. J. B., Les peuplades de la Sénégambie, Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1879. (secondary)

Sources

• Takhar is the Serer god of justice and vengeance, worshipped at the foot of sacred forest trees.: Bérenger-Féraud, L. J. B., Les peuplades de la Sénégambie, Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1879. (secondary); Gravrand, Henry, La civilisation sereer, vol. 2: Pangool, Nouvelles Éditions Africaines du Sénégal, 1990. (secondary)