Master Smith of the Hausa
Songhai · deity · Songhay/Zarma oral tradition; living holey cult · Recorded classification
Spirit-class figure (a Tooru) entered as a deity. Songhay 'koy' = lord/owner; 'Hausakoy' = 'lord of the Hausa', i.e. the smith-spirit. Scholarship: Stoller (1989); Rouch (1960/1989).
Domains
- blacksmithing iron
- fire forge
Powers
- to forge iron at the spirit-world's anvil
- forge iron at the spirit-world anvil
Epithets
- Hausakoy lord/owner of the Hausa, i.e. the smith-spiritJean Rouch, La religion et la magie songhay (1960) (secondary)
Relations
- descendant of: River Mother of the NigerThe smith-spirit is one of the Tooru children borne by the Niger river-mother to different fathers; her divine parentage alone is not encoded.Jean Rouch, La religion et la magie songhay (2nd ed., Brussels 1989) (secondary)
- sibling: ThunderHalf-brothers among the Tooru nobles of the holey pantheon.Paul Stoller, Fusion of the Worlds (Chicago 1989) (secondary)
Sources
- Manda Hausakoy is the Songhay/Zarma divine blacksmith, one of the seven principal Tooru, patron of ironworking; his epithet Hausakoy ('lord of the Hausa') reflects the role of Hausa-linked smiths in the region.: Paul Stoller, Fusion of the Worlds (1989) (secondary); Jean Rouch, La religion et la magie songhay (1960/1989) (secondary)