Golib
Talensi · numen · Talensi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Golib is the earth-god of the Nyoo grove above Tongo and the power honoured in the great Golib (Gologo) festival, held at the close of the dry season before the sowing of the early millet. The god regulates the Talensi agricultural year: the festival opens the farming season and the final ceremonies gather the community at the Nyoo shrine, one of the most important earth-shrines still in use. Sources use the shrine-name Nyoo and the god-name Golib closely together, the grove standing as the seat of the deity. As with the other earth-gods of the Tong Hills, Golib's cult binds the fertility of the land to the ritual calendar of the whole community.
Domains
- agriculture
- earth
- fertility
Powers
- sets the season for sowing
- renews the bond of the community
Sources
- The Golib god, housed in the Nyoo (Noo) grove, is the earth-deity honoured in the annual Golib/Gologo pre-sowing festival, which regulates Talensi agricultural life.: Insoll, Kankpeyeng and MacLean, 'The Archaeology of Shrines among the Tallensi of Northern Ghana' (University of Calgary Press, 2009); reporting of the Gologo (Golib) festival at Tongo. (secondary)