the Besetting Rain-Giver

High-god / sky-creator (deity). The tradition label is Tonga, but the locus classicus is Smith & Dale on the closely related Ila; Leza is shared across the Tonga–Ila of southern Zambia. The companion myth of the old woman who built a tower of trees to climb to Leza is the canonical aetiology of human mortality.

Domains

• rain
• sky creation
• fate affliction

Powers

• give and withhold the rain
• beset mortals with bereavement

Epithets

• Leza
• Shikakunamo

Relations

• enemy: the Old Woman Who Sought God

Sources

• Smith, E. W. & Dale, A. M. (1920). The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, 2 vols. London: Macmillan.