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 latin · Leza · cultThe supreme high-god and rain-giver; “the Besetting One” who orders birth and deathE. W. Smith & A. M. Dale, The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (secondary)
• Shikakunamo Ila / Tonga · Shikakunamo · epithetthe Besetting One, who sends affliction after affliction and never lets you aloneE. W. Smith and A. M. Dale, The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (1920) (secondary)

Relations

• enemy: the Old Woman Who Sought GodReciprocal of tonga_old_woman.enemy — Bereaved of all kin by Leza 'the Besetting One', she built tower after tower to climb the sky and confront him, and failed; a one-sided quarrel.Smith & Dale, The Ila-Speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (1920), vol. 2 (secondary)

Sources

• Leza is the supreme being and rain-giver of the Ila/Tonga of Zambia, called Shikakunamo ('the Besetting One') in his dealing of affliction and death.: Smith, E. W. & Dale, A. M. (1920). The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, 2 vols. London: Macmillan. (secondary)