Uhaghwa
Uhaghwa is the Urhobo divinity of poetic and oratorical performance, the patron whom singers, poets and orators must invoke so that a composed song is realised in fluent, thrilling delivery, for in Urhobo aesthetics poetry is incomplete until performed. Because Udje is organised clan by clan, the performance-god bears different local names: Oko at Iwhrekan, Egbodi at Otujevwe and Akeke at Erhuware. Uhaghwa is closely linked with Aridon, the god of memory and inspiration, and the two are sometimes used interchangeably to denote a single principle and 'medicine' of inspiration, memory and captivating performance. Together they preside over the Udje dance-song tradition documented by Tanure Ojaide. As an Edjo divinity, Uhaghwa is counted among the offspring and emissaries of the creator Oghene.
Parentage
- parent: Oghene
Domains
- performance oratory
- poetic inspiration
Powers
- to make song and oratory flow effortlessly in performance
Epithets
- OkoTanure Ojaide, Poetry, Performance, and Art: Udje Dance Songs of the Urhobo People (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2003). (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: OgheneUhaghwa belongs to the order of Edjo divinities reckoned the children and messengers of the Supreme Being Oghene.Michael Y. Nabofa, in Onigu Otite (ed.), The Urhobo People (Ibadan: Heinemann, 1980). (secondary)
- ally: AridonUhaghwa is jointly invoked with Aridon as the twin patron of Udje, the god of performance complementing the god of memory and inspiration.Tanure Ojaide, Poetry, Performance, and Art: Udje Dance Songs of the Urhobo People (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2003). (secondary)
Sources
- Uhaghwa is the Urhobo god of poetic and oratorical performance, invoked alongside Aridon in the Udje song tradition and known under local town-names such as Oko, Egbodi and Akeke.: Tanure Ojaide, Poetry, Performance, and Art: Udje Dance Songs of the Urhobo People (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2003). (secondary); Sunny Awhefeada, 'The place of Urhobo folklore in Tanure Ojaide's poetry', Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 52, no. 2 (2015). (secondary)