The traditional religion of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo, centered on Mawu-Lisa, a paired creator divinity, and on Yewe, the name for both a group of thunder and lightning powers, including So (Xebioso), and the initiatory society built around their worship, historically tied to judicial oath taking as well as devotion. Though closely related in language and neighbourhood to Fon vodun, it is documented as its own line of practice, with its own priesthood, songs and initiation.
Facts
Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 1 The creator Mawu-Lisa is itself read as a paired duality, Mawu associated with the moon and the night and Lisa with the sun and the day, joined as one being in some accounts and as complementary siblings or spouses in others, a duality that recurs with variation across the neighbouring Fon and Yoruba cosmologies. The wider Yewe pantheon of thunder and lightning powers beneath that pair is what makes the religion as a whole polytheistic rather than a single duotheistic system. Correspondences & Relations
Connections
Associated With
This source names Togo directly: "of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo, centered on Mawu-Lisa, a paired creator divinity, and on Yewe, the name for both a group of thunder and lightning powers, including So (Xebioso), and the..."
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Theological Position
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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