Fon

Fon

Arch Robison Chas Newman Troy Xu

The first god was Nana Buluku. Nana Buluku had all of creativity inside of itself, and from Nana Buluku came all of creativity. The creativity separated into its male and female parts. The male part was Lisa, and the female part was Mawu. Together as Mawu-Lisa they symbolize the wholeness of the universe, but each part is different. Mawu contained the moon, darkness, fertility, forgiveness, gentleness, and rest. Lisa, on the other hand, was represented by the sun, heat, light, power, work, and war. Mawu and Lisa first came together during the first eclipse in the universe, and since then new acts of creation have occurred whenever there is another eclipse (McLeish, “Mawu-Lisa”). After this separation, Nana Buluku left the realm of the earth (Lewis 270). At first there was Da, or Aido-Hwedo, a great serpent who is both male and female. The male side of Aido-Hwedo is the red end of the rainbow, and the female side is the blue end of the rainbow (McLeish, “Da”). Mawu sat in the mouth of Aido-Hwedo and rode across the earth. The shape of the earth is that of a calabash gourd (Zeitlin 95). As Mawu rode Da around the earth, the path left by Da’s slithering created the rivers and features of the earth. Plants and animals also sprung up in the wake of Aido-Hwedo’s journey. When Aido-Hwedo stopped to rest, its excrements formed the tall mountains on the earth (McLeish, “Da”). The creation of the earth took a total of four days, the number of days in a week (Lynch 41). When creation was finished, however, there was a problem. There were so many wondrous creations on the surface of the earth that their combined weight could cause the earth to sink into the great waters around it and be destroyed. Mawu ordered Aido-Hwedo to coil around and under the earth to hold it up, so Aido-Hwedo bit his tail and encircled the earth with 3,500 coils to support it (McLeish, “Da”). Now Da forms the sky and causes it to shift from day to night as he moves slowly around it in his sleep. Occasionally he will stir in his sleep and shake the earth, but for the most part his slumber is deep and peaceful (Davis 417). One day, however, Aido-Hwedo will swallow his own tail and the world will fall down into the waters—and then all of the creations on earth will be destroyed (Zeitlin 96). The earth and its creatures and plants were only a few of the creations of the universe. From Nana Buluku came the creators Mawu and Lisa, and from Mawu and Lisa came more creations (Davis 416). Mawu-Lisa’s children are the other gods. There is Age, the god of the desert; Agbe-Naete, the twin water gods; Hevyoso, a thunder god; Gbadu, the goddess of fate who dislikes humans fighting amongst themselves; Gu, the smith-god; and Legba, the trickster (Lindemans, McLeish, “Mawu-Lisa”, Scheub 50, Smart). During the first seven eclipses these gods created humans (McLeish, “Gu”, McLeish, “Mawu-Lisa”). The very first man and woman came down to earth in the rain. They were not like the humans of today, for they did not know anything of Mawu-Lisa or the other gods. Seven days later another pair of humans fell from the sky. These two taught the first two humans about Mawu-Lisa. When they sacrificed to Mawu-Lisa, it began to rain again and more people were rained down to earth, enough to start and carry on humanity (Scheub 225). One gift given to humans by Mawu-Lisa was Gu, their own son. Mawu-Lisa sent Gu to earth in the form of every tool ever to be used and taught humans how to make tools they need to survive and grow food (McLeish, “Gu”). With so much given to them by the creators to help them survive, each person has a specific purpose and destiny in life, and that is their fa. You must find your fa in order to live your correct path in life. Only one god knows each person’s fa. Gu doesn’t know it. Hevyoso doesn’t know it. Even Mawu-Lisa doesn’t know it. The only god who knows every human’s individual fa is Legba, the trickster. Because of this, every human mush worship Legba so that he will reveal their fa to them (Scheub 50). Despite the special gifs given to humans by Mawu-Lisa, they are not the only crowning jewels of creation. All of the creatures on the earth were created to roam freely and enhance the earth, and they too are important to creation (McLeish, “Da”).

Works Cited:

Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much About Mythology: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Stories in Human History But Never Learned. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.

Lewis, Shantrelle P. "Fon." //Encyclopedia of African Religion//. Ed. Molefi Kete Mazama, Ama and Molefi Kete Asante, //Encyclopedia of African religion, Volume 1.// Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2009. 270-272. Print.

Lindemans, Micha F. "Agé." __Encyclopedia Mythica__. 2010. Encyclopedia Mythica Online. 23 Oct. 2010 <[]>.

Lynch, Patricia. //African Mythology A to Z.// New York: Facts On File, 2004. Print.

McLeish, Kenneth. "Da." //Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth//. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 1996. //Credo Reference//. Web. 23 October 2010. <[]>

McLeish, Kenneth. "Gu." //Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth//. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 1996. //Credo Reference//. Web. 23 October 2010. <[]>

McLeish, Kenneth. "Mawu-Lisa." //Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth//. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 1996. //Credo Reference//. Web. 23 October 2010. <[]>

Scheub, Harold. //A Dictionary of African Mythology.// Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.

Smart, Anthony E. "Gbadu." Encyclopedia Mythica. 2010. Encyclopedia Mythica Online. 23 Oct. 2010 .

Zeitlin, Steve. //The Four Corners of the Sky//. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2000. Print.