Maquet, J. (1972).Africanity:The Cultural Unity of
Black Africa. London: Oxford University Press.
Mbiti, J. S. (1990).African Religions and Philosophy
(2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Heinemann.
Mbiti, J. S. (1991).Introduction to African Religion
(2nd rev. ed.). Oxford, UK: Heinemann.
Opoku, K. A. (1978).West African Traditional Religion.
Accra, Ghana: FEP International Private Ltd.
Vega, M. M. (2000).The Altar of My Soul:The Living
Traditions of Santería. New York: Ballantine.
RIVERS AND STREAMS
Rivers and streams are linked to the theme of
water, which, as the primordial matter of the uni-
verse, plays a central role in African understand-
ing of the source of life.
All over Africa, rivers, streams, creeks, lakes,
and lagoons are regarded as the habitat of deities
and ancestors. Thus, they are viewed as the sacred
space of spirits and are subsequently treated with
great reverence.
The sacred nature of rivers and streams is expli-
cated in various creation myths. In Yoruba cosmol-
ogy, for instance, in the beginning was Olodumare
the supreme God who sent the orishas (divinities),
under the supervision of Obatala, to create the
world from the primordial watery matter. After the
creation of the world, the spirits did not return to
the sky. It is believed that the 400 orishas that cre-
ated the world entered the Earth’s crust instead and
transformed themselves into rivers, trees, and
mountains. Hence, in the Yoruba pantheon, Olokun
is venerated as the divinity of the Ocean, Olosa as
the divinity of the lagoon. Yemoja (Ye.mo.nja), the
most prominent of the river divinities among the
Yoruba, for example, is not only the mother of
numerous river deities, but also the ruler of the
Ogun River in Abeokuta. She is also the mother of
fish and the giver of children. Women therefore pray
to her for children, with offerings of yams and
fowls. Other prominent river goddesses include
Oya, the goddess of the Niger River, who is believed
to be the companion or one of the wives of Shango,
the god of thunder. She is so fierce and terrible that
no one can look on her. Oya is often identified with
the wind that blows when no rain follows. Among
the Baluba of the Congo, Lake Boya (near
Kabongo) is said to have suddenly and mysteriously
sprung from the Earth and is regarded by the Luba
kings as a special abode of the ancestral spirits. No
king of the Luba empire could be installed without
being confirmed by the Boya spirits through royal
diviners. Moreover, for the Baluba, the spirits reside
in some special sections of rivers, especially the
source, where two rivers meet or fall into a sea or
lake, and in the region of waterfalls.
Among the Igbo of Nigeria, Uhammiri (or
Ogbuide), the goddess of Ugwuta Lake, plays a
crucial role in people’s lives because her priests and
priestesses help people afflicted with infertility,
gynecological problems, mental illness, repeated
deaths of children, and many other misfortunes.
The African religious vision of rivers, streams,
lakes, rain, mountains, and the Earth points to the
centrality of “Ecospirituality” in African theology.
This “spirituality of environment” goes beyond a
mere sentimental environmentalism.
In the Baluba version of African cosmology,
humans and deities are rivers, streams, lakes, and
rain. Indeed, an ontological vital force emanates from
Shakapanga the creator and flows through humans
and nature through water and human blood.
This spirituality of rivers and streams carries
with it a fundamental ethical principle against
pollution of the environment because ultimately
any act of pollution affects humans and the
gods. In the African religious worldview, the
pollution of the environment is not merely phys-
ical, but a spiritual impurity that jeopardizes
one’s ability to join the village of the ancestors.Mutombo Nkulu-N’SenghaSeealsoLakes; Moon; Rain; TreesFurther Readings
Jell-Bahlsen, S. (2007, November). Flora Nwapa and
Oguta’s Lake Goddess: Artistic Liberty and
Ethnography.Dialectical Anthropology, 31 (1–3).
[Published online]
Mason, J. (1996).Oloku:Owner of the Rivers and Seas.
Brooklyn, NY: Yoruba Theological Archministry.
Mbiti, J. (1990).African Religions and Philosophy.
London: Heinemann.580 Rivers and Streams