Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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Luo

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Nyasaye, the supreme divinity, and the jok, spirit powers that can be ancestral, territorial or troublesome and are addressed according to the trouble they cause, among the central figures of Luo religion around Lake Victoria in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Luo religious practice is organised around the homestead and the clan elder rather than a central priesthood, with diviners, or ajuoga, consulted to identify which jok requires attention. Indigenous practice today persists chiefly in funerary custom and in consultation for illness or misfortune.

Facts
Structure
Structure of the Pantheon
A supreme creator above a working order of intermediary powers 1
Succession Between Divine Generations
One divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1
The Creator and the Ruling Gods
The creator withdrew after making the world and is seldom addressed in cult 1
Cult
Principal Cult Centre
No single centre. Observance is held at the homestead and by the lineage 1
Sources
Primary Source
Oral tradition held within Luo lineages, with published ethnography, including the work of Okot p'Bitek 1
Disputed
Divine Headship
A supreme creator who withdrew from active rule and receives little direct cult 1
Okot p'Bitek argued that describing Luo religion as headed by a supreme high god owes more to missionary translation than to the tradition itself. The ethnographic accounts that do describe Nyasaye that way remain in print, and the two readings have not been reconciled.
Organisation
Membership of the Pantheon
Every place, clan and lineage adds its own 1
How Mortals Enter the Pantheon
Ancestors and founders become objects of cult 1
Attestation
Era of Attestation
Held from the beginning in the tradition's own terms; documented in the outside record from the late 19th century 1
Veneration Today
Actively venerated in a living tradition 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Lake Victoria, Regions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Tanzania, Countries

This source names Tanzania directly: "Lake Victoria in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
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