Pantheons
Mossi
Other Pantheons
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Wende, the sky and creator power, and the earth powers addressed at tengkugri, the territorial earth shrines maintained by lineage elders among the Mossi of Burkina Faso, West Africa's most populous Mossi speaking kingdom. Mossi religious authority historically ran alongside the Moro Naba, the paramount chief, whose court combined political rule with custodianship of ancestral and earth cult observance. Islam and Christianity are now widely practised among the Mossi, with indigenous earth shrine ritual continuing chiefly in rural and agricultural contexts.
Facts
Structure
Structure of the PantheonA supreme creator above a working order of intermediary powers 1 Divine HeadshipA supreme creator who withdrew from active rule and receives little direct cult 1 Succession Between Divine GenerationsOne divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1 The Creator and the Ruling GodsThe creator withdrew after making the world and is seldom addressed in cult 1 Attestation
Era of AttestationHeld from the beginning in the tradition's own terms; documented in the outside record from the late 19th century 1 Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 1 Sources
Primary SourceOral tradition held within Mossi lineages, with published ethnography 1 Organisation
Membership of the PantheonEvery place, clan and lineage adds its own 1 How Mortals Enter the PantheonAncestors and founders become objects of cult 1 Cult
Principal Cult CentreNo single centre. The tengkugri, the earth shrine of each locality, is kept by the tengsoba, the earth priest, whose authority is distinct from the chief's 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Its own cited description places the tengkugri shrines among the Mossi of Burkina Faso.
Sources
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