Mawu-Lisa (alternately: Mahu) is a

creator goddess A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, World#Theology, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A numb ...

, associated with the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

and

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

Dahomey mythology The Dahomean religion was practiced by the Fon people of the Dahomey Kingdom. The kingdom existed until 1898 in what is now the country of Benin. People taken from Dahomey to the Caribbean used elements of the religion to form Vodou and other rel ...

. In some myths, she is the wife of the male god Lisa. Mahu and Lisa are the children of

Nana Buluku Nana Buluku, also known as Nana Buruku, Nana Buku or Nanan-bouclou, is the female supreme being in the West African traditional religion of the Fon people (Benin, Dahomey) and the Ewe people (Togo). She is one of the most influential deities in We ...

, and are the parents of

Xevioso Xevioso (alternately: Xewioso, Heviosso, Hevioso) is a god of thunder of the So region in Dahomey mythology. He is the twin brother of Gun, and is one of the children of Mawu and Lisa. See also * Shango References This divinity is also ...

. After creating the Earth and all life and everything else on it, she became concerned that it might be too heavy, so she asked the primeval serpent, Aido Hwedo, to curl up beneath the earth and thrust it up in the sky. When she asked Awe, a monkey she had also created, to help out and make some more animals out of clay, he boasted to the other animals and challenged Mawu-Lisa. Gbadu, the first woman Mawu-Lisa had created, saw all the chaos on earth and told her children to go out among the people and remind them that only Mawu-Lisa can give Sekpoli - the breath of life. Gbadu instructed her daughter, Minona, to go out among the people and teach them about the use of palm kernels as omens from Mawu-Lisa. When Awe, the arrogant monkey climbed up to the heavens to try to show Mawu-Lisa that he too could give life, he failed miserably. Lisa made him a bowl of porridge with the seed of death in it and reminded him that only she could give life and that she could also take it away. Mawu-Lisa is similar to the figure Yemowo, a wife of the divinity Obatala, who is equivalent to "Lisa" (which is equivalent to "

orisha Orishas (singular: orisha) are spirits that play a key role in the Yoruba religion of West Africa and several religions of the African diaspora that derive from it, such as Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican Santería and Brazilian Candomblé. T ...

References

{{Afro-American Religions Creator goddesses Dahomean goddesses Lunar goddesses Solar goddesses Voodoo goddesses Names of God in African traditional religions