Adroa is the supreme god or spirit of the Lugbara people of central

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. Adroa is a god they worship, and this aspect of the god was known as ''Adroa 'ba o'bapiri'' ('God the creator of men'). Adroa was said to have created the first man, Gborogboro, and the first woman,

Meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...

. Gborogboro and Meme were also twins, and they were considered the ancestors of the Lugbara. Adria is also credited with the establishment of

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, by communicating his laws to the tribal ancestors of the Lugbara. Adroa has two main aspects, Adroa the good ( Lugbara: ''onyiru''), and Adro the bad ( Lugbara: ''onzi''). These two dual aspects can be further broken down into different smaller aspects. Adroa, the good aspect, is transcendent and far-removed from mankind. This aspect is sometimes called Adronga or Adrogoa. This aspect includes Adroa in different roles, including ''Adroa 'ba o'dupiri'' ('God the taker away of men') as a death deity and ''Adroa 'bija'' ('God in the sky'), a

sky deity The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky. The daytime sky deities are typically distinct from the nighttime ones. Stith Thompson's ''Motif ...

. Adro, the bad aspect, was described as tall, white and only having half a body, and he travels by jumping around on one leg. He is described as earthly, and dwells on the earth along with mankind, especially in rivers. Adro is usually invisible, but will appear to those who are close to death, and is thus also associated with death. Adro was worshiped through

child sacrifice Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please or appease a deity, supernatural beings, or sacred social order, tribal, group or national loyalties in order to achieve a desired result. As such, it is a form of human ...

, but since the 1930s a ram was substituted as the victim. Some versions do not consider Adro to be the evil equivalent of Adroa, but as a class of earthly spirits who are "refractions" of the good aspect. Both Adroa and Adro are part of a Lugbara man, as a sign of divine creation. In this aspect, the Adroa is also known as Tali. Women are thought to have no Tali. Upon a man's death, the Adro aspect was thought to leave his body, rejoining with Adro in the rivers and becoming Adroanzi. Meanwhile, Tali rejoins Adroa in the sky.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.2011081010432121 , title=Adroa - Oxford Reference , website= Oxford Reference, publisher=

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, accessdate=2020-05-20, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200520061438/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.2011081010432121, archive-date=2020-05-20 {{cite encyclopedia , url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lugbara , title=Lugbara , author=((The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica)) , encyclopedia=Britannica.com , publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521020202/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lugbara , archivedate=2020-05-21 , accessdate=2020-05-20 {{cite book, author=Patricia Ann Lynch, title=African Mythology A to Z, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=191KzEw_heMC&pg=PA4, date=1 January 2004, publisher=Infobase Publishing, isbn=978-1-4381-1988-5, page=4 {{cite book, author=John Middleton, title=Lugbara Religion: Ritual and Authority Among an East African People, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gbf9gkWoe_UC, year=1999, publisher=LIT Verlag Münster, isbn=978-3-8258-4033-4 {{cite journal, last1=Middleton, first1=John, title=Rites of sacrifice among the Lugbara, journal=Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire, issue=4, year=1979, pages=175–192, issn=0294-7080, doi=10.4000/span.475, doi-access=free {{cite journal, last1=Dalfovo, first1=A. T., title=The Divinity among the Lugbara, journal=Journal of Religion in Africa, volume=28, issue=4, year=1998, pages=468–493, issn=0022-4200, doi=10.2307/1581561, jstor=1581561 African gods Creator gods Lugbara mythology Death gods Sky and weather gods

See also

References