Exploits of the Gods

Sagbata comes from Mawu and Lisa. Mawu is one person but has two faces. The first is that of a woman, and the eyes of that part which belongs to the woman is the Moon. That face takes the name of Mawu. The other side is the side of a man. That face has for its eyes the Sun, and it takes the name of Lisa. The part called Mawu directs night. Where the Sun is, Lisa directs the day.

Since Mawu is both man and woman, she became pregnant. The first to be born were a pair of twins, a man child called Da Zodji, and a woman child called Nyohwe Ananu. The second birth was So, who had the form of his parent, man and woman in one. The third birth was also of twins, a male, Agbe and a female, Naete. The fourth to be born was Age, a male, the fifth Gu, also male. Gu is all body. He has no head. Instead of a head, a great sword is found coming out of his neck. His trunk is of stone. The sixth birth was not to a being, but to Djo, air, atmosphere. Air was what was needed to create men. The seventh to be horn was Legba. Mawu said Legha was to be her spoiled child, because he was the youngest.

One day Mawu-Lisa assembled all the children in order to divide the kingdoms. To the first twins, she gave all the riches and told them to go and inhabit the earth. She said the earth was for them.

Mawu said to Sogbo he was to remain in the sky, because he Was both man and woman like his parent. She told Agbe and Natete to go and inhabit the sea, and command the waters. To Age she gave command of all the animals and birds, and she told him to live in the bush as a hunter.

To Gu, Mawu said he was her strength, and that was why he was not given a head like the others. Thanks to him, the earth Would not always remain wild bush. It was he who would teach men to live happily.

Mawu told Djo to live in the space between earth and sky. To him Was being entrusted the life-span of man. Thanks to him also, his brothers would be invisible, for he will clothe them. That is why another name for vodun is djo.

When Mawu said this to the children, she gave the Sagbata twins the language which was to be used on earth, and took away their memory of the language of the sky. She gave to Hevioso the language he would speak, and took from him the memory of the parent language. The same was done for Agbe and Naete, for Age, and for Gu, but to Djo was given the language of men.

Now she said to Legba, "You are my youngest child, and as you are spoiled, and have never known punishment, I cannot turn you over to your brothers. I will keep you with me always. Your work shall be to visit all the kingdoms ruled over by your brothers, and to give me an account of what happens. So Legba knows all the languages known to his brothers, and he knows the language Mawu speaks, too. Legba is Mawu's linguist. If one of the brothers wishes to speak, he must give the message to Legba, for none knows any longer how to address himself to Mawu-Lisa. That is why Legba is everywhere.

You will find Legba even before the houses of the vodun, bezause all beings, humans and gods, must address themselves to him before they can approach god.


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Dahhomean Narrative: A Cross-Cultural Analysis; Melville J Herskovits & Frances S. Herskovits. 1958, Northwestern University Press
Cover: John Mason. Orin Orisa: Songs for Selected Heads. N.Y., 1992.