Lebe (Dogon)

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The Lebe or Lewe (fr. Lébé) is a Dogon religious, secret institution and primordial ancestor, who arose from a serpent. According to Dogon cosmogony, Lebe is the reincarnation of the first Dogon ancestor who, resurrected in the form of a snake, guided the Dogons from the Mandé to the cliff of Bandiagara where they are found today.[1][2][3]

This Lebe sect is one of the important facets of Dogon religion, based on ancestor veneration as well as the worship of the creator god Amma. This practice of traditional African religion takes four forms:

  1. the veneration of Lebe,
  2. the veneration of Binou,
  3. the veneration of souls, and
  4. the "Society of the Masks" (the Awa society)[3]

Dogon religion posits that it was through Amma's powers which brought forth the creation of the universe, matter, and the biological processes of reproduction.[4] With a complex traditional belief system, Amma, the sky god, is the head of the Dogon triumvirate; the other two being the water god Nommo and the earth god Lewe or Lebe.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Heusch was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Imperato was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Mission Lebaudy-Griaule [compte-rendu] (Lebaudy-Griaule Mission (report)) [in] Persée. "Mélanges et nouvelles africanistes, Journal des Africanistes (1939) tome 9, fascicule 2. pp. 217-221". Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  4. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete; Mazama, Ama; Encyclopedia of African Religion, Volume 1, SAGE (2009), pp. 40–41, ISBN 9781412936361 (retrieved March 16, 2020) [1]
  5. ^ Insoll, Timothy, Archaeology, Ritual, Religion, Routledge (2004), p. 123–125, ISBN 9781134526444 (retrieved March 16, 2020) [2]