Nyame
Nyame - The All Seeing & All Knowing God
Nyame or Nyankopon was the creator god of the land of the Ashanti/Akan people of Ghana, West Africa.
Nyame is a majestic being, the spiritual & powerful all knowing god. In Nyame, all things are one, and one thing is all. Nyame is the king of the Abosom which is the native name for "pantheon" in the Ashanti & Akan groups. The creator god was known as a trinity; Nyame (father), Onyankopong (son) and Odomankoma (spirit).
The power of Nyame is still strong as the myths said - the sun was his right eye and the moon was his left. He keeps right eye open during the day, and his left open at night. He was a maker of many creatures, plants, and animals. The Akan belief system portrays that Nyame is the creator of all things. Asase Ye, was divine Mother Earth who was the wife of Nyame & was also created by him. Nyame had children with Mother Earth - Tano & Bia who were rightfully gods themselves and were rulers over rivers, nature, animals and war. Nyame also was father to the Spider God Ananse or (Anansi) who was known to be a trickster god full of stories.
Nyame was self created & owned all things, however there is a tale that says he was actually driven up closer to the heavens due to a small mishap. There are variations of the following tale: There was an old woman pounding yams with a pole and she was pounding so mindlessly that the pole allegedly hit the creator god in his own "yams"! This angered Nyame just a bit, so he ascended into the sky even higher than before! The humans were so upset at the thought of him being farther away, that they tried to build a ladder to reach him. He did not like this idea so much. The humans were one pole short on their ladder of actually reaching Nyame, so he advised them to pull one pole from the bottom to put it at the top of the ladder so the top would be complete. Once they did, all who were climbing that ladder fell down and crashed to their deaths. Nyame was pleased with this thought, because the humans were much more quiet once lifeless. And this is why - only the dead can go to heaven... Peace & Silence!
Nyame or Nyankopon was the creator god of the land of the Ashanti/Akan people of Ghana, West Africa.
Nyame is a majestic being, the spiritual & powerful all knowing god. In Nyame, all things are one, and one thing is all. Nyame is the king of the Abosom which is the native name for "pantheon" in the Ashanti & Akan groups. The creator god was known as a trinity; Nyame (father), Onyankopong (son) and Odomankoma (spirit).
The power of Nyame is still strong as the myths said - the sun was his right eye and the moon was his left. He keeps right eye open during the day, and his left open at night. He was a maker of many creatures, plants, and animals. The Akan belief system portrays that Nyame is the creator of all things. Asase Ye, was divine Mother Earth who was the wife of Nyame & was also created by him. Nyame had children with Mother Earth - Tano & Bia who were rightfully gods themselves and were rulers over rivers, nature, animals and war. Nyame also was father to the Spider God Ananse or (Anansi) who was known to be a trickster god full of stories.
Nyame was self created & owned all things, however there is a tale that says he was actually driven up closer to the heavens due to a small mishap. There are variations of the following tale: There was an old woman pounding yams with a pole and she was pounding so mindlessly that the pole allegedly hit the creator god in his own "yams"! This angered Nyame just a bit, so he ascended into the sky even higher than before! The humans were so upset at the thought of him being farther away, that they tried to build a ladder to reach him. He did not like this idea so much. The humans were one pole short on their ladder of actually reaching Nyame, so he advised them to pull one pole from the bottom to put it at the top of the ladder so the top would be complete. Once they did, all who were climbing that ladder fell down and crashed to their deaths. Nyame was pleased with this thought, because the humans were much more quiet once lifeless. And this is why - only the dead can go to heaven... Peace & Silence!