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chezlesEve du Togo
Mawu,l'insurpassable
Claude Rivière
Sommaire:
1. Etymologieet traditions
2. Le tout-puissant,l'originelet l'omniprésent
3. Mawu et les tro
4. Conclusion
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26 Claude Rivière 74.1979
Anthropos
1. Etymologieet traditions
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chezles Eve du Togo
Mawu,l'insurpassable 27
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28 Claude Rivière 74.1979
Anthropos
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chez les Eve du Togo
Mawu,l'insurpassable 29
2. Le tout-puissant,l'originelet l'omniprésent
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30 Claude Rivière 74.1979
Anthropos
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Mawu,Unsurpassablechezles Eve du Togo 31
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32 Claude Rivière 74.1979
Anthropos
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chezles Eve du Togo
Mawu,rinsurpassable 33
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34 Claude Rivière 74.1979
Anthropos
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Mawu,Unsurpassablechezles Eve du Togo 35
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36 Claude Rivière 74.1979
Anthropos
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chez les Eve du Togo
Mawu,rinsurpassable 37
4. Conclusion
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38 Claude Rivière 74.1979
Anthropos
Summarium.- The notion of the Ewe of their god Mawu who is not their only
but their supreme deity, invisible, little anthropomorphized,and sexually indifferen-
tiated, nearlyreflectsthe notion which theirneighbours,the Ashanti and Yoruba, have
of their higherdeity. In comparisonto the Mawu of the Fon, the Mawu of the Ewe
assumes but in a few tales the traits of a lunar deity, wherebyhe would be contrasted
to the solar deityLisa. The beliefin the existenceof Mawu relatesitselfadvantageously
to the happiness of human life,as well as to the generationof the cosmos as far as its
material aspect is involved. The analysis of the etymologywhich the people themselves
propose reveals fourpossibilitiesof interpretation, if the accentuation and tonal differ-
ences of the two syllables of the word Mawu are considered.Relatively different tradi-
tions, which are susceptible of recoupments,reduce themselves to six fundamental
traditionsas far as Mawu*s associations are concerned.He is related: 1. to the creation
of the celestialvault; 2. to the procreationof everyhuman being; 3. to man's individual
destiny; 4. to the justificatorygod of lightning;5. to the medicinalvirtueof plants; 6. to
the idea ofan unsurpassedbeing,lord ofthe secondarydeities who are called troor vodu.
The remoteGod is, accordingto the myths,a near God in relationto man's daily behav-
iour in his moral life; he is frequentlyinvoked in the currentlanguage. Of the same
spiritual nature as the tro and vodu, Mawu differsfrom them 1. through the ethical
charactersof the religiousattitudes which he demands fromman; 2. throughhis great-
ness and power; 3. through his possessing the fullness of everything;4. through his
radical oppositionto magical practices; 5. throughhis not being presentedby material
things; 6. throughthe independenceof his primacyon inter-clannishpolitical relations.
With regardto the bestowing,to men, participationin the lifeof the Creator-God,this
participationasserts itselfessentiallythroughthe miracle of fecundity,the permanent
sustenance of physical life,and the transmissionof ethical norms.
Bibliographie
Auge, Marc
1977 Pouvoirs de vie, pouvoirs de mort. Paris. Flammarion.
Cornevin, Robert
1959 Histoire du Togo. Paris. Berger-Levrault.
Debrunner, H. W.
1965 A Church Between Colonial Powers. London. LutterworthPress.
Eliade, Mircea
1953 Traité d'histoiredes religions.Paris. Payot.
Johnson, Gabriel K.
1965 Notion de «Mawu» ou Dieu chez les Gê-Mina du Bas Togo par le patronyme.
Etudes Togolaises 1 : 74-87.
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chezles Eve du Togo
Mawu,rinsurpassable 39
NOMENYO, SeTH
des E we du
1968 La notionde Dieu créateurdans les croyancestraditionnelles
Sud Togo. Lomé. CERK [ronéoté].
Spieth, Jakob
1906 Die Ewé-Stamme.Berlin.DietrichReimer.
sehe Verlagsbuch-
1911 Die Religionder Eweer in Süd-Togo.Leipzig.Dieterich'
handlung.
Thomas,Louis -Vincentet René Luneau
Paris.Larousse.
1975 La terreafricaineet ses religions.
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