Lobi

Religious Beliefs

According to the Lobi oral tradition, the world was created by Tangba You, the supreme God. However, Tangba You withdrew from the world because it was getting increasingly annoyed with the quasi constant fighting among men over women. Before retiring, nonetheless, God provided human beings with spirits known as Thila or Watbila (singular: thil) to assist them in their daily affairs. Thila are nature divinities closely associated with the land.

Thila play a critical role in the fabric of Lobi social structure and life. Thila protect the living and determine, to a large extent, their behavior. Indeed, Thila establish rules of behavior that are revealed to the living through divination. A diviner is known as thildar. In addition to performing divination, a thildar is a male (there are usually one or two thildar per village) who owns many Thila, whom he “controls” for the benefit of the whole community. The rules established by the Thila are known [Page 382]as soser and may include many prescriptions and restrictions, such as food, hunt, sexual intercourse, or dress taboos. Although Thila are usually benevolent, violation of one of the rules established by them might result in severe punishment of a single individual or the whole village. As spirits, Thila are usually invisible. However, on occasion, they may appear to the living in the form of an animal or human being.

Worship Practices

People constitute villages based on their shared veneration of the same Thil. In other words, all inhabitants of a given village worship the same spirit and adhere to the same rules of social behavior, and this, in turn, allows them to function in an effective manner as a tight religious and political community. It is their common belief in and veneration of the Thila that provide the Lobi as a whole with a strong sense of cultural identity and unity that has proved quite resistant, over the years, to pressures from outside communities. Thus, although their close neighbors, the Wawa, have at least in part accepted Islam, the Lobi have maintained their own religious traditions.

Community rituals are organized every year at the village shrines (e.g., at the time of harvest). Ceremonies are also held to celebrate important life moments, such as birth, initiation, marriage, or death. Offerings and sacrifices are then made to the Thila. Each compound erects at least one shrine in honor of their Thil under the authority of a diviner. The shrine typically includes cooking pots, iron figures, and, quite important, Bateba (i.e., wood and stone sculptures), which are believed to house the Thila.

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