Adoro (goddess)
| Adoro | |
|---|---|
Protection, justice, fertility, and warfare | |
| Other names | Adolo |
| Venerated in | Igbo religion |
| Major cult centre | Alor-Uno, Nsukka area, present-day Enugu State, Nigeria |
| Gender | Female |
| Region | Southeastern Nigeria |
| Ethnic group | Igbo people |
Adoro is an Igbo goddess[1] created in the late 19th century by the people of Alor-Uno village.[2]
History
Internal slave trading in Nsukka Division was still occurring at this time, and the people of Alor-Uno created Adoro as protection against raids from the Nike and Aro peoples.[2][3] Shortly before Adoro's creation, Nike warriors had raided Alor-Uno, taken captives, and dispersed much of the population. They resettled in towns that borrowed the Alor name, such as Alor-Agu and Umu-Alor.[2]
Those that remained behind sought medicine makers in Nsukka to create a medicine to protect them and to call back members who had left the village.[2] The Adoro creators are said to have used the remains of two human beings to create her, and other remains later to maintain her.[2] In Igbo usage, “medicine” can mean a sacred charm or ritual power, not just a medical remedy.[4]
The name Adoro means "the daughter who remains with the people of her father's lineage,"[5] alluding to the call of the Alor-Uno people to return, that they now have a powerful protector.[2] As peace returned to the village, Adoro was given credit and elevated from a medicine to a goddess.[2][1][3] She became consulted in legal cases and looked to as a fertility goddess.[2] Adoro was feared and respected as a goddess of justice, said to have supernatural powers that could cause death.[2] Adoro's attamas (priests) made money by charging access to her.[2] A mobile shrine helped spread her worship to neighboring communities.
At the turn of the 20th century, people came from around Nsukka bringing sacrifices to her shrine.[2] Legal offenders, in order to appease Adoro, would dedicate their daughters to the goddess. The daughters were considered married to Adoro and as a consequence men could not associate with them.[2] As the numbers of wives of Adoro increased, Alor-Uno men were encouraged to have sexual relations with the wives to continue Adoro's repopulating mission.[2][1]
Beginning in the 1930s, as part of their attempt to Christianize the area of modern Nigeria, British missionary workers sought to destroy shrines to Adoro.[2] Adoro shrines survived into the 1990s. In February 1995, Prophetess Ngozika Ogbu and her followers carried out what they called the “abolition of Adoro” at Alor-Uno, demolishing the deity's shrine.[2][6]
References
- 1 2 3 Falola, Toyin; Njoku, Raphael Chijioke, eds. (2016). Igbo in the Atlantic World: African Origins and Diasporic Destinations. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 35.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Achebe, Nwando (2003). "Igo Mma Ogo: The Adoro Goddess, Her Wives, and Challengers: Influences on the Reconstruction of Alor-Uno, Northern Igboland, 1890–1994". Journal of Women's History. 14 (4): 83–105. doi:10.1353/jowh.2003.0014.
- 1 2 Falola, Toyin; Amponsah, Kezia (2016). Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Historical Dictionaries of Women in the World (2nd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 17.
- ↑ Aguwa, J. C. U. (1993). "Agwu Possession: Belief and Experience in Traditional Igbo Society". Anthropos. 88 (1/3): 279–289. JSTOR 40341666.
- ↑ Shelton, Austin J. (1971). The Igbo-Igala Borderland: Religion and Social Control in Indigenous African Colonialism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- ↑ Harnischfeger, Johannes (2014). "The Abolition of Adoro in Alor Uno by Prophetess Ngozika Ogbu, English Version 2". Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie-Online. doi:10.18716/ojs/aaeo/2014_3406. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
