Aziza

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Aziza means "near to God".^{[citation needed]}

The Aziza are a beneficent fairy race from Africa, specifically Dahomey. Living in the forest, they provide good magic for hunters. They are also known to have given practical and spiritual knowledge to people (including knowledge of the use of fire) and thus play a role similar to that of Prometheus in Greek mythology.

The Aziza are described as little hairy people and are said to live in anthills and silk-cotton trees.^[1]

While the Aziza are usually described as a people, some traditions also refer to a single individual by name "Aziza", with similar traits. For example, Jeje oral tradition has a divinity called "Aziza" (described as a small, single-legged man smoking a pipe^{[disambiguation needed ]}).^[2]

According to Ochuko Tonukari, Aziza is also a god of the Urhobo people of the Western Niger Delta of Nigeria. Indeed, The story of Aziza is one of the most puzzling aspects of Urhobo religious evolution, for a god who had bid fair for supreme status, and seemed poised to achieve it, suddenly fell in the regard of men and has almost no worshippers today. He has not suffered oblivion like the other gods in Urhoboland who were his contemporaries. He has just shrunk into insignificance, the god who was once great and is now living on past glories.

However, in most parts of Urhoboland till date, endless tales of terror are woven about this powerful god. In one quarter, it was believed that Aziza is a one handed and a one legged god, Ukrobogbowovo or ebere-ohwo, somewhat a goblin, who cannot be seen with the physical eyes except it decides to appear in corporeal form before anybody. He was that rarest of hero, a kind of wizardry intellectual who could act decisively and swiftly. It was described as "effectual in action, the powers of movement, fierce-moving in its paths." The Aziza was the embodiment of the Urhobo dictum, "To think and to act are one and the same." It is interesting that it was the power of movement itself, so speedy and firm was it perceived to be. It used its great knowledge to help not only himself but also to alleviate the sufferings of humanity.

References

1. ^ Fon and Ewe Religion
2. ^ Philip M. Peek and Kwesi Yankah, African Folklore: An Encyclopedia, p. 89

http://www.waado.org/urhoboculture/Religion/tonukari/Aziza.htm

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