ASASE YAA

Asase Yaa is the Earth Mother of Akan religion, venerated in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Her name means the Earth born on Thursday, following the Akan custom that ties every being to its day of birth; the Fanti of the coast call her Asase Afua, born on Friday. In libations and prayers she is invoked immediately after Nyame, the creator god, whom tradition often makes her husband or her complement. R. S. Rattray noted that she has neither temples nor dedicated priests: her worship is direct, made of everyday gestures. Before ploughing, sowing or digging a grave, libations are poured to her and her permission is asked to open her womb. On Thursday, her sacred day, working the land is traditionally forbidden so that she may rest; breaking this prohibition was held to bring misfortune upon the community. Guarantor of truth, she is called to witness in oaths: to attest one's sincerity, one touches the earth with a finger and then with the lips. Nourishing mother who gives the harvest, she is also the last dwelling, the one who receives the dead and returns them to the world of the ancestors — which earns her a central place in Akan funerary rites.