Nanã

Nanã (in the scholarly Yoruba orthography Nàná Burúkú or Nàná Bùkúù) is the venerable primordial orisha of still waters, of muddy mangroves, of fertile mud and of the mysteries of the passage between life and death in traditional Yoruba cosmology and in the religions of African matrix in the diaspora (Candomblé Ketu, Jeje and Angola, and Cuban Santería). Recognised as the oldest matriarch of the pantheon, predating the introduction of iron metallurgy, Nanã governs the liminal frontier of earthly existence, playing an indispensable role in the cosmogonic myth of the creation of humankind by supplying the swampy clay used by Oxalá to sculpt the bodily form of the first living beings. Her sacred sceptre is the ibiri (ìbìrí), a ritual object made of palm-frond ribs interlaced with raffia straw and cowrie shells, which she cradles with maternal dignity. Because of her anteriority to the forging of iron, her cult expressly prohibits metal blades, requiring bamboo knives or stone blades for her sacrificial rites.

6 min read · Reviewed on September 29, 2026 · How we research

The ibiri, the mud, the swamp and the color lilac

Primary sources

• Pierre Fatumbi Verger, Notes sur le culte des orisha et vodun. translation: Dakar: Mémoires de l'IFAN, 1957 (monograph on Nanã Buruku).
• Juana Elbein dos Santos, Os Nàgô e a Morte: Pàde, Àsèṣè e o Culto Égun na Bahia. translation: Petrópolis: Editora Vozes, 1976.
• Melville J. Herskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom. translation: New York: J. J. Augustin Publisher, 1938 (study of the Mawu-Lisa pantheon).

Studies

• Roger Bastide, Les Religions africaines au Brésil. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1960.
• Wande Abimbola, Ifá: An Exposition of Ifá Literary Corpus. Oxford University Press, Ibadan, 1976.
• Vivaldo da Costa Lima, A Família de Santo nos Candomblés Jejes-Nagôs da Bahia. Editora Corrupio, Salvador, 2003.