Akan TraditionRiver Obosom
Bia
- the Bia River
- the western forests
The obosom of the Bia River, which flows from western Ghana into Côte d'Ivoire; in the story of Nyame's inheritance he is Tano's brother, who loses the fertile land to him.
About Bia
Brother of Tano
Bia is known chiefly through the story he shares with Tano. Both are sons of the sky god Nyame, who divides the land between them. In the Asante telling Bia is the son Nyame meant to favour, but Tano, helped by the goat who served their father, reaches Nyame first and is given the fertile country; Bia receives the drier, poorer lands to the west. The Agni (Anyi) of Côte d'Ivoire tell it the other way round, with Bia gaining the better share. Both versions tie the two brothers to the rivers that bear their names, and both treat the division as the origin of a lasting rivalry.
A river and a border
The Bia River rises in Ghana's Western North region and crosses into Côte d'Ivoire, where it reaches the lagoons near the coast. That course, straddling the lands of Akan-speaking peoples on both sides of a modern border, is one reason the same story is told from two directions. Little else about Bia as an independent figure appears in the published sources used here, and this entry does not add to it.
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Bia
No specific cult practice for Bia is described in the published sources this site draws on beyond his identification with the river.
Family
In the atlas
Where Bia appears
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Patricia Ann Lynch and Jeremy Roberts, African Mythology A to Z (2nd ed.)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.
Family relationships come from the atlas's kinship records. Ancient sources often disagree on divine genealogy.
Genealogy
Family tree
Bia's parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.