ciLuba Maweeja, Yorùbá òrìṣà, and Ancient Egyptian Ax

The present text is an exploratory linguistic study with the objective of establishing an accurate etymology for the names for divinity Maweeja and òrìṣà/òrìsà among the Baluba and Yorùbá, respectively, using the historical comparative method. While these two names are common titles for the Divine or divinity in many West and Central African languages, a concise etymology has yet to be established for both terms. The present study seeks to fill in this gap by deducing the etymology based on comparative philology, a critical analysis of the thought and practice of the principal cultures under examination, as well as establishing the necessary sound ‘laws’ based on the regularity of sound-meaning correspondences between ciLuba, Yorùbá, and ancient Egyptian. Our conclusion is that Maweeja and òrìṣà are variations of the same historical lexeme. However, the term Maweeja may be a borrowing into ciLuba. We also note the various cognates and doublets in the ancient Egyptian language: e.g., Ax. This study helps to confirm the argument in Imhotep (2020a) that Africa, essentially, has a single semantax for “God,” rooted in a primo-lexeme for “limb; foot, leg” > “to propagate” > “to do, to make” > “god, spirit.”