White flowersWaterMud from the riverWhite clothThe care of elders
Invocation Approach
Tone
Slow and ancient
Address
NanaGrandmotherThe First
Relationship
The mud from which everything was made and to which it returns
Warning
She is the end of every story as well as the beginning
Resonance
Those at the end of a life those who care for the old
Symbols
MudWaterWhite clothThe ancestral staffThe river bank
Mythology Summary
Nana Buruku is the ancient grandmother of the Afro-Brazilian orisha complex, of Jeje (Ewe-Fon) origin rather than Yoruba, associated with the primordial mud from which human beings were made and with death and the return to the earth. In Brazilian Candomble she is Nana, the oldest of the orishas, and she is syncretised with Saint Anne, the grandmother of Christ, a Catholic frame imposed on the Jeje tradition. She is sometimes said to be the mother of Obaluaie, and the Brazilian houses differ on her relations and her colours.
Modern Practice
Nana is served with white flowers, water and white cloth, and her practice is the care of the old, the dying and the dead. In Candomble her feast and her offerings are kept by the Jeje and Nago houses, and in Umbanda she appears in the line of the old ones. The mud and the water are the tradition's, not a 'crone' aesthetic.