Oya

Oya (known as Oyá or Oiá; Yansá or Yansã; and Iansá or Iansã in Latin America) is an Orisha winds and tempests, rebirth and new life. "She is considered either the sister of the Orisha of storms Shango, or one of His three wives, with Oshun and Oba. She can manifest as winds ranging from the gentlest breeze to the raging hurricane or cyclone. She goes forth with Her husband during His thunderstorms, destroying buildings, ripping up trees, and blowing things down. Oya is known as a fierce warrior and strong protectress of women, who call on Her to settle disputes in their favor." [3] She is either syncretized with the Virgin of Candelaria or St. Therese of Lisieux.

Name

In Yoruba, the name Oya literally means "She Tore". She is known as Ọya-Iyansan – the "mother of nine." This is due to the Niger River (known to the Yoruba as the Odo-Ọya) traditionally being known for having nine tributaries."Oya is the Orisha of the Niger River, and Her violent rainstorms are said to be its source. Like Oshun, She is worshipped not only in Africa but in Brazil, where the Amazon is said to be Her river."[3]

Oya (name)

Oya is a common feminine Turkish given name. In Turkish, "Oya" means "lace", "Irish lace", and/or "lagestromia indica".

People

Given name

Surname

Oya (comics)

Oya (Idie Okonkwo) is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #528, in the third chapter of the "Five Lights" storyline, and was created by Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen. She is one of the "Five Lights"—a group of mutants who manifested their abilities after the events of "Second Coming".

Publication history

Oya first appeared in Uncanny X-Men as newly manifested mutant who is deeply conflicted about her powers. Following her introduction, she, along with Hope Summers, Velocidad, Transonic, Zero, and Primal, began to feature in the series Generation Hope. She made appearances in Uncanny X-Men and is currently featured in Wolverine and the X-Men.

Fictional character biography

The Third Light

Idie is a fourteen-year-old girl from Cross River State, Nigeria when her powers manifest. The first manifestation of her powers causes her village to burn down, and when she starts to freeze things as well, she is considered by the locals to be a witch. By the time Storm and Hope arrive, Idie's family and friends have been killed. Hope stabilizes Idie's powers, and Idie uses her new abilities to drive away the paramilitary group that was attempting to kill her.

Bantu

Bantu may refer to:

See also

Bantu languages

The Bantu languages (/ˈbæntuː/), technically the Narrow Bantu languages, constitute a traditional branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages. Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of present-day Cameroon; i.e. in the regions commonly known as Central Africa, Southeast Africa, and Southern Africa. Parts of the Bantu area include languages from other language families (see map).

The Bantu language with the largest total number of speakers is Swahili; however, the majority of its speakers know it as a second language. According to Ethnologue, there are over 180 million L2 (second-language) speakers, but only about 2 million native speakers.

According to Ethnologue, Shona is the most widely spoken as a first language, with 10.8 million speakers (or 14.2 million if Manyika and Ndau are included), followed closely by Zulu, with 10.3 million. Ethnologue separates the largely mutually intelligible Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, but, if grouped together, they have 12.4 million speakers.

Bantu peoples

Bantu peoples is used as a general label for the 300–600 ethnic groups in Africa who speak Bantu languages. They inhabit a geographical area stretching east and southward from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes region down to Southern Africa. Bantu is a major branch of the Niger-Congo language family spoken by most populations in Africa. There are about 650 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages.

About 3000 years ago, speakers of the proto-Bantu language group began a millennia-long series of migrations eastward from their homeland between West Africa and Central Africa at the border of eastern Nigeria and Cameroon. This Bantu expansion first introduced Bantu peoples to central, southern, and southeastern Africa, regions they had previously been absent from. The proto-Bantu migrants in the process assimilated and/or displaced a number of earlier inhabitants that they came across, including Khoisan populations in the south and Afro-Asiatic groups in the southeast.