Sango was a royal ancestor of the Yoruba as he was the third king of the Oyo Kingdom. He succeeded Ajaka, son of Oranmiyan. His symbol is a double-headed axe, which represents swift and balanced justice. Mythologically, he (and 14 others) burst forth from the goddess Yemaja’s body after her son, Orungan, attempted to rape her for the second time. In another set of stories, Sango is the son of Aganju and Obatala. As the story goes, Obatala, the king of the white cloth was travelling and had to cross a river. Aganju, the ferryman and god of fire, refused him passage so Obatala retreated and turned into a woman and traded his/her body for passage (this would later become a conspiracy theory about homosexuality existing even in the days of old). This tension between reason represented by Obatala and Aganju would form the foundation of Sango’s particular character and nature. Sango was said to have went in search of Aganju on which he had to throw himself into a lake of burning fire...
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