DIVINE ROUND-UP 032

It can't all be off-brand Greek gods. I'm elbow-deep in the 1941 issues of Jungle Comics, so here are some off-brand African deities.

Damballah and Gbeji-Nibu:

The evil witch doctor N'Goku has been using his magical abilities to cause problems in his area (plagues of snakes, a sickness among the cattle) and then solve them for cash money, and then when Fantomah (post-Fletcher Hanks) points out that he is doing so he attempts to do away with her. N'Goku invokes Gbeji-Nibu, the God of Steers, as well as Damballah the Snake God, and since the latter is a real deity in West African Vodún we must assume that the former is as well, though as far as I can tell he has been made up for this comic.

Neither Damballah or Gbeji-Nibu are fictional in the world of the comic, however, as both of them are pretty mad at N'Goku for his misdeeds and send a divine animal avatar to punish him. To death. Interestingly, it seems that N'Goku's fatal mistake was not in using his divine gifts for evil but in crossing Fantomah, who is on good enough terms with Damballah that she calls upon him a few issues later to deal with a snake-pit situation she finds herself in.

God Style: Invoked (Real) (Jungle Comics 018, 1941)

Tokpodu:

We don't learn anything about the entity called Tokpodu but it evidently does hold some power, as the wizard Guluba here is able to use his jackal-hair whip to shrink both people and animals after invoking this entity. He too crosses Fantomah and ends up paying for it with his life.

God Style: Invoked (Real?) (Jungle Comics 019, 1941)

Leopards:

There's not much info on what this fellow is actually up to. Certainly he is sacrificing lambs (and attempts to sacrifice a human) to some leopards that he has in a pit in an ancient lost Egyptian temple, but whether he is worshipping them specifically or they are acting as avatars of a deity that was worshipped in the temple is unclear. I can't find an Egyptian god with an especial link to leopards but that might just be a sign of poor research on my part. Complete understanding of this issue is hampered by the fact that the story's protagonist is a lion and thus not equipped to do exposition or offer any real insight at all.

God style: Animist (I guess) (Jungle Comics 020, 1941)

the Elephant God:

This nameless Elephant God is worshipped by the Goru people, who hold all elephants sacred, except for a brief period when wealthy hunter Ali ben Yusi rolls through and convinces them that ivory hunting is more profitable. This ends when a herd of elephants smash up the village and the Goru reconsider their allegiances.

God Style: Idol (Real?) (Jungle Comics 020, 1941)