Mawu-Lisa (alternately: Mahu) is a creator goddess, associated with the Sun and Moon in Gbe mythology and West African Vodun.
Mawu (Mahu, Mau) and Lisa are the children of Nana Buluku, and are the parents of Oba Koso (Shango), known as Hebioso among the Fon.
From a historical approach, the cult of Mawu-Lisa actually diffused westwards from Yorubaland where its roots are, into the socio-religious consciousness of the Gbe speaking peoples, first from the Agbome (Abomey) plateau which had come under the control of the very centralized Dahomey kingdom.
The gradual transformation from the word Orisa to Lisa is in congruence with the general rules of transmutation of borrowed words of Yoruba origin in Gbe lexicons to fit the Fon-Gbe phonology, which are characterized by certain sound shifts such as; the dropping of Initial Vowels i.e Ogun to Gun/Gu, the phoneme [B] to [V] i.e Oba Adjo to Avadjo or Oyinbo to Yovo,[1] and a switch from [R] to [L], i.e Iroko to Loko,[2] and the Akoro/Okoro quarters of Porto Novo into Aklon.
[4] Among the Gbe speaking people, Mawu in particular but also the twinned Mawu-Lisa duplex was elevated to occupy the apex position in the hierarchy of Voduns.