Africa (goddess)

In numitheism and ancient Roman religion, Africa, (Latin: Dea Africa) (Tamazight: Ifri/Ifru) was a goddess of fertility and abundance worshipped by the Berbers and the tribe of Ifri . Her iconography typically included an elephant-mask headdress, a cornucopia, a military standard, and a lion.

To the Romans she was considered a minor deity, "Africa" was their imperial province, roughly equating to modern north-east Algeria, Tunisia and coastal Libya and so to the them she eventually became the personification of Africa in the early centuries of the common era. The goddess was not given sub-Saharan African characteristics because she was thought of as Berber.

After her image was revived in the Renaissance, she was reduced to a personification of Africa with no divine pretensions, one of the popular team of personifications of the Four Continents.