In Ashanti mythology, Asase Yaa is the earth goddess often paired with the sky god Nyame.
Asase Yaa belongs to the wider Akan religious traditions of Ghana and neighboring Côte d’Ivoire. She represents the earth as a source of fertility, food, truth, peace, and life, while also receiving the bodies of the dead. Her name is commonly translated through Twi elements as “earth” and “born on Thursday,” although related Akan communities use variant forms such as Asase Afua or Asase Efua.
Asase Yaa is linked with Nyame or Nyankapon, the sky deity, in stories about the separation of heaven and earth. One popular version says that repeated blows from a pestle—or smoke and noise from human activity—annoyed the sky god, causing him to withdraw upward. Attempts to reconnect earth and sky then failed when a tower of mortars collapsed.
Unlike many major deities, Asase Yaa traditionally has no permanent temples. Farmers honor her directly in the fields, and Thursday is a sacred day for many Asante communities, when working the soil may be avoided. Fante traditions commonly associate the earth deity with Friday instead.