Sopona

The Yoruba Orisha of smallpox, infectious disease, and the earth's vengeance. Sopona is one of the most feared deities in the pantheon and was traditionally invoked to inflict, or remove, epidemic illness. His worship was banned by the colonial Nigerian government in 1907 over fears that priests deliberately spread smallpox, and his cult went underground. In the diaspora he is venerated as a healer rather than an afflicter.