Nkuba

Nkuba ('Lightning / Thunderbolt'), titled Umwami wo Hejuru, 'the King of the Sky,' is the celestial sovereign at the head of the Ibimanuka ('those fallen from the heavens') in the Rwandan dynastic origin myth recorded by d'Hertefelt & Coupez and in Kagame's dynastic poem Ubucurabwenge. In the royal genealogy 'Nkuba (the thunder) begat Kigwa (the fallen one), who begat Muntu,' and the line continues through the celestial ancestors down to the founder-king Gihanga, so that Nkuba is the apical sky-father of the Rwandan kings. The sky he rules is the 'point of departure' from which the royal line descends to earth; above him stands the transcendent creator Imana, who is the principal agent of that engendering. Nkuba is distinct from (though comparable to) the Nyanga lightning-god of the same name in neighboring Great Lakes Bantu traditions.

Children

• Kigwa

Domains

• sky and lightning
• celestial kingship

Powers

• Hurl the thunderbolt as King of the Sky

Epithets

• Umwami wo Hejuru Kinyarwanda · Umwami wo Hejuru · lifelongthe King of the Skyd'Hertefelt & Coupez, La royauté sacrée de l'ancien Rwanda (secondary)

Relations

• ancestor of: GihangaReciprocal of Gihanga descendant-of Nkuba: Nkuba is the apical sky-father of the Ibimanuka line that descends (through Kigwa/Sabizeze, Muntu, etc.) to the founder-king Gihanga.Alexis Kagame, Ubucurabwenge; d'Hertefelt & Coupez (1964) — Nkuba > Kigwa > Muntu > ... > Gihanga (secondary)
• created by: ImanaReciprocal of Imana creator-of Nkuba: the transcendent High God Imana is the creator standing above the celestial order of which Nkuba is the king of the sky.Kagame, La philosophie bantu-rwandaise de l'Etre (1956); d'Hertefelt & Coupez (1964) — Imana the transcendent Creator above the celestial order (secondary)

Sources

• existence: Marcel d'Hertefelt & A. Coupez, La royauté sacrée de l'ancien Rwanda (1964); Alexis Kagame, Ubucurabwenge / Inganji Karinga; Jan Vansina, Antecedents to Modern Rwanda: The Nyiginya Kingdom (2004) (secondary)
• king-of-the-sky-and-father-of-the-ibimanuka-line: Kagame, Ubucurabwenge; d'Hertefelt & Coupez (1964) (secondary)