Mumbi Mukasa
Bemba · numen · mythic founding · Recorded classification
Mumbi Mukasa is the celestial woman of the Bemba origin charter, said to have fallen from the sky with ears as large as an elephant's and to belong to the crocodile clan (Bena Ng'andu). As wife of Mukulumpe and mother of Katongo, Chiti, Nkole and Chilufya Mulenga, she is the ultimate ancestress through whom the matrilineal royal dynasty of the Chitimukulu claims descent and clan identity. Hinfelaar treats her as the female, heavenly pole of Bemba royal ideology.
Children
Domains
- royal matriliny
Powers
- to descend from the sky
Relations
- mother of: the Founding ParamountMother of Chiti, the founding Chitimukulu; the royal line traces its matrilineal descent and crocodile clan through her.Andrew D. Roberts, A History of the Bemba: Political Growth and Change in North-eastern Zambia before 1900, Longman, 1973 (secondary)
- mother of: NkoleMother of Nkole.Andrew D. Roberts, A History of the Bemba: Political Growth and Change in North-eastern Zambia before 1900, Longman, 1973 (secondary)
- mother of: KatongoMother of the blind drummer Katongo.Andrew D. Roberts, A History of the Bemba: Political Growth and Change in North-eastern Zambia before 1900, Longman, 1973 (secondary)
- mother of: Chilufya MulengaMother of Chilufya Mulenga, through whom the royal succession passes.Andrew D. Roberts, A History of the Bemba: Political Growth and Change in North-eastern Zambia before 1900, Longman, 1973 (secondary)
- spouse: MukulumpeWife of King Mukulumpe of Kola.Hugo F. Hinfelaar, Bemba-speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change (1892-1992), Brill, 1994 (secondary)
- subordinate to: the High God of StormHer celestial origin associates her with the sky realm of the high god Lesa.Hugo F. Hinfelaar, Bemba-speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change (1892-1992), Brill, 1994 (secondary)
Sources
- Mumbi Mukasa is the sky-born ancestress of the crocodile clan, wife of Mukulumpe and mother of the Bemba royal siblings, the mythical source of the royal matriline.: Andrew D. Roberts, A History of the Bemba: Political Growth and Change in North-eastern Zambia before 1900, Longman, 1973 (secondary); Hugo F. Hinfelaar, Bemba-speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change (1892-1992), Brill, 1994 (secondary)