Nzambi, the remote supreme creator
Chokwe · deity · Chokwe traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Nzambi is the high creator-god of the Chokwe of eastern Angola, south-western Democratic Republic of the Congo and north-western Zambia, a figure shared in name and concept with neighbouring Western-Bantu peoples such as the Kongo (Nzambi a Mpungu). Ethnographers record that the Chokwe believe in a remote supreme being responsible for creation whom they call Kalunga and/or Nzambi, but whom they do not worship directly; instead they direct their cult to the mahamba, the ancestral and nature spirits who mediate between humanity and the creator. Because the supreme being is distant and largely uninvolved in daily life, Chokwe religious practice centres far more on the masked ancestral spirits and lineage shrines than on the creator himself.
Domains
- creation of the world
- sky and heavens
Powers
- to create the world and all living things
- to receive prayers and appeals while remaining beyond direct worship
Epithets
- Nzambi MpunguJan Vansina, Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). (secondary)
Relations
- ally: Kalunga, creative power of the waters and the realm of the deadChokwe sources treat the remote supreme creator as a single power addressed under two names, Nzambi and Kalunga, the latter emphasising the creative force in the waters and the realm of the dead; the two are effectively manifestations of one creator.Merran McCulloch, The Southern Lunda and Related Peoples, Ethnographic Survey of Africa (London: International African Institute, 1951). (secondary)
Sources
- Nzambi (also called Nzambi Mpungu, and among the Chokwe equated with Kalunga) is the remote Chokwe supreme creator, responsible for the world but approached only indirectly through the ancestral mahamba.: Merran McCulloch, The Southern Lunda and Related Peoples (Northern Rhodesia, Belgian Congo, Angola), Ethnographic Survey of Africa, West Central Africa Part I (London: International African Institute, 1951). (secondary); Marie-Louise Bastin, Art décoratif Tshokwe, 2 vols. (Lisbon: Companhia de Diamantes de Angola / Museu do Dundo, 1961). (secondary)