Nzambi, the remote supreme creator

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 Mpungu

Relations

• ally: Kalunga, creative power of the waters and the realm of the dead

Sources

• 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).
• Marie-Louise Bastin, Art décoratif Tshokwe, 2 vols. (Lisbon: Companhia de Diamantes de Angola / Museu do Dundo, 1961).