Supreme Creator of the Threefold Godhead
Fang · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Head of the Fang creator triad Nzame–Mebere–Nkwa. Cognate forms (Zambe, Nsambe) occur across Beti-Pahuin (Bulu, Ewondo). Typed deity (supreme creator).
Domains
- creation
- rulership and power
- sky
Powers
- creates the world and destroys it when humanity rebels
- appoints a chief to rule over the animals
- orders the heavenly bodies and sets the cosmos in motion
Epithets
- Nzame The creator god, first of the Fang trinity (Nzame, Mebere, Nkwa)Henri Trilles, Le Totémisme chez les Fân (secondary)
- Mebere the leadership-aspect of the creator triad (co-creator with Nzame)Wikipedia, 'Nzame' (secondary)
Relations
- enemy: Proud Immortal First ManReciprocal of fang_fam.enemy — Fam grew proud, abused the beasts and refused worship; Nzame buried him alive, and his undying malice still plagues mankind.Beier (ed.), The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (1966) (secondary)
- companion: Maker of the First ManFirst and second persons of the threefold Fang creator (Nzame-Mebere-Nkwa) who deliberate and create as one.Beier (ed.), The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (1966) (secondary)
- companion: Spirit of Beauty and HarmonyFirst and third persons of the Fang creator triad.Beier (ed.), The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (1966) (secondary)
- descendant of: Self-Begetting Creator GodIn Bwiti cosmogony Mebege engenders Zame ye Mebege ('Zame of Mebege'); given as descent, not parentIds, since single-parent math would demote the deity tier.Fernandez, Bwiti: An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa (1982) (secondary)
Sources
- Nzame is the Fang supreme creator, often conceived as a trinity with Mebere and Nkwa, who made the world and the first man Fam.: Tessmann, Günter. Die Pangwe. Berlin, 1913, vol. 2. (primary); Fernandez, James W. Bwiti: An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa. Princeton, 1982. (secondary)
- When the first man Fam became impious, Nzame destroyed the earth and re-created it, making a new mortal man.: Knappert, Jan. African Mythology: An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend. London, 1990. (secondary)