Mulungu (Ngai), the supreme creator

Mulungu, more often called Ngai, is the supreme and essentially monotheistic God of the Akamba of the Machakos and Kitui highlands of eastern Kenya. Invisible and transcendent, he dwells on high (ituni) and is approached not so much by his proper name, which is uttered with great reserve, as through a cluster of descriptive titles: Asa, 'the Father' and strong Lord; Mumbi, 'the fashioner', who moulds every creature as a potter works clay; and Mwatuangi, 'the divider' or 'distributor', who apportions the parts of the body and separates the waters from the dry land. He is the giver of children, cattle, food and above all rain, which is spoken of as his saliva; prayer for rain is directed to him alone and never to the ancestral spirits. Communal sacrifice on his behalf was offered at sacred groves of fig or baobab, the mathembo. In the creation narrative he fashioned the first human pair and lowered them from the sky onto the rock of Nzaui.

Domains

• creation
• rain and weather
• sky and sovereignty

Powers

• to mould and fashion human beings and all creatures
• to give and withhold the rain
• to divide, apportion and separate the parts of creation

Epithets

• AsaJohn S. Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa (London: S.P.C.K., 1970): Asa, 'the Father', the strong Lord. (secondary)
• MumbiJohn S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (London: Heinemann, 1969): Mumbi, God the fashioner/creator. (secondary)
• MwatuangiGerhard Lindblom, The Akamba in British East Africa, 2nd ed. (Uppsala: Appelbergs, 1920): Mwatuangi, the divider/distributor. (secondary)

Relations

• creator of: Mundu, the first manMulungu fashioned the first man, Mundu, in the sky and set him upon the rock of Nzaui together with his cattle and a stool.Gerhard Lindblom, The Akamba in British East Africa, 2nd ed. (Uppsala: Appelbergs, 1920), on the creation of the first man and his descent to the rock at Nzaui. (secondary)
• creator of: Kiveti, the first womanMulungu likewise fashioned the first woman, Kiveti, the wife of Mundu, whose footprints are shown beside his at Nzaui.John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (London: Heinemann, 1969), recounting the Akamba creation of the first man and woman. (secondary)

Sources

• Mulungu (Ngai) is the supreme, sky-dwelling creator-god of the Akamba, invoked through the epithets Asa (the Father), Mumbi (the fashioner) and Mwatuangi (the divider), and the only power to whom rain is prayed.: Gerhard Lindblom, The Akamba in British East Africa: An Ethnological Monograph, 2nd enlarged ed. (Uppsala: Appelbergs, 1920; 1st ed. 1916). (secondary); John S. Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa (London: S.P.C.K., 1970). (secondary); C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of A-Kamba and Other East African Tribes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910). (secondary)