Owner of the Dazzling Light, the Divider

High god of the Kikuyu; classed as deity, genderless (sex='none'). Jomo Kenyatta's 'Facing Mount Kenya' (1938) is the canonical insider ethnography. Mwene-Nyaga associated with Kĩrĩnyaga (Mt Kenya). Mũrungu is a wider Bantu/Meru name also used.

Children

• First Man and Founding Father
• First Woman and Mother-Moulder

Domains

• creation
• sky and rain
• the mountain abode

Powers

• divides and apportions the goods of creation among peoples
• comes down to rest on the snow-bright peak of Mount Kenya
• grants the founding ancestors their homeland beneath the fig tree

Epithets

• Mwene-Nyaga latin · Mwene-NyagaOwner/Possessor of the Brightness (the dazzling snow of Kĩrĩnyaga, Mount Kenya)Kenyatta, Jomo. Facing Mount Kenya. Secker & Warburg, 1938, ch. I. (ethnography)
• Mũgai latin · MugaiThe Divider/Apportioner — he who divided out the land and gifts to humankindKenyatta, Jomo. Facing Mount Kenya. Secker & Warburg, 1938. (ethnography)

Relations

• ancestor of: First Man and Founding FatherHigh god of Mount Kenya; the first man Gikuyu and first woman Mumbi already record Ngai as parent, so given as ancestor-of to preserve their tiers.Jomo Kenyatta, Facing Mount Kenya (1938); Ngai (Mwene-Nyaga) creates the founding ancestor Gikuyu and gives him Mumbi (secondary)

Sources

• Ngai (Mwene-Nyaga, 'Owner of the Dazzling Light/Brightness'; also Mũgai, 'the Divider') is the supreme creator-god of the Gĩkũyũ, a sky and rain divinity who dwells on Mount Kenya (Kĩrĩnyaga) and apportions creation.: Kenyatta, J., 'Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu' (London, 1938) (secondary); Leakey, L.S.B., 'The Southern Kikuyu before 1903' (1977) (secondary)