the Withdrawing Creator

Second great anchor of the 'creator withdraws to the sky on a spider-thread' cycle, paired with the Chewa Chiuta. A high-god / sky-creator (deity). The name is glossed 'he who does not speak' (Luyana). His sky-dwelling is Litooma. Father of Mwambwa, ancestress of the Lozi kingship.

Children

• the First King
• the First Ancestress

Domains

• sky creation
• creation of living things

Powers

• ascend to heaven on a spider's web
• make all living things

Epithets

• Nyambe latin · Nyambe · cultThe supreme creator who dwelt on earth, then withdrew to the sky up a spider’s threadÉ. Jacottet, on Barotse (Lozi) tradition (secondary)

Relations

• equated with: Nzambi a MpunguSame western-Bantu high-god theonym (root *Nyambe/Nzambi) in Lozi Nyambe and Kongo Nzambi a Mpungu — an areal cognate name so identified by scholars, NOT a shared cult: the myths and theologies are independent.Edwin W. Smith (ed.), African Ideas of God: A Symposium (1950), on the Nyambe/Nzambi name-cluster (secondary); Alice Werner, Myths and Legends of the Bantu (1933), ch. on the High God (secondary)
• spouse: the MoonReciprocal of lozi_nasilele.spouse — The moon-goddess Nasilele is the consort of the creator Nyambe; with him she is mother of Mwambwa (that parent-edge is recorded on Mwambwa's entry).E. W. Smith, 'The Idea of God among South African Tribes' / African Ideas of God (ed. Smith), Lozi cosmology; Jacottet, Études sur les langues du Haut-Zambèze (secondary)

Sources

• Nyambe is the Lozi/Barotse creator-sky-god who, to escape humankind led by Kamonu, fled to his heaven Litooma up a spider's web.: Jalla, A. (1921). Litaba za Sicaba sa Malozi (History of the Barotse Nation). Cape Town. (secondary); Werner, A. (1933). Myths and Legends of the Bantu. London: George G. Harrap, ch. III. (secondary)
• The royal line of the Lozi traces descent from Nyambe through his daughter Mwambwa.: Mainga, M. (1973). Bulozi under the Luyana Kings. London: Longman. (secondary)