Kabezya-Mpungu
Luba · deity · primordial · deity
The Luba creator and high god (Kabezya-Mpungu; also Mvidi Mukulu / Vidye Mukulu, 'the Great Spirit', and Shakapanga, 'Father of Creation'). He shapes the world, sets the four forces (Sun, Moon, Darkness, Rain) in balance, gives humanity Mutshima ('the heart'), and then withdraws as a deus otiosus, reached thereafter through the bavidye spirits. era primordial.
Domains
- creation
- sky and high heaven
- life and the soul
Powers
- Creates the world and sets the four cosmic forces in balance
- Gives humanity the heart (Mutshima)
- Withdraws and becomes invisible to the world
Epithets
- Shakapanga
- Mvidi Mukulu
Sources
- Standard ethnography of Baluba religion: the creator high god Kabezya-Mpungu / Mvidi Mukulu / Shakapanga; the four forces (Sun, Moon, Darkness, Rain) and the gift of Mutshima ('the heart')
- Mary Nooter Roberts & Allen F. Roberts, Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History (Museum for African Art, 1996), on the bavidye spirits and Luba cosmology