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