Kabezya-Mpungu
Luba · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
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'Father of Creation' / the Creator; from the Kiluba root -panga, 'to create, arrange.'Standard ethnography of Baluba religion (Shakapanga, 'Father of Creation') (secondary)
- Mvidi Mukulu'The Great / Eternal Spirit.'Standard ethnography of Baluba religion (Mvidi Mukulu / Vidye Mukulu) (secondary)
Sources
- existence: 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') (secondary); 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 (secondary)