Mijibu wa Kalenga

Mijibu wa Kalenga, the founding diviner-spirit of the Luba epic, whose clairvoyance saves and counsels Kalala Ilunga and makes the first sacred kingship possible; the archetype incarnated by every Bilumbu diviner in possession. Authored as a numen (a spirit/genius, neither the high god nor a simple mortal). Ally of Kalala Ilunga. era mythic.

Domains

• divination
• prophecy and counsel

Powers

• Foresees plots and warns the king
• Incarnates in the diviner during possession

Epithets

• the first diviner

Relations

• ally: Kalala Ilunga

Sources

• Mary Nooter Roberts & Allen F. Roberts, Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History (Museum for African Art, 1996)
• Luc de Heusch, The Drunken King, or The Origin of the State (1982)