Ongo

Ongo, called also Sheburungu and Ongomana, is a creator-divinity of Nyanga belief, the generous god who shapes children in the womb and oversees their growth through life. His realm, itself named Sheburungu, is inhabited by the unborn who await their entry into the world. In the epic Mwindo comes upon Sheburungu and joins him at the gambling game of wiki, staking his possessions; Ongo wins away everything the hero owns, one by one, until Mwindo, aided by the powers he has gathered, reverses the game and recovers all. Sources differ on the precise rank of Ongo within the Nyanga cosmos, some casting him as the benevolent creator and others emphasising his identity as an underworld master of the not-yet-living, alongside the fire-god Nyamurairi.

Domains

• creation
• fertility

Powers

• create and quicken the unborn

Relations

• rival: MwindoContests the wiki gambling game against Mwindo, winning away all the hero's possessions before Mwindo prevails.Biebuyck & Mateene, The Mwindo Epic from the Banyanga, 1969. (primary)

Sources

• Ongo, also called Sheburungu or Ongomana, is the creator-divinity who forms children in the womb and dwells in the subterranean realm of the unborn; in the epic he plays the wiki gambling game against Mwindo, stripping the hero of everything before Mwindo wins it back.: Biebuyck & Mateene, The Mwindo Epic from the Banyanga, 1969. (primary); Biebuyck, Hero and Chief, 1978. (secondary)