Mawese is the name under which the Western Pende invoke God as culture-giver and as the goal of the dead. De Sousberghe records their saying: 'Our dead have left for Mawese; it is he who showed our ancestors the customs and the mahamba [singular hamba — the inherited object or rite through which one enters into communication with the guardian spirits and renders them favorable], which they have transmitted to us.' Mawese thus founds the entire ancestral and mask cult that is central to Pende life, having handed down the very rites by which the living reach the dead. He is one of the three names — with Nzambi the creator and Kalunga the lord of death — of a single supreme being.