Mawese
Pende · deity · Pende traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
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.
Domains
- custom and law giving
- abode of the dead
Powers
- to give the ancestors the customs and the rites of communion with the dead
Epithets
- Mawese, the one who showed our ancestors the customs and the mahamba'Pende,' in Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. IX: Africa and the Middle East, ed. John Middleton and Amal Rassam (New York: G.K. Hall / Macmillan, 1995). (secondary)
Relations
- co identified aspect: NzambiMawese and Nzambi are two of the three names under which the Pende speak of the one God; Nzambi names him as supreme creator.Léon de Sousberghe, L'art pende (Brussels: Académie Royale de Belgique, Classe des Beaux-Arts, 1959). (secondary)
- co identified aspect: KalungaThe Western Pende say the dead depart for Mawese, while Kalunga names both God-in-death and the realm of the dead; the two names converge on the fate of the deceased.'Pende,' in Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. IX: Africa and the Middle East, ed. John Middleton and Amal Rassam (New York: G.K. Hall / Macmillan, 1995). (secondary)
Sources
- Mawese is one of the three Pende names for the one God, designating him as the culture-giver who revealed to the ancestors the customs and the mahamba and to whom the dead depart.: 'Pende,' in Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. IX: Africa and the Middle East, ed. John Middleton and Amal Rassam (New York: G.K. Hall / Macmillan, 1995). (secondary); Léon de Sousberghe, L'art pende (Brussels: Académie Royale de Belgique, Classe des Beaux-Arts, 1959). (secondary)