Mvelinqangi (the First to Appear)
Swazi · deity · Swazi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Mvelinqangi, also Mkhulumnqande ('the great-great one'), is the remote high god of the Swazi (emaSwati), a Nguni people of Eswatini. As among other Nguni, he is the self-created first being and origin of all, but he is distant and impersonal; the active religious life of the Swazi is directed not to him but to the royal and family ancestors (emadloti).
Domains
- supreme creator
- origin of the peoples
Powers
- to bring the earth and its peoples into being
- to remain remote and beyond direct worship
Sources
- Mvelinqangi (Mkhulumnqande) is the aloof, self-existent supreme creator and 'first grandfather' of the Swazi, who made the world but is not directly worshipped.: Hilda Kuper, An African Aristocracy: Rank Among the Swazi (London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1947). (secondary); Molefi Kete Asante & Ama Mazama (eds.), Encyclopedia of African Religion (Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2009), s.v. 'Swazi'. (secondary)