The
Baluba are one of the
Bantu peoples
The Bantu peoples, or Bantu, are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. They are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Souther ...
of
Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo ...
. Their creator deity's name is Kabezya-Mpungu.
Creation myth of Kabezya-Mpungu
The Baluba creation story makes a connection between God's invisibility or unavailability and the endowment of humans with a soul or divine component longing for God.
In the creation story, Kabezya-Mpungu decides to become invisible after creating the world and the first humans who did not yet have a heart. After balancing the rain, sun, moon, and darkness, he leaves. To replace the visible god, he sends the people Mutshima ("heart"), the life-giving or divine part of humans.
Since then all humans have been endowed with Mutshima, the heart.
Notes
References
*
Carl Einstein
Carl Einstein, born Karl Einstein, also known by pseudonym Savine Ree Urian (26 April 1885 – 5 July 1940), was an influential German Jewish writer, art historian, anarchist, and critic.
Regarded as one of the first critics to appreciate the dev ...
(Ed.) 1925: ''Afrikanische Märchen und Legenden''; Rowohlt, 1925. Neuausgabe (1980) MEDUSA Verlag Wölk + Schmid, Berlin. (in German)
*
Carl Einstein
Carl Einstein, born Karl Einstein, also known by pseudonym Savine Ree Urian (26 April 1885 – 5 July 1940), was an influential German Jewish writer, art historian, anarchist, and critic.
Regarded as one of the first critics to appreciate the dev ...
''African Legends'' First English edition, Pandavia, Berlin 2021.
* Charlotte Leslau,
Wolf Leslau
__NOTOC__
Wolf Leslau ( yi, וולף לסלאו; born November 14, 1906 in Krzepice, Vistula Land, Poland; died November 18, 2006 in Fullerton, California) was a scholar of Semitic languages and one of the foremost authorities on Semitic langua ...
(Ed.): ''African Folk Tales''; Mount Vernon, 1963, N.Y. : Peter Pauper Press
External links
Creation Myth of Kabezya-Mpungu
Bantu mythology
Creation myths
{{Africa-myth-stub