Mfinda is a spiritual concept of the forest in

Kongo religion Kongo religion (Kongo language, Kikongo: Bukongo or Bakongo) encompasses the traditional beliefs of the Kongo people, Bakongo people. Due to the highly centralized position of the Kingdom of Kongo, its leaders were able to influence much of the ...

Belief

Nature is essential to Kongo spirituality. While

simbi A Simbi (also Cymbee, Sim'bi, pl. Bisimbi) is a Central African water and nature spirit in traditional Kongo religion, as well as in African diaspora spiritual traditions, such as Hoodoo in the southern United States and Palo in Cuba. Simbi ha ...

(pl. bisimbi) nature spirits later became more associated with water, or ''kalûnga'', they were also known to dwell in the forest, or ''mfinda'' (''finda'' in Hoodoo). The Kingdom of Kongo used the term ''chibila'', which referred to sacred groves, where they would venerate these forest spirits. The Kingdom of Loango called them ''bakisi banthandu'', or spirits of the wilderness. The Kingdom of Ndongo preferred the name ''xibila'' (pl. ''bibila''). The Kongo people also believed that some ancestors inhabited the forest after death and maintained their spiritual presence in their descendants' lives. These particular ancestors were believed to have died, traveled to Mpémba, and then were reborn as bisimbi. Thus, ''The Great Mfinda'' existed as a meeting point between the physical world and the spiritual world. The living saw it as a source of physical nourishment through hunting and spiritual nourishment through contact with the ancestors. One expert on Kongo religion, Dr. Fu-Kiau, even described some precolonial Kongo cosmograms with mfinda as a bridge between the two worlds.

Nganga

Mfinda is also where Kongo secret societies, such as ''Kinkimba'' and ''Lemba'', initiated new healers. Expert healers, known as

banganga The Banganga Tank is a temple tank which is part of the Hindu Walkeshwar Temple complex in the Malabar Hill area of the city of Mumbai, India. History The tank was built in AD 1127 by Lakshman Prabhu, a minister in the court of Silhara ki ...

(sing. nganga) underwent extensive training to commune with the ancestors in the spiritual realm and seek guidance from them. These new initiates learned how to locate nature spirits and build a connection. Once they became official banganga, it became their duty to seek them out in the forest and venerated them with shrines, sacred trees, and '' minkisi'' (sing. ''nkisi''). In return, the ancestor or nature spirit would pass on untold history, advise the nganga, or allow them to harness their powers for healing or protection.

American diaspora

The concept of mfinda as a spiritual space also emerged in the

colonial United States The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of North America from the late 15th century until the unifying of the Thirteen British Colonies and creation of the United States in 1776, during the Rev ...

through trans-Atlantic slavery and became known locally as ''finda''. Bakongo descendants saw the wilderness as a symbol of freedom but also sorrow. Because early enslaved Bakongo had no ancestors on this side of kalûnga (which became synonymous with the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

), it meant they had no blood tie to the new lands in which they were transported. Thus, banganga had no way to connect to the spiritual world. To remedy this, some

Bakongo The Kongo people (also , singular: or ''M'kongo; , , singular: '') are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others. They have li ...

and Mbundu willingly committed acts of sacrificial suicide so that they could become ancestors or

and connect the living to ''Mpémba'', the spiritual world. The finda then became a sacred space, where sightings of "cymbee" spirits were often recorded by

Black Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

. Today, the finda is still a significant element in Hoodoo.

References

{{Kingdom of Kongo, state=autocollapse African diaspora African mythology Afro-American religion Bantu religion Kingdom of Kongo Kongo Kongo culture Kongo religion Nature and religion Paganism Religion in Africa