A long-running question in the study of Zulu religion is whether uNkulunkulu is best understood as a high god or as the first ancestor, and Zulu thought itself holds both together. The names point in both directions: uNkulunkulu, "the very great one" or "the great-great one," and uMvelinqangi, "the one who came first" or "who broke off first," from the origin in the bed of reeds, the uhlanga, from which the first people and things were broken off.
Because uNkulunkulu, having established the fundamental order of life, marriage, chieftainship, custom, the calling of the diviner, is understood as remote from the world's daily running, everyday devotion is directed not to him but to the ancestors. Interpreters have accordingly disagreed over whether "creator god" or "primal ancestor" is the truer description, and the tradition's own answer is that the distinction the question assumes does not map cleanly onto Zulu understanding.