Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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Deity

Mulungu

Bantu Deities

Mulungu is a name for the highest god, creator and father of all gods, used across many Bantu-speaking cultures of East and Central Africa. He is generally portrayed as a remote and detached creator, an impersonal originating power rather than a personal deity involved in daily affairs, and a defining trait across the traditions that use the name is that no prayers or worship are directed to him, people instead approaching lower gods and spirits closer to human concerns. In some traditions, such as the Nyamwezi, myth holds that Mulungu withdrew from the earth to the sky after growing upset with human behavior, including fires set to the landscape. The name has since been adopted by Christian and Islamic communities in numerous African languages as their own word for God.

Facts
Attestation
Veneration Today
Historically attested; no continuous cult 1
Historicity
Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1
Function
Domain / Function
Sky 1
Identity
Gender
Beyond gender 2
Belief
Theology
Polytheistic: many gods 1
Sources
1. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend
Anthony S. Mercatante, revised and expanded by James R. Dow, Facts on File
2. Encyclopedia of African Religion
Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama, editors, SAGE Publications
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