Bunzi, also called Mpulu Bunzi or Phulu Bunzi, is a serpent water spirit and goddess of rain in traditional Kongo religion, first venerated by the Woyo people of the Kingdom of Ngoyo in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo and Angola. She is typically imagined as a multicolored serpent connected to rivers, rainbows and other natural water features, representing the divine source of the rainfall on which agricultural abundance depends.
Facts
Attestation
Veneration TodaySourced to the subject's own accountActively venerated in a living tradition 2 HistoricityNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1 Function
Domain / Function Identity
GenderSourced to the subject's own account Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: 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. African Cosmology of the Bantu-Kongo: Principles of Life and Living
Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau, Athelia Henrietta Press
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