Chokwe

Chokwe Beliefs

The Chokwe have strong religious beliefs that are associated with their internal history and their moral geographical position within the Angolan history. Chokwe religious ideals are the continuation of their ancestor's traditions that reflect their everyday life. This means that, within their religious traditions, the linkage with the ancestors is inevitably a primary concern.

An appreciation of the Chokwe concept of God must involve an understanding of the pride of place given to ancestors. To the Chokwe people, life has no value at all if the presence and power of ancestral spirits are excluded. Ancestral spirits are the most intimate gods of the Chokwe people; they are part of the family and are consulted frequently by its members.

The concept of sacred kingship in Chokwe religion was originally introduced to the Chokwe by a foreign Luba hunter of royal blood called Chibinda Ilunga. In fact, Chibinda Ilunga remains at the core of the chiefs' central position in Chokwe religion today. Chiefs or kings are regarded as the representatives of God (Kalunga or Nzambi) on Earth and as the intermediaries between the world of humans and the realm of ancestral and natural spirits that affects humans and their environments. The Chokwe king, or Mwanangana, is literally the “owner/overseer of the land,” the individual who is ultimately responsible for the well-being of the people, fertility, and the continuity of his or her people.

The most common name used to refer to the high God among the Chokwe is Kalunga or Nzambi. This supernatural being is said to have created the World and humans and can therefore also be called Samatanga, meaning the creator. The word Kalunga or Nzambi among the Chokwe today is viewed as a unitary and remote principle that is distinguished by its greatness, infinity, and ubiquity; this change obviously has been heavily influenced by the Christian conception of God, and it likely differs considerably from the view held before the Christian missionaries entered Chokwe land.

The prestigious items, objects that relate to particular chores, activities of their everyday life, and concepts of beauty, dress, and well-being become part of the Chokwe religious cosmology in terms of spiritual connection with their ancestors and God the creator. These include pottery and basketry, as well as combs, hairpins, staffs, and pipes. Most of these items incorporate images of tutelary ancestral spirits that symbolically support concepts of wealth, fertility, prosperity, health, and social status.

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