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 wordKalungaorNzambiamong 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 cos-
mology 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.
Religious PracticeThe spiritual connection in Chokwe religion hap-
pens through close contact with nature and its
mysticism; the sand, in which they draw, becomes
the spiritual intermediary with the divine. The
Chokwe people have a unique way of drawing;
their drawings are based in vertical and horizontal
lines with lots of crosses and small dots. Their
drawings are a vivid expression of the multiple
complexities of their culture and tradition, which
is difficult for outsiders to comprehend.
The termGodamong the Chokwe is thus not
only the creator of the World and its people, but
also of a basic element of the social fabric. The
cultural changes that have affected the area over
the past 100 years, however, have led to the cur-
rent neglect of this traditional blue print of
human organization.
Chokwe religion, as well as most African reli-
gions, does have a tradition of oral religious prac-
tice as a way to communicate between the elders
and the newest initiates. Oratory in the religious
practice among the Chokwe is the foundation of
the Chokwe Empire. Indeed, the oratory and the
religion, of which oratory is a major factor,
served to unite and define the Chokwe to a signif-
icant degree. Historically, it has also played an
important role in their social structure, internal
development, and social and technological evolu-
tion during the 19th and 20th centuries. The
oratory tradition in their religion serves as a
mechanism to transcend the physical and reach
the metaphysical world.
Chokwe is a patriarchal society where the
male is the dominant figure in the culture; the
chiefs, the diviners, and the intermediates in
the spiritual World tend to be male. Within the
Chokwe culture, there are no specialized priests
because elder men or women can make cere-
monies. However, male elders are eligible to
make offerings to the ancestors before and after
perilous expeditions or during times of trouble in
the villages. Women seldom make such offering
mainly because most of their lives are spent in
their husband’s village, where there is no shrine
dedicated to their own lineage ancestors. It is
sometimes said that women suffer more than
men from ancestor-related afflictions because
they are not able to make frequent offerings to
the ancestors in the way that men do.
Yet female elders have the power to initiate cer-
emonies to cure diseases. Women are not without
powers. Chiefs are the initiators of the ancestral
spirits that may manifest as a form of painted
body, ritual performance, with masks to drama-
tize cosmological principles. A makishi perfor-
mance, for example, evokes publicly the cosmological
ideas within the Chokwe system, which connects
humans to the spiritual world. In the delicate
relationship among body, soul, and mind, the
makishi performance reinvigorates the history and
beliefs of the people. A makishi performer wears a
traditional mask and may scare the children by
chasing them during the ritual to bring direct con-
tact with the divine spirit. The makishi often
serves to sanction and validate social and political
institutions.
In Chokwe religion, the ideal woman for the
Lunda and Luvale is the mother. Mothers take the
lead in initiations ceremony for women; they pre-
pare a young girl to earn her membership among
adult women. Indeed, the young girl is celebrated
as a potential mother. Mothers among the
Chokwe are honored in religious rituals; the166 Chokwe