Unkulunkulu (/uɲɠulun'ɠulu/), often formatted as uNkulunkulu,[1] is a mythical ancestor, mythical predecessor group,[2] or Supreme Creator in the language of the Zulu people. Originally a "first ancestor" figure, Unkulunkulu morphed into a creator god figure with the spread of Christianity.[3]

Pre-Christian role

Unkulunkulu was a general term referring to an "old-old one", or an ancestor.[4] In this situation, these Onkulunkulu (the plural form) could be male or female,[5] and most tribes and families had one, regarding them with great respect. Unkulunkulu also existed in a broader role as a sole, ancient figure; this figure being male, he played a role in broader as the ancestor of humanity, but was given little attention. Scholar Ana Maria Monteiro-Ferreira asserts that before the spread of Christianity to the Zulu people, Unkulunkulu was not a Supreme Being like that of the Christian God.[5]

Post-Christian role

With the spread of Christianity in the mid-1800s, various Zulu populations began referring to Unkulunkulu in a different light. This new form of Unkulunkulu was a creator deity rather than an ancestor archetype. This form closely resembles the Christian God and is referred to in the same context.[6] M. R. Masubelele argues that American and European missionaries in the 1830s originally rejected the use of "Unkulunkulu" to the Christian God because of its association to ancestor worship,[7] but eventually many European missionaries began using the name in order to better evangelize the Zulu people.[8] Other names for this being used in similar cultures include uMdali (meaning "Creator") and uMvelinqandi (meaning "Before everything"; analogous to Umvelinqangi in the isiXhosa language).[9]

While he still often represented the first man, he also began to represent a creator/originator of humanity and all creation.[9] This version of Unkulunkulu originated from reeds; he then created humans and livestock from the same reeds, and created everything else afterwards from no original source.[10] After he created all, Unkulunkulu is said to have forgotten his creations and abandoned them, and there are no myths of him beyond this point of creation.[11] Historian William H. Worger argues that nineteenth-century indigenous Africans believed these creation myths and others pertaining to Unkulunkulu to be metaphorical rather than literal, as demonstrated through their debates with European missionaries about their similarities to the Bible and their "literal" truth.[12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Weir, Jennifer. "Whose Unkulunkulu?" Africa (pre-2011), vol. 75, no. 2, 2005, pp. 203-219.
  2. ↑ Olupona, Jacob K. (2014). African Religions: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-19-979058-6. OCLC 839396781.
  3. ↑ Worger, William H. "Parsing God: Conversations about the Meaning of Words and Metaphors in Nineteenth-Century Southern Africa." Journal of African History, vol. 42, no. 3, 2001, pp. 417-447.
  4. ↑ Hexham, Irving (1981). "Lord of the Sky-King of the Earth: Zulu traditional religion and belief in the sky god". Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. 10 (3): 273–285. doi:10.1177/000842988101000302. ISSN 0008-4298. S2CID 171499264.
  5. 1 2 Monteiro-Ferreira, Ana Maria (2005). "Reevaluating Zulu Religion: An Afrocentric Analysis". Journal of Black Studies. 35 (3): 347–363. doi:10.1177/0021934704263127. ISSN 0021-9347. JSTOR 40034764. S2CID 143169268.
  6. ↑ The Library of His Excellency Sir George Grey, KCB: A catalogue Compiled by W H I Bleek, Sir George Grey and J Cameron Vol 4, London and Cape Town 1867
  7. ↑ Masubelele, M. R. (2009). "Missionary interventions in Zulu religious practices: The term for the supreme being". Acta Theologica. 29. doi:10.4314/actat.v12i1.67245. ISSN 2309-9089.
  8. ↑ Mafuta, Willy L.; Kaunda, Chammah J. (2021-05-04). "Recovering African Religions as "World Religions": The Case of the Zulu Religion". Black Theology. 19 (2): 122–134. doi:10.1080/14769948.2021.1955179. ISSN 1476-9948. S2CID 237055239.
  9. 1 2 Callaway, Henry. The Religious System of the Amazulu: Unkulunkulu; or, the tradition of creation as existing among the Amazulu and other tribes of South Africa. 1868.
  10. ↑ Leeming, David Adams; Leeming, Margaret Adams (2009). A Dictionary of Creation Myths (Oxford Reference Online ed.). Oxford University Press.
  11. ↑ Burgess, Andrew. Unkulunkulu in Zululand. Board of Foreign Missions, 1934.
  12. ↑ Worger, William H. (2001). "Parsing God: Conversations about the Meaning of Words and Metaphors in Nineteenth-Century Southern Africa". The Journal of African History. 42 (3): 417–447. doi:10.1017/S0021853701007885. ISSN 0021-8537. JSTOR 3647170. S2CID 163141054.
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