Precolonial Beliefs in God, Nzambi, and Chthonic Beings: Evidence from Kongo Texts

IF 0.4 4区 哲学 0 RELIGION JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA Pub Date : 2022-06-03 DOI:10.1163/15700666-12340224
W. Macgaffey
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Abstract

Manuscripts in their own language by indigenous ethnographers at the beginning of the colonial period, not hitherto examined in detail, give unique insight into precolonial beliefs in the Kikongo-speaking region of what was then Belgian Congo, and the transition to Christianity. That transition depended in large part on translation, giving new meanings to old words. The texts suggest that Nzambi, now the Kongo name for the Christian God, was originally a personification of death. The power of life, on the other hand, was credited to bisimbi, chthonic forces that are simultaneously both material and immaterial. Although scholars have generally overlooked this issue, belief in these forces is foundational to what has usually been called traditional religion and its rituals, most of them now extinct. This Kongo configuration exemplifies, on a small scale, one that is found generally in West and Central Africa.
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前殖民时代对上帝、Nzambi和Chthonic存有的信仰:来自Kongo文本的证据
殖民时期开始时,土著民族志学家用自己的语言编写的手稿,迄今尚未详细研究,对当时的比属刚果基孔戈语地区的殖民前信仰以及向基督教的过渡提供了独特的见解。这种转变在很大程度上取决于翻译,赋予旧词新的含义。文本表明,Nzambi,现在是基督教上帝的Kongo名字,最初是死亡的化身。另一方面,生命的力量被归功于bisimbi,即同时具有物质和非物质的chthonic力量。尽管学者们普遍忽视了这个问题,但对这些力量的信仰是通常被称为传统宗教及其仪式的基础,其中大多数已经灭绝。这种孔戈构造在小范围内体现了西非和中非普遍存在的构造。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
53
期刊介绍: The Journal of Religion in Africa was founded in 1967 by Andrew Walls. In 1985 the editorship was taken over by Adrian Hastings, who retired in 1999. His successor, David Maxwell, acted as Executive Editor until the end of 2005. The Journal of Religion in Africa is interested in all religious traditions and all their forms, in every part of Africa, and it is open to every methodology. Its contributors include scholars working in history, anthropology, sociology, political science, missiology, literature and related disciplines. It occasionally publishes religious texts in their original African language.
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