681153

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JBSXXX10.1177/0021934716681153Journal of Black StudiesLuyaluka

Article
Journal of Black Studies
2017, Vol. 48(2) 165­–189
African Indigenous © The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0021934716681153
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Kongo Hierarchical
Monotheism

Kiatezua Lubanzadio Luyaluka1

Abstract
The diversity of the African cultures led the scholars to the conclusion of the
impossibility of a unique African indigenous religion (AIR); however, this view
fails to account for the common spiritual elements found in Africa. Based on
these elements, some scholars support the existence of a unique AIR, but
these “common elements” are not found in every African culture. This article
capitalizes on the scientific monotheism of the Kongo religion, the Bukongo,
and its likeness to the solar religion of Egypt to improve the single-AIR
approach and show the various AIRs to be results of the devolution of the
original unique solar religion kept in the Bukongo. Contrary to the scholastic
monotheism, demonstrated to be fallacious, the monotheism of the AIR is
proven to be scientific through the use of a cosmological argument whose
conclusions are mathematically convergent with Newtonian physics in its
interpretation of the movements and stability of bodies at the astronomic
and subatomic levels.

Keywords
Africa, Kongo, Egypt, cosmological, religion, solar

1Institut des Sciences Animiques, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Corresponding Author:
Kiatezua Lubanzadio Luyaluka, Institut des Sciences Animiques, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic
of the Congo.
Email: kiatezuall@yahoo.fr
166 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

Introduction
To define African indigenous religion (AIR) has always been a concern in the
studies of Africa. John Mbiti’s (1970) African Religions and Philosophy was
the first major contribution in this area. It stressed the plural in the expression
“African traditional religions” as there are thousands of cultures in Africa,
and “each possesses its own religious system” (p. 9).
Mbiti’s views written “in the context of Christian theology” (Asante &
Mazama, 2009, p. xxii) were later expanded and clarified by other African
continental writers, and Mbiti (2010) later evolved toward the recognition of
“similar features that makes it meaningful to speak collectively of African
Religion in the singular.” Based on these “similar features,” scholars advanced
a single-AIR theory (Awolalu, 1976); this new trend was reinforced by afro-
centric scholars who emphasized that AIR is a unity in a diversity of
expressions:

The same appeal in ethics, based on righteous character; the same search for
eternal life, found in living a life where good outweighs evil; and the same
openness to ancestral spirits, kas, as remaining among the community of the
living, creates an appreciation of the recurring cycle of humanity. (Asante &
Mazama, 2009, p. xxi)

Yet, these “similar features” are not found in every African culture; thus,
it is my aim here to improve the explanation of the nature and unity of the
AIR by showing these elements to be a logical outcome of hierarchical mono-
theism. This will allow an explanation of the diversity found in the AIR as the
result of differential devolutions of an original solar religion found in Sumer
and ancient Egypt. Thus, the contiguity of Kemet and Nubia will be shown to
be also their continuity; moreover, this approach will base the authority of
AIR on science.
To improve the single-AIR definition, I will first use the analysis of colo-
nial ethnography to prove the monotheistic nature of the Kongo religion, the
Bukongo, without any Western theistic presuppositions (Omotoye, 2011), as
being hierarchical; through comparative studies, I will establish the unity of
the religions in ancient solar civilizations of Sumer and Egypt as an expression
of hierarchical monotheism. The scientific validity of this monotheism will be
established by the kemetic cosmological argument (KCA); this will induce the
necessity of questioning the validity of Western monotheism. Through the use
of the KCA, I will show the core common elements of the AIR to be the logi-
cal outcome of the hierarchical monotheism. Finally, the diversity found in the
expressions of the AIR will be demonstrated to be the result of differential
devolution of the original solar religion, devolution caused by the selective
Luyaluka 167

southward migration of African masses, by missionary misrepresentations of

AIR, and by the destruction of traditional initiatory academies in the 1930s.

The First Studies of the Theism of AIR

The first allusions to the AIR come from the reports of “European travelers,
explorers, missionaries and colonial agents” of the 18th and 19th centuries
(Gbenda, n.d., p. 6; Mwakabana, 2002, p. 12). These works were unsatisfac-
tory (Okon, 2013) and even derogatory (Asante & Mazama, 2009), being
based on false assumption of the inferiority of Africans. The study of the AIR
was shifted by the publication of Darwin’s theory of the evolution of species
in 1859 (Gbenda, n.d.); its main concern became the explanation of the nature
of African religion based on the new theory.
Western monotheism was taken as the apogee of religion (Kanu, 2014), to
which the Black man was believed to have never had access. He was placed
at the first stage of the evolution of religion opined to be fetishism or ani-
mism. Western theism was the yardstick with which every religion of the
world was measured and found wanting (Beyers, 2010).
The privileged position of Western theism began to waver when W.
Schmidt argued that monotheism, not fetishism nor animism, is the first stage
of religion (Brow, 1996). For him, “the earliest survival of this primitive
monotheistic belief” has to be found among the autochthons of central Africa,
and the Supreme Being of the pastoral ethnics of East African is “the fullest
survival of the original” (Gbenda, n.d., pp. 9-19) monotheistic concept.
This view of Schmidt did not really lead to the correct understanding of
the nature of the theism of the AIR, nor of its unity and diversity. My hypoth-
esis is that the hierarchical monotheism of the Bukongo can help our percep-
tion of the unity of ancient solar civilizations of Egypt and Sumer and offer a
new approach to the unity, diversity, and nature of the AIR.

The Advantage of Explaining the AIR From the

Bukongo
This advantage is first seen in the fact that the validity of the hierarchical
monotheism and doctrines of the Bukongo can be scientifically proven through
a cosmological argument. This theism can be shown to be akin to that of
ancient solar civilizations of Egypt and Sumer. Moreover, the similarity of the
theism of these solar civilizations and the southward migration of African eth-
nics imply a possible connection of the AIR and the ancient solar religion.
It must be added that one cannot explain the Bukongo from the theism of
the pastoral ethnics of Eastern Africa, because like the Maasai “who believe
168 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

in one God and have no belief in ghost surviving death” (Welbourn, 1968, p. 34),
their religions are characterized by a Western type of monotheism. A clear
indication of a southward migration started after the invasion of Alexander
the Great and its inception of Western values (Luyaluka, 2016).
At last, the existence in Vodun of Kinnessi or Kinlinsi as a god of witch-
craft (aze in Fon language of Benin) whose “home is believed to be in
Abomey-Calivi” (Houessou-Adin, 2009, p. 413) suggests that witchcraft is a
value of AIR, inasmuch as aze is explained as being both white magic and
black magic (Falen, 2012). This perception is contrary to the Bukongo where,
for Bittremieux (1936) and Van Wing (1956), one of the reasons for organiz-
ing the initiation sessions was the necessity to fight witchcraft. Moreover, the
distinction made in the Bukongo between the kindoki (mystery) and the n’soki
(witchcraft) (see below) cannot be explained through the ambivalence of the
positive and negative aze.
But, contrary to all that has been said, the different religions of the pastoral
ethnics of Eastern Africa as well as those of Western Africa, like the Vodun, can
be explained through the Bukongo, that is, from hierarchical monotheism.

Colonial Ethnography and the Theism of the

Bukongo
About the Supreme Being of the Bukongo, Van Wing (1956) wrote, “Nzambi
is unique, apart from everything else, invisible and yet living, acting in sov-
ereignty, independent, elusive and inaccessible, yet leading men and things
closely and with absolute efficiency” (p. 305). Eschewing any polytheism,
Bittremieux (1936) said,

N’zâmbi cannot have equal, He is not even . . . the “primus inter pares” or the
term of an animist evolution, a polytheist one, or another, but the One, the
Inaccessible, the Great Chief, who from his empyrean dominates everything.
(p. 133)

However, despite their unanimity, these authors never define the Bukongo as
monotheistic, a reluctance due to the difference between the Kongo theism
and the Western one in which God is one, creator and supreme (Meister,
2009, p. 51).

The Hierarchical Monotheism of the Bukongo

The Kongo hierarchy of divinities is known thanks to a prayer of Simon
Kimbangu, who in 1921 started in Belgian-Congo a healing and prophetic
movement that sent waves of hope and found supporters in the entire region
Luyaluka 169

of the former Kingdom of Kongo and beyond. Though a Baptist catechist,

Kimbangu manifests here a complete immersion in the AIR:

Prayer to you the angels of the celestial throne, source of our existence!

Prayer to you the seven angels who throne at the court of God the Most-High.

Prayer where the Sun rises and where the Sun sets!

Prayer to the east and to the west.

Prayer to you our creator solar God (Mbûmba Lowa).

Prayer to you our God governor of humanity (Mpina Nza).

Prayer to you all the angels of the earth and the air!

Prayer to you all the angels who govern the waters and the fire!

Prayer to you the Great Spirit Kongo! (Bandzouzi, 2002, p. 92)

We learn from this extract that the Kongo hierarchy of divinities includes
the following:

•• A Supreme Being, Nzâmbi Ampûngu Tulêndo, the source of all

existence
•• A solar creator, Mbûmba Lowa
•• A God governor called Mpna Nza
•• Kongo, the primeval ancestor of the Kongo people.

As the source, Nzambi Ampûngu Tulêndo’s causation of the heavenly realm

is synchronic; while the creation of the Mbûmba Lowa is diachronic; thus, con-
trary to what some scholars contend, this notion of the Supreme Being is not an
“idea imported” (Bewaji, 1998, p. 2) from Christian religion (Ekeke, n.d.). An
important aspect of the Bukongo is the affirmation of the completeness of being
symbolized as the conjunction of the male and the female; this completeness is
affirmed to be the nature animating men and Gods (Fukiau, 1969).

The Bukongo and the Egyptian Religion

The hierarchical monotheism implies the transcendence of the Most-High;
this is seen in the fact that no image is attributed to him (Ekeke & Ekeopara,
170
Table 1.  Table of the Hierarchy of Divinities.

Hierarchy of divinities of some African ethnics

Kongo Mboshi Songye Baganda
Ethnic country Congo/Kinshasa Congo/Brazzaville Congo/Kinshasa Uganda
The Most-High Nzâmbi Ampûngu Tulêndo Nzambe Nzambe Nzambe Shakahanga Ggulu
The creator Mbûmba Lowa Nzambe Iko-Latsenge Evile Mbula Katonda
The Verb or Mpina Nza (the governor) Nzambe Kane (the judge) Evile Mbuwa Muhanga (God
Logos (the judge) of order)
Primeval Kongo Nzambe Mwene Evile Mukulu  
ancestor
Luyaluka 171

2010; Van Wing, 1956). He “stands alone in the African tradition” (Asante &
Mazama, 2009, p. xxvi); hence, the false impression Schmidt had that He is
“no longer worshipped because He is not feared.”
This Kongo monotheism can be shown to be akin to the theistic concep-
tion of ancient Egypt. The existence of a Most-High God in Egyptian religion
is testified by various authors (Rawlinson, 1886, Chapter II §24; Sayce,
1903) as well as by the Pyramid Text:

The Great One will be censed for the Bull of Nekhen, and the flame of the blast
will be toward You who are around the shrine by the King O great God whose
name is unknown! A meal in place for the Sole Lord! (Van den Dungen, n.d.,
Text no. 171)

The Egyptian Book of the Dead calls Ra “the self created” and the “son of
heaven (Nut).” These contradictory expressions imply the existence of a
celestial order escaping the causative power of Ra. They establish the pres-
ence of a transcendent Being who is the “Unnamed Sole Lord” of the Pyramid
Text. This view is sustained by van den Dungen (2016).
From the Shabaka Stone, an inscription saved by the Nubian pharaoh
Shabaka and believed as originally “written in the XVIIIth Dynasty (ca. 1539-
1292 BCE)” (van den Dungen, 2016), we find out that “creation was accom-
plished by the unity of two principles Ptah and the Atom” (James, 1954, pp.
140-141). Ptah is the creative utterance (the Logos or the Verb). Like Muhanga
(the equivalent of the Mpina Nza in the Bukongo) among the Baganda of
Uganda, one of the attributes of Ptah is “God of order.” Ptah is also the “God
of Gods,” or the divinity which animates the Gods; an aspect found in the
Bukongo. Atom sits upon Ptah, a clear indication of his superiority in the hier-
archy. Finally each nome of Egypt had a “tomb of its dead god” (Maspero,
n.d., Vol. 1b). Thus, the Egyptian hierarchy includes the following:

•• The unnamed Most-High

•• The creator, the sun God Ra, called here Atom
•• The Verb, Ptah, the God of order
•• The God of the nome, the “dead God” or the primeval ancestor.

Unity of the Religion Among the Solar Civilizations

The essential epistemological feature of the Egyptian culture is the affirma-
tion of the freedom of soul, depicted as a bird or a butterfly hovering over a
body (Maspero, n.d., Vol. 1, Part B); the very scene of the Egyptian Book of
the Dead centers on the continuity of life in the beyond, implying the
172 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

freedom of soul. This translates into a revelatory trend of thinking, in which

the preponderance is given to oracles, dreams and intuitions, above reason. In
his An Account of Egypt, Herodotus (n.d.) reports the use of oracles to solve
geographical questions about the Nile, while Diop (1972) spoke of clerical
justice being achieved through these means.
Now, these solar features of the Egyptian civilization are seen also in the
Sumerian culture where, according to Kramer (1981), the king of Kish ren-
dered justice through “an oracles of Sataran” (p. 39), the soul flies from
Dumuzi’s body “like falcon flies against another bird” (p. 297), and
Gilgamesh’s crave for “tangible, physical immortality” (p. 185) is reminiscent
of the central theme of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. All these show that,
like the Egyptians, the Sumerians were evolving in a solar epistemology.
The revelatory nature of the solar epistemology, in contrast to the divisive
Western lunar epistemology (Luyaluka, 2016) which from the outset progres-
sively denied the freedom of soul by seeing the human mind as no “more than
the product of matter in motion” (Ladyman, 2002, p. 133), implies a unity of
thought as far as religion is concerned. This unity can be read in the history
of the religion of Egypt through the following characteristics:

•• The absence of proselytism: seen in the inclusion of the Gods of the

vanquished nations in the pantheon of Egypt (Maspero, n.d., Vol. 1,
Part B, §8). As the Gods of different nations could blend in the single
pantheon, there must have been an essential unity of their respective
theism.
•• Thus, the apparent polytheism of Egyptian religion is in reality a heno-
theism concerning the appellations of the creator, each district having
its own name for the same solar creator God, Ra. This is justified by
the facts that the different cosmologies of Osirian religion were seen
as complementary and Ra is not the aboriginal God of a district (Petrie,
1906).
•• All these traits imply the existence of hierarchical monotheism.

The monotheistic nature is affirmed even for Sumer by an author who

insists as follows:

The evidence of an original monotheism in Sumeria, Egypt . . . has long been

known. Archeologists have discovered that the further back in Sumerian history
you of, the more prominent the sky god An appears. (Hales, 1984)

Certainly, this author started from Western monotheism as the universal

yardstick for the appraisal of any theism, a presupposition I will demonstrate
Luyaluka 173

to be groundless. Thus, what appears as the God An leaving some of His

prerogatives to Enlil (Cuvelier, 2006) is in reality the transcendence of An
being clearly stated.
Moreover, Enlil is said to be the “the one who effectively governs”
(Cuvelier, 2006, p. 4) and the “lord of all the lands” (Langdon, 1917, p. 182),
which is akin to the Kongo designation of Mpina Nza as the Governor. Like
Ptah in the Memphis theology noted above, Enlil assisted in the creative pro-
cess (Langdon, 1923); he is the result of the union of the divine male and
female, a unity which in the Bukongo implies the completeness of the divin-
ity (Fukiau, 1969; Kramer, 1981). Hence, the Sumerian hierarchy includes
the following:

•• An, the God of heaven

•• Enki, the creator
•• Enlil, the creative Logos or the Verb, the God governor.

Therefore, the apparent differences in religion between the solar civiliza-

tions are in reality the differences in the rites and in the hierarchies through
which each people attain to the favor of the same Creator (though differently
named) of the temporal universe; basically, the ancient solar cultures advo-
cated the same hierarchically monotheistic religion.
The theological unity of ancient solar civilizations of Sumer and Egypt is
a harbinger of the possible future resumption of the diversity found in the
AIR within the framework of the next advent of the preponderance of the
solar epistemology over the Western materialistic lunar one, an advent proph-
esied by the Egyptians, the Persians, Simon Kimbangu and foreseen by
Cheikh Anta Diop (Luyaluka, 2016).

Validity of Hierarchical Monotheism

The long-held view that Black (wo)men are unable of “rational causal expla-
nation” (Udefi, 2014, p. 113) is now shattered by the KCA proof of hierarchi-
cal monotheism. The KCA is called facto-deductive because it unfolds
deductively from an empirical fact as follows:

•• There are individualities and particular circumstances in our universe.

•• Therefore, our universe is an individuality.
•• This possession of a particular individuality is a contingency.
•• There is a necessary cause explaining this possession of an individuality.
•• Being related to an individual contingent universe, this cause is an
individuality.
174 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

•• The possession by this necessary cause of an individuality implies the

existence of other necessary causes endowed at least with a potential
causation.
•• The possession of an individuality even by a necessary cause is a
contingency.
•• There is an absolutely non-contingent ultimate necessary cause which
includes all the relative necessary individualities and explains their
contingency.
•• This ultimate cause is God, the Most-High.
•• The Most-High is absolutely infinite, infinite in the quantity of neces-
sary relative individualities He includes, and in the quality of His
individuality.
•• Being absolutely infinite, God, the Supreme Being, is indivisible.
•• Therefore, every necessary being expresses the “completeness of the
Most-High,” the Verb.
•• The Verb is what makes of every necessary being the image of the
Most-High.
•• Thus the Verb is at the service of the relative necessary beings.

From this cosmological argument, one deduces the hierarchical monothe-

ism in the following theological implications:

•• The existence of the Most-High

•• The synchronic existence a relative necessary being, the creator
•• The Verb at the service of the necessary relative beings.

Starting from an empirical true fact and proceeding deductively, the

validity of the conclusion of the KCA is obvious because “a deductively
valid argument or inference is one where it is not possible for the premises
all to be true while the conclusion is false” (Ladyman, 2002, p. 264).
Moreover, this theodicy is mathematically verified in its conception of the
movements and stability of the bodies at astronomic and subatomic levels
in the deterministic Newtonian physics, a solar holistic “theory of every-
thing” (Luyaluka, 2014).

Is Western Monotheism a Valid Universal

Yardstick?
Western theism implies a Supreme Being “the creator and sustainer of the
universe”; one of his attributes is perfection which “can also lead to the con-
clusion that he cannot change” (Morley, n.d.); this monotheism and its
Luyaluka 175

creation ex-nihilo have been used to gauge any claim of theism, but the justi-
fication of hierarchical monotheism casts doubt on its logical validity.
In order to create, the Most-High must first have had to conceive the idea
of creating. Two possibilities exist as to the origin of this idea:

•• The idea of creating was always in God: Thus, something must have
caused the change of the divine modus operandi after an endless past.
Love and free will could not be the incentive for the change; other-
wise, it would have occurred earlier than the beginning in which case
we will face infinite regress. Moreover, there must have been a cause,
other than free will and love, to explain why the instant of the begin-
ning was chosen instead of any previous one.
•• God conceived the idea of creating at a given moment in the endless
past: This implies the mutability of the creative Mind.

In both options, the Western creative principle is manifestly mutable. A

changing God cannot be perfect. Moreover, a question can be validly asked:
Did creation really occur within or outside the creative Mind?

•• If creation really occurred within the creator, then it entailed inevitably

a change in him, an actualization of a potential.
•• If creation really occurred outside of the creator, then the Supreme
Being of Western theology is not absolutely infinite; thus, a being
greater than him can be conceived as including the creator and the
creation; according to Anselm’s ontological argument this greater
being must be the Most-High (Meister, 2009).

The logical difficulty involved in the Western monotheism has been pin-
pointed by other scholars as evidenced by this report of Meister (2009): “God
turns out to be a logically impossible being”; other scholars argue, “the tradi-
tional concept of God must be significantly modified in order for it to be logi-
cally coherent” (p. 52). For Wiredu (1998), this creation ex-nihilo is in
contradiction with the expression “out of nothing, nothing comes”; he con-
cludes, “to say that some being could make something come out of nothing is
of the same order of incoherence as saying that some being could make two
and two add up to fifty” (p. 30).
Therefore, the use of Western monotheism as a gauge for the appraisal of
other religions (Okon, 2013) is a blunder, if not a conscious cheat. The logical
impossibility involved in Western theism shows the need expressed by many
for the decolonization of our minds from Western objectifications and univer-
salizations (Ani, 2014; Wiredu, 1998).
176 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

Creation is an act of contingency which cannot be attributed to a necessary

ultimate Supreme Being. This truism was understood by the inspirers of the
Bukongo who descried between the Supreme Being (Nzâmbi Ampûngu
Tulêndo) and the creator (Mbûmba Lowa).

The KCA and the Immutability of the Most-High

How does the KCA model of the AIR avoid the objections formulated against
Western theism? First of all, we have seen that the KCA demonstrates the
Most-High to be transcendent and without any contingency. Next, consider-
ing the possibilities of an existence separate from the absolutely necessary
infinite plane, the plane of the Most-High, the KCA dictates that there are
four possible solutions to the existence of our contingent universe:

•• Our temporal universe doesn’t exist: an impossible hypothesis because

the existence of this universe is assumed as the empirical premise of
the KCA.
•• Our universe exists outside the eternal necessary plane: This assumption is
not valid; being absolutely infinite, the necessary plan includes all reality.
•• Our universe is on the eternal necessary plane: Contrary to this claim,
it should be noted that the infinite is indivisible, and as the finite can-
not begin to exist in what is essentially indivisible infinite, this hypoth-
esis is impossible.
•• Our universe just exists along with the eternal necessary plan. This last
hypothesis is the only one which remains valid; however, it implies the
following:

•• Our universe is only a limited perspective of the necessary plan

because this last includes all reality.
•• Our universe is only a temporal perspective of the necessary plane
because this last embraces all eternity, infinity of life.
•• Our universe involves an illusory limitation of reality, because real-
ity is necessarily infinite.
•• Our universe exists only in a temporal and illusory consciousness of
the creator, a kind of lucid dream, because he is a necessary being.
•• God being the essence of all good, the illusory nature is not attached
to the good expressed in the contingent universe but to the limita-
tion that is impressed on that good.

Thus, the KCA depicts the phenomena of our temporal universe as contin-
gent illusory perspectives of the spiritual reality; thus, contrary to Western
Luyaluka 177

monotheism, its creation doesn’t imply a mutability of the Most-High; He is

absolutely non-contingent and transcendent.

Explaining the Unity of the AIR From Hierarchical

Monotheism
Asante and Mazama (2009) showed the common core elements of AIR to be
the existence of the following:

A transcendent Supreme Being

A creator of the universe

Spirits

The belief in the intercession of the ancestors. (pp. xxii-xxiii)

All these elements can be shown through the KCA to flow naturally from
hierarchical monotheism. So far, the KCA has established the existence of the
Supreme Being, His transcendence (being absolutely without any contin-
gence), and the existence of a creator different from Him; the distinction
revealed between the Most-High and His demiurgic creator is the natural
outcome of hierarchical monotheism.
Seen in the context of hierarchical monotheism, the explanation of the
existence of the Spirits stems from the notion of trinity. We know from
Egyptology that trinity was one of the features of divinities; Asante and
Mazama (2009) speak of Amen, Mut, and Khonsu as constituting the triad of
Memphis. This symbolical trinity implies the unity of the Godhead (Amen),
the Verb (the male/female unity of Amen and Mut), and the Son Khonsu).
This same trinity is included in the Bukongo (Luyaluka, 2014).
Batshikama (1971) clearly spoke of trinity as a fundamental principle in
the formation and government of the Kongo Kingdom. A parallel can be
established between the hierarchy of divinities and the functions he attributed
to each son of Nzinga Nkuwu, the primeval ancestor of the Bakongo, and the
Bateke called Ngunu by the latter.

•• Nsaku is “the channel of divine revelations” (p. 181) from Nzâmbi

Ampûngu).
•• Mpanzu is credited with the creative power (the power of Mbûmba
Lowa).
•• Nzinga exercised the attribute of government (the office of Mpina Nza).
178 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

Thus, the trinity of the Bukongo involves the unity of the Father (Nzâmbi
Ampûngu Tulêndo), the Son (Mbûmba Lowa), and the Verb (Mpina Nza). This
principle of trinity can be drawn through the cosmological argument in this way:

•• God, the Father, is indivisible.

•• Being an individuality of God, the sum total of the necessary reality,
and being an expression of the completeness of the Father, the Son is
inseparable from Him.
•• Therefore, the Father, the Son, and the Verb are inseparable in their
substance, their activity, and their being. The Father acts eternally in
the Son through the Verb. The Son acts eternally for the Father through
the Verb.

The existence of the Spirits is also drawn from hierarchical monotheism

through the KCA:

•• The Father cannot act without the Sons.

•• Each Son is a relative necessary being.
•• The Father is Spirit, the Supreme Principle animating all reality.
•• As the Father acts inevitably by the Sons, each Son animates an aspect
of reality.

Thus, each Son acts in the temporal universe as a Spirit animating an

aspect of reality. These “Spirits of nature” are coeternal and coexistent with
the Father; thus, according to the KCA, the lower contingent spirits are only
the temporal manifestations of the Sons of God.
About the intercession of the ancestors, one must first note that in the triad
of Memphis, the Father is represented by Amen; this implies that trinity can
be expressed at any level. In the higher plan, the Most-High is the ultimate
cause. Due to His transcendence, He meets our needs through the mediation
of the Creator (the Son) by the action of the Verb (the completeness of divin-
ity) acting in this later. This completeness being the nature of Gods and men,
as seen above, it is also the nature of the ancestors. Thus, at a lower level, the
creator (as the Father) acts through the primeval ancestor (as Son) by the
means of the Verb which is present in this later. Therefore, the principle of
trinity is what explains the necessity of the intercession of the ancestors on
our behalf acting as Sons in relation to higher humanities (the Fathers).
In conclusion, the four core characteristics of the AIR are direct results of
the hierarchical and monotheistic nature of the solar religion. But the expla-
nation of the diversity found in the AIR requires the elucidation of the nature
of the classification of the initiatory mysteries.
Luyaluka 179

Classification of the Egyptian Initiatory Lore

Egyptologists classify the initiatory lore of ancient Egypt into the great and
the little mysteries. This classification is insufficient, because Egyptology
recognizes that the soldiers represented a special class of citizens on par with
the priests. For Maspero (n.d.), “The power of Pharaoh and his barons rested
entirely upon these two classes, the priests and the soldiers” (Vol. II, Chapter
1). Thus, it is adequate to speak of the divine, civil, and martial initiations.

Classification of the Initiatory Lore in the Bukongo

The deep anthropological study of the Kingdom of Kongo reveals that the
Bukongo initiatory system is akin to the Egyptian in its classification of
the mysteries. In the Kongo initiatory system, the divine mystery corre-
sponds to the sacerdotal initiation (Kimpasi), while the human mystery
includes the civil and martial initiations (Lêmba and Kinkimba). The
demonic mystery had no formal educatory frames; it was a deviation con-
demned by the society. One of the purposes of organizing initiatory ses-
sions was the necessity to fight the demonic system, witchcraft. Witchcraft
must not to be confused, in the Kongo case, with kindoki (N’kulu-N’sengha,
2009) which in fact is the initiatory lore (Canson, 2009; Luyaluka, 2009).
Witchcraft (n’soki) is the misuse of the initiatory lore, the kindoki (mys-
tery), and the power it confers (Luyaluka, 2009); this difference can be
demonstrated semantically.
The initiation included endurance events to which the myste was exhorted
to bravely submit; the phase of instruction ended with the increase of spiritual
or ethereal faculties. Laman’s (1932) dictionary furnishes in the family of
kindoki words (that include the root –dok-) which allude to exhortation, sub-
mission, instruction, and extension of the senses:

•• Dokalala (exhorted); doka (persuaded).

•• Dokisa (to subject); dokama (to bend oneself); doka (to stoop down),
from which one draws n’doki = the one who is subjected.
•• Kindokila (the slapping of two fingers, figuratively implying the one
who asks questions); dokidika (to instruct), from which one draws the
following:

•• kidokidika (to learn); kidokidiki (synonym of n’doki meaning “the

learner”).
•• Several pairs of this kind exist in Kikôngo:
•• kaka; kakidika (to block) and n’kaki, kikakidiki (the blocker).
180 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

•• Lumba, lumbidika (to throw down) and n’lumbi, kilumbidiki (the

thrower).
•• Hence, doka, kidokidika (to learn) and n’doki, kidokidiki (the
learner).

•• Doka (to inculcate), whereby one draws n’doki (the teacher).

•• Doka (to extend); Makutu ma doka (sharp sense of hearing).

All this shows that kindoki (not from loka [to warn] and not alluding to
n’loki) alludes to the myste and to the initiator. Witchcraft (n’soki) is the misuse
of any lore and/or power. Usage has changed the pronunciation n’doki to ndoki.
Central to Kongo initiation is the notion of completeness of being, the
Verb, which in the temporal plane is the Kimalungila in the Kimpasi, the
Kimahungu in the Lêmba, and the Kitafu-Maluangu in the Kinkimba where
it was symbolized by the python and the rainbow, Mbûmba-Luangu
(Bittremieux, 1936). On the heavenly plane, the Verb is Mpina Nza.

The Kimpasi
The fief of the Kimpasi is the southeastern region of the ancient Kingdom of
Kongo (Fukiau, 1969). It is revealing that the two big figures of the Bukongo
(Kimpa Vita and Simon Kimbangu) belong to the area of this academy; it is
well known that Kimpa Vita was a nganga of Kimpasi (Batsikama, 2011).
The high priest, whose name was always Nsaku Ne Vunda, reminiscence of
his clan (Mahaniah, 1982), belonged to the region dominated by the Kimpasi;
thus, it was a school of divine mystery, a sacerdotal academy.

The Lêmba
The word lêmba, from the verb lêmba, means to appease. The destiny of the
Lêmba was to bring the conditions of peace within the society, to heal through
material means the social and physical illnesses in the community. Speaking of
this school, Janzen (1982) revealed that it is the traditional “medicine” (p. 4) of
the perpetuation of family, governing, multiplication, reproduction, integrating
people, and of markets. The Lêmba was the Kongo “university” including the
schools of law, trade, medicine, and so forth (Fukiau, 1969, p. 147).

The Kinkimba
The Kinkimba was a martial school aiming the protection of the land against
foreign invasions. Bittremieux (1936) proved this by showing us that the
Luyaluka 181

initiatory hut included men’s tools such as “pebble guns” and “wooden rifles
for tournaments” (p. 37); he adds that the word kinkimba comes from kimba
meaning to be courageous, valiant of heart.
The python, mboma, is a Kongo martial symbol. The army commander is
designated as nkuamboma, mamboma, or ngamboma. The prime minister of
Loango nicknamed “Captain Death” bore the title Ma-Mboma-Tchiluângu,
reminiscent of his role of commander (Madoungou, 1985, p. 18). About the
So initiation of the Betis of Cameroon, an author quotes Philippe Laburthe-
Tolra, “The rite of python-vane was a formation to endurance whose equiva-
lent is the contemporary military training” (Seme, 2008). The same
characteristic is seen in the predominantly martial initiation of the Benin as
the divinization of the python.

Nature of the Devolution of the AIR

My starting hypothesis in the devolutionary explanation of the diversity
found in the AIR is that the southward migration of Africans was operated in
an orderly way; the Bantu ethnics were the first wave characterized by an
initiation dominated by the divine mystery. The Western migratory wave was
marked by the preponderance of the martial initiation. The last wave, with its
preponderance of the civil initiation, brought the Eastern pastoral ethnics.
I said above that the solar aspects of the AIR have been preserved in the
Bukongo and that any traditional religion of Africa can be understood as a
devolutionary phase of the original solar religion. The cause of the devolution
can be the preponderance of a human initiation, the lateness of the southward
migration, the misrepresentation of the AIR by Western missionaries, or the
fall into oblivion of the higher elements of the hierarchy of divinities.

Devolution Due to the Preponderance of a Human Initiation

This trend is seen in the Vodun and in the traditional religion of the Baganda
of Uganda:

•• The devolution through the preponderance of the martial element hap-

pened in the western coast of Africa and culminated in the Vodun. The
python is a martial symbol of the Verb (the divine completeness of
being) as a protective power, a symbol which is represented on the fir-
mament by the rainbow (Bittremieux, 1936). The Kinkimba was a mar-
tial academy, which is seen in the fact that among the object found in the
initiatory hut of the Kinkimba were the “wooden rifles for tournaments”
(p. 37). At the end of its formation, the initiate had to be licked by a male
182 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

snake and a female one. We have seen above that the male/female con-
junction means divine completeness, the Verb; when typified by the
snake, the Verb is called Mbûmba-Luangu in the Kinkimba. Thus, the
divinization of the python and the presence of Gods of war (Hounon,
2001), even of a God of witchcraft, in the Vodun bear testimony to the
preponderance of the martial mystery. The presence of a God of witch-
craft in the Vodun can be justified by the fact that witchcraft can be one
of the weapons of war, but it cannot be justified in the divine mystery of
Kimpasi where one of the aims was to fight witchcraft; hence, its
absence in the Kongo initiation dominated by the divine mystery.
•• The devolution through the preponderance of the civil element: This
trend is observed among the Baganda of Uganda. Before the arrival of
the pastoral ethnics, the religion of the Baganda was akin to the
Bukongo as it comprised in the hierarchy of the Gods: Ggulu (the God
of heaven), Katonda (the creator), and Muhanga (the God of order)
(Welbourn, 1968). The arrival of the new ethnics brought the prepon-
derance of the human element, and finally, the attributes of God are
rather seen in the king (Welbourn, 1968).

Devolution Caused by a Later Southward Migration

This is the explanation that can be given of the religion of the Maasai of
Kenya; because they brought with them a monotheism reminiscent of Western
theism; an evidence that, like the other pastoral ethnics of Eastern Africa,
they started their southward migration after the invasion of the Middle East
by Alexander the Great, and the epistemological change this invasion brought
in the local populations immersed in the solar thinking (Luyaluka, 2016).
This Western influence led to the negation of the key solar epistemological
doctrine of the freedom of soul. This negation of the continuity of life after
death, which is contrary to the teachings of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, is
the characteristic of the culture of the Maasai who “have no belief in ghosts
surviving death” (Welbourn, 1968, p. 34).

Devolution Caused by Oblivion

To understand the devolution caused by oblivion, we must first learn that, due
to the transcendence of the Supreme Being, the Africans used to address their
prayers, through the intermediary deities, to the creator or to the primeval
ancestor.
In the Bukongo, the primeval ancestor is called Kongo, while the Baluba
call theirs Mvidi Mukulu. The word nkulu, or mukulu, means for the Bakongo,
as for many ethnics of the Southern Africa, the old, the ancient, or the
Luyaluka 183

ancestor. Thus, in the religion of the Baluba, the Most-High falls into obliv-
ion and the highest God becomes Maweja Nangila (the creator).
In their encounter with Africans, the missionaries, due to prejudice and to
their complex of superiority, would always equate the God the populations
referred to directly to their Creator, whom they called the Supreme Being;
thus, they induced a great confusion between the African transcendent
Supreme Being and Western Creator-Supreme-Being.
Due to this mistake, in many ethnics, the name of the creator, or the name
of primeval ancestor, will be taken as the name of the Most-High and all the
other Gods of the hierarchy will be reduced to mere attributes of the enthroned
God. Later, this kind of devolution was reinforced by the destruction of the
initiatory schools around 1930 (Janzen, 1982).
Thus, among the Basongye of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
the primeval ancestor (Efile Mukulu or Evile Mukulu) being enthroned by
the missionaries as the creator Most-High, the names Shakahanga, Efile
Mbula, and Efile Mbuwa which in the Songye initiatory tradition designated,
respectively, the Most-High, the Creator, and God the Judge (the Verb)
became mere attributes of Efile Mukulu, a sad misrepresentation of the AIR.
Due to the same blunder, the names Maweja Nangila and Mvidi Mukulu
are wrongly seen as synonymous among the Baluba and as being the Supreme
Being. Unkulunkulu means literally the old-old, or the most ancient; thus, it is
the devolution through the mistaken missionaries’ choice and through obliv-
ion that led to the primeval ancestor (Unkulunkulu) being taken as the equiva-
lent of Western God-creator; this should be also the case with Unkuru and
Unkurunkuru.

What Is AIR?
The AIR is the solar religion which characterized the solar civilizations of
Egypt and Sumer and which is continued in its various devolutionary trends,
the loss of some original solar characteristics which are preserved in the
Bukongo as being:

•• The preponderance of the divine mystery over the civil and the mar-
tial: The preponderance of the martial initiation results in a martial
religion, while the preponderance of civil elements erodes the preroga-
tives of the high priest.
•• The hierarchical monotheism. The top elements of the hierarchy
include the following:

•• The Supreme Being

•• The creator Demiurge
184 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

•• The Verb
•• The primeval ancestor

•• The creation by the solar Demiurge: To allude to his solar nature, the
Bukongo affix the attribute Lowa to his name (Mbûmba); the Baluba of
the Democratic republic of Congo honor Maweja Nangila as diba katan-
gidi tshishiki (the sun whose brightness cannot be stared with bare eyes).
•• The notion of the presence of the divinity in man and around man,
represented by the conjunction of the male and female elements. In
their original nature, the Gods in the Shabaka stone are described as
being “male and female” in the water (James, 1954, p. 140). Garliet
(1976) reported this “divine completeness of being” as being an object
of cult among the non-Islamic populations of Africa “under the name
of Komo among the Mandés [Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea,
Gambia Sierra Leone, and Senegal] and under the name of Do among
the Senufo [Ivory Coast and Mali].” He adds that among the Bambara,
“Every human being has in him, in his soul as in his body, the elements
of both sexes” (p. 41), the Verb.
•• The existence of Spirits: Far from being a superstitious belief, the
presence of the Spirits has been demonstrated to be a scientific aspect
of the AIR (Luyaluka, 2016).
•• The belief in the intercession of the ancestors: This has been evidenced
through the KCA to be the natural outcome of the trinitarian nature of
the solar theism.

It is important in the definition of the AIR to not confuse the divine and the
human mysteries. Though all in the solar culture is underlined by religion,
because the concept of the “completeness of divinity” is found in all the three
mysteries, the human mystery does not constitute the essence of the AIR. The
human mystery uses the assistance of the ancestors having the appropriate
human experience, even though these ones may not be illuminated ancestors
(Luyaluka, 2009). The divine mystery, which is the highest articulation of the
AIR, seeks the conscious communication with the illuminated ancestors;
those who in the beyond live their divinity plainly compared with us, the
Gods, or those who lived a life of purity while they were among us.
It is also important to elucidate the place of the n’kisi as an element of the
AIR (Dianteil, 2002). The Kongo word n’kisi is often wrongly translated as
fetish; in reality, n’kisi means power as its synonym is mpûngu. In the first
catechism printed in Kikôngo, the Kongo language (Bentley, 1895, p. IV),
the Bible was called n’kand’an’kisi and the church nzo an’kisi, meaning the
book of divine power and the house of divine power.
Luyaluka 185

In its original meaning, the concept of n’kisi can be divine, human, and even
demonic; thus, as a man-made thing (Lemba-Masiala, 2007), the word fetish
can be equated only with the human and the demonic min’kisi (plural of n’kisi).
The highest n’kisi is God, Mpûngu Tulêndo (the Mpûngu, or the N’kisi, which
includes all authority). The power of this highest n’kisi can be acquired only
through the Verb (Kimalungila, Kimahungu, or Kitafu-Maluangu), as the pres-
ence of the divinity in man, through the purification of thought.
The Shabaka Stone teaches us that at the origin the Gods were male and
female in the water (James, 1954); this implies that the original state of the
Sons of God is characterized by purity and the manifestation of the Verb. The
aim of the divine initiation is to regain this divinity through purity; this is
explained by the fact that to lose this purity entailed the nullity of the initia-
tion (Fukiau, 1969, p. 143, footnote).
Moreover, the power acquired by the means of the divine mystery can
only be used in good ways, because this power is obtained through the puri-
fication of thought, while the power acquired through means of the human
mystery can be used in good or in bad ways (Van Wing, 1956). The power
bestowed by the human mystery requires of the initiate the conformity to the
ethical norms, which are not necessarily the absolute highest usages of puri-
fication of thought required by the divine mystery.

The Future of the AIR

The explanation of the unity of the AIR as based on hierarchical monotheism
shows that the AIR is a scientific religion, the only religion in the world
whose authority can be based on a universally a posteriori demonstrable sci-
ence, while all other religions can advance the validity of their truth only in a
priori way from the non-universal authority of their holy scriptures, their tra-
ditions, or their charismatic leaders.
According to the great Kongo prophet Simon Kimbangu, the world is at
the wake of a great revolution: the rise of the solar science. He puts it in this
way: “The Black man will become White, and the White man will become
Black” (Bandzouzi, 2002, p. 91). Of course, he didn’t mean by this expres-
sion a racial mutation but an epistemological awakening which will bring the
advent of the solar science (the epistemology of which is based on the free-
dom of the soul) as the dominating approach to reality.
Looking prospectively at this same future, Cheikh Anta Diop (1984) saw
the need for a return to a past of cohabitation between religion and science,
and the need in a broader plan to find meaning for life, and existence. A
cohabitation of science and religion is the natural outcome of the solar epis-
temology; hence, Diop wrote, “African philosophers, armed with their
186 Journal of Black Studies 48(2)

cultural and historical past, are able to participate in the building of this new
philosophy which will help man to be reconciled with himself . . .” (p. 186).
Thus, the Black man is obliged today to grasp the scientific import of the
AIR and work for the restoration of the preponderance of the divine mystery
in every aspect of his culture; this is the sine qua non condition for the return
of Africa to the efficacy of its glorious solar past.

Conclusion
Definitions are essential for the understanding in any field of knowledge.
Two trends have been so far used for the definition of the AIR: the insistence
on the plurality in the AIR and the affirmation of the existence of a single-
AIR. The first definition capitalized on the existence of a diversity of cultural
experiences and views, while the second stressed the common spiritual ele-
ments found in different African cultures.
In this article, capitalizing on the demonstrated scientific nature of the
Kongo religion and on the logical impossibility of Western monotheism, I
have shown the unity of the AIR as stemming logically from hierarchical
monotheism which characterized the solar religion of the ancient civiliza-
tions of Sumer and Egypt, and which has been kept in the Kongo religion;
thus, the various aspects of the indigenous religion found in Africa have
been proven to be the result of the devolution of this original solar
religion.
According to this all inclusive definition, the devolutions were caused
either by the preponderance of human initiatory elements, by a later migra-
tion from the North, or by the oblivion of the head elements of the hierarchi-
cal monotheism. This oblivion has been explained as the result of the bad
choice of the name of the Supreme Being of AIR by the missionaries and the
destruction of the initiatory system.
This new approach to the AIR allows a scientific explanation of its doc-
trines through the use of the KCA, an argument whose conclusions are con-
vergent with Newtonian physics in its mathematical explanation of the
movements and stability of the bodies at the astronomic and subatomic lev-
els, a holistic solar “theory of everything.”

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publica-
tion of this article.
Luyaluka 187

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Author Biography
Kiatezua Lubanzadio Luyaluka has a PhD (honors) degree in theology (option
apologetics) from Trinity Graduate School of Apologetics and Theology, Kerala,
India. He is currently the director of the Institut des Sciences Animiques, a research
and initiatory center focusing on African spirituality and epistemology. His publica-
tions center on a scientific defense of African spirituality and epistemology.