Mbuti Religion

Mbuti mythology is the belief system of the African Mbuti (alternately, Bambuti) Pygmies of the Congo. The most important god of the Bambuti pantheon is Khonvoum, god of the hunt who wields a bow made from two snakes that appear to humans as a rainbow. After sunset every day, Khonvoum gathers fragments of the stars and throws them into the Sun to revitalize it for the next day. He occasionally contacts mortals through thunder god/elephant Gor or a chameleon. Khonvoum created mankind from clay. Black people were formed from black clay, white people were fashioned from white clay, and the Pygmies themselves were created from red clay. Khonvoum also created the animals that are much needed by hunters like the Pygmies. Tore is a god of the forests who supplies animals created by Khonvoum to hunters. Pygmies stole fire from Tore so he chased them but could not catch them. When Tor returned home, his mother had died. Frustrated and angered, he decreed that humans would also die. Tor thus became the god of death. A Mbuti soul is called a megbe. When a man dies, his son places his mouth over his father's to draw in part of the megbe. Another part of the megbe inhabits the man's totem animal. If the son does not inhale the megbe or the totem animal is later killed, a soul may escape into the forest to becomes a semi-visible being called a Lodi which lives forever in the company of other forest-dwelling Lodi.