Chokwe Religion and Traditions in the North/East of Angola

The Chokwe ethnic group is situated in the north/east of Angola with a close contact with
Zambia, Congo, Botswana and Mozambique. Chokwe constitute one of the most important
ethnic groups in the Angola culture, amongst the Ovimbundu, Kimbundu, Bacongo and
Ngangela.
The Chokwe people are descendent of the Bantu group and their primary language is
Chokwe that originates from Bantu. The Chokwe traditional Religious history, abandoned
the Empire-Lunda or the Mwata Yanvo Muatianvuas, which had its heroic period,
development, highest point and decadence around 17th and 19th century. Hordas coming
from East of Angola lead by their chiefs Chokwe-Lunda Tshinguri, Tshinyama and others
settled near the source of rivers Cuango, Cassai and Alto-Zambeze, these regions were
already inhabited by the Bantu group before the Chokwe settlement.
The Chokwe has a very strong religious believes that are associated with dear internal
history and the moral geographical position within the Angolan history. Chokwe religious
believe is a continuation of their ancestors traditions that reflect their everyday life. This
means within their religious traditions, the linkage with the ancestors is inevitable a primary
concern.
An appreciation of the Chokwe concept of God must involve an understanding of the pride
of place given to ancestors. To the Chokwe people, life has no value at all if the presence
and power of ancestral spirits are excluded. Ancestral spirits are the most intimate gods of
the Chokwe people; they are part of the family tribe and are consulted frequently by its
members.
The concept of sacred kingship in Chokwe religion was originally introduced to the
Chokwe by a foreign Luba hunter of the Royal blood called Chibinda Ilunga. Chibinda
Ilunga, still the core of the chiefs central position in Chokwe religion today. Chiefs male
are regarded as the representatives of God (Kalunga or Nzambi) on earth and as the
intermediaries between the World of humans and the realm of ancestral and wildenerness
spirits that affects humans and their environments. The Chokwe chiefs, or Mwanangana, is
literally the owner/overseer of the land, the individual who is ultimately responsible for
the well-being of the people, fertility, and the continuity of his or her people.

The most common name used to refer to the high God among the Chokwe is (Kalunga,
Nzambi). This supernatural being is said to have created the World and human, and can
therefore also be called Samatanga, meaning the creator. The word Kalunga or Nzambi
among 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 missionization in the Chokwe land.

The prestigious items, objects that relate to particular chores, activities of their everydaylife, and concepts of beauty, dress, and well-being become part of the Chokwe religious
cosmology 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.

The spiritual connection in Chokwe religion happens through a close contact with nature
and its mysticisms; the sand becomes the spiritual intermediate with the divine, in the sand
they draw; mask, people and everyday objects as a reflection of their inner-feeling and the
communion with God the creator. The Chokwe people have a very 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 in a lot of cases does not make sense to the outsiders that do not understand
the foundations of their ancestral traditional heritage.

The term God among 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 hundred years, however, have led to the current neglect of this God-given
blue-print of human organization.

Chokwe religion as well as most of the African religion does have a tradition of oral
religious practice as a way to communicate between the elders and the youngest new
initiators. The oratory religious practice amongst the Chokwe is the foundation of the
Chokwe Empire that is shared by the Chokwe religion, and it serves to unite and define
them to a significant degree. Historically, it has also played an important role in their social
structure, internal development and social and technological evolution during the 19 th and
20th century. The oratory tradition in their religion serves as a mechanism to transcend
verbally from the physical to meta-physical and from the material existentional to nonexistentional World.

Chokwe is a patriarchal society where the man is the dominant figure in the culture; the
chiefs are all male, the diviners, and the intermediates in the spiritual World.
Within the Chokwe religion there is no specialized priest since their formation. The
headman and mature men are eligible to make offerings to the ancestors before and after
perilous expeditions or during times of trouble in the village. Women seldom make such
offering, mainly because most of their lives are spent in their husband village, where is no
shire dedicated to their own lineage ancestors. It is sometimes said that women suffer more
than men from ancestors related afflictions because they are not able to make frequent
offerings to the ancestors in the way that men do.

Elder male and female are spiritually in a sacred contact with God. Elder male/female has
the power to initiate a male/female ceremony, and to cure any diseases or serious illness.
Chiefs male are the initiators of the ancestral spirits that may manifests as a form of
painted body, ritual performance, and masks to dramatize cosmological principles that at
end assist in transmitting knowledge through generations. In performance the Makishi for
example, as Manuel Jordan states: the Makishi evoke publically the cosmology precepts
within the Chokwe mystical beliefs that connects with spiritual World, the relation between
body, soul and mind through makishi performance. Makishi performer when perform wears
a traditional mask outfit that scares the children by chase them during the ritual to bring the
direct contact with the divine spirit. The makishi often serve to sanction and validate social
and political institution, which in most cases are generally perceived as the domain of man.

In Chokwe religion, the ideal women for the Lunda and Luvale, is the mother. Mothers take
the lead in initiations ceremony for women; they prepare a young girl to earn her
membership among adult women and is molded into and celebrated as a potential mother.
Mothers amongst the Chokwe are honored in religious rituals; the major purpose of the
religious rituals that honored the mother is to make them laugh and happy, they satisfy the
mothers as a primary sauce within the society; the mothers are enlightened and they possess
spiritual power to create and to end life; during the ritual the mothers must respond
enthusiastically and appropriately by dancing, singing, screaming and clapping to the
masked performance.

It is the role of the chiefs, as the highest religious representatives of God on earth and
mediators between the natural and supernatural realms, to perform propitiatory ceremonies
to commemorate the achievement of the founders of the Chokwe lineage. This means that
the chiefs ensure that the past fuses with the present to work harmoniously towards an
auspicious future for all Chokwe people, and the Chokwe ancestral religious believe,
iconography illustrate, and once embodied, principles of spirituality and continuity,
prosperity of the culture heritage. Royal ancestors figures among the Chokwe also reflect
the chiefs responsibility to maintain a sense of balance with the spiritual World in order to
secure the well-being of their community

In the cosmology of Chokwe religion, remembering and honoring their ancestors ensures
fertility, success, and continuity for all in the community. Neglecting their deceased
relatives result in chaos, confusion, calamity, catastrophe and war both for individuals and
their related community.

At the begin of the summer season, the elders among the woman and the children organise
a spiritual and mystical giving celebration in the river Cuango with food, and pouring
libations of Beer and Wine, evocation of songs lines and dance to the ancestors as a way to
please them for the goodness, protection and guidance they received throughout the year.
During the spiritual celebration to the ancestors members are allowed to cry, dance, through
food in the river and ask for more rain for the fertilisation and improvement of their
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agricultural. When things go well and life is pleasant, the Chokwe people give praise and
thanks to God from whom all blessings are supposed to flow. Chokwe ancestral spirits play
a crucial role of providing for their living kin, if they are properly addressed and honored
by the living ones.

Bibliography:
Alfred Hauenstein (1988) Examen De Motifs Decoratifs Chez Les Ovimbundu Et Tchokwe
DAngola, Coimbra: Instituto De Antropologia; Universidade De Coimbra

A Evolucao Dos Tronos Lunda-Chokwe, Exhibition Catalogue, Sep 1989 to Mar 1990, em
Luanda, Museu Nacional De Antropologia, sponsors: Secretaria De Estado Da Cultura and
Instituto Nacional Do Patrimonio Cultural, Angola.

Art Et Mythologie, Figures Tshokwe (1988) Exhibition Catalogue, Paris: Fondation Dapper.

Clive M. Dillon-Malone, SJ. (1978) The Korsten Basketmakers, A Study of the Masowe
Apostles an Indigenous African Religious Movement, Harare: The Institute for African
Studies, University of Zambia.

John S. Mbiti (1970) Concept of God in Africa, London: S.P.C.K

Jordan, Manuel (1998) Chokwe Art and Initiation: Among Chokwe and Related People,
New York: Prestel press

Mario Fontinha (1983) Desenhos na Areia Dos Chokwe Do Nordeste De Angola, Lisboa:
Instituto De Investigacao Cientifica Tropical

Rosalind I. J. Hackett (1996) Art and Religion in Africa, London: Cassell press

Chikukuango Cuxima-Zwa