1

AN INTRODUCTION TO BUKONGO
The scientific mystery of the high Bantu spirituality
By

Kiatezua Lubanzadio Luyaluka, Ph.D.(hon.)

Founder and manager of Nzil’Alowa, a modern initiatory academy of African traditional

spirituality

1 Table of Contents

1 Contents ................................................................................................................... 1
2 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 2
3 Why do we have to study Bukôngo? ....................................................................... 2
4 What is the Meaning of the Word Kôngo? .............................................................. 3
5 The Kôngo Concept of Religion ................................................................................ 5
6 African Traditional Religion as an Exact Science...................................................... 7
7 The Key Doctrines of Bukôngo ................................................................................. 8
8 The Kôngo Initiatory Academies ............................................................................ 11
9 The Kulunsi, the Kôngo Cross ................................................................................. 12
10 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 13
11 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 13
12 Biographical notes from the author ...................................................................... 14
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2 Introduction

As its title indicates, this booklet offers an overview of the Kôngo religion, Bukôngo. It
explains to the reader the necessity of studying this trend of African traditional religion. It
exposes its scientificity, and main doctrines.

The work is the study of the Bukôngo from the point of view of its natural systematic
theology, thanks to a cosmological argument, and by keeping in mind its convergence with
the religion of ancient Egypt.

Thus conceived, this booklet is intended to be an introduction to our seminal work

entitled “Bukôngo” (available at www.amazon.com). Through its 400 pages this book offers
a study of the Kôngo religion, and uses its natural systematic theology to prove its depth,
validity, and convergence with the religion of ancient Egypt, Sumer, and with primitive
Christianity.

3 Why do we have to study Bukôngo?

The first question that arises when reading the title of this booklet is: why do we have
to study the mystery of Bantu spirituality? But before answering this query, we must first
elucidate three concepts involved here.

 Firstly, the concept of mystery. We take this word in its original Grecian meaning.
Mystery stems from musterion: a set of secret teachings leading to the “opening of
the eyes”, i.e., to the illumination of the senses. This implies that we exclude the
denotation of “something that is beyond the ken”. The word mystery alludes to the
African initiatory teachings and their ability to enable the initiate to perceive the
invisible, to surpass the limitations of the corporeal senses.
 Bantu. We are aware that this word was first used by W.H.I. Bleek in 1862 as
classification name for languages in Africa south of the Sahara. We don’t agree with
any racist denotation that might have been intended by this author. Thus, we use the
word to mean the Africans of the first migrations southwards of the Sahara and
whose religion was characterized by the preponderance of the divine mystery. As far
as African traditional religion (ATR) is concerned, we take the epitome of the Bantu
to be the Kôngo people, just because their religious paradigm can explain that of the
other Bantus, even the other Africans. Hence, by Bantu mystery, we essentially mean
the Kôngo mystery. We take the words Africa and Africans to allude to the Black
people. However, this is not a negation of the Africanness of the Maghreb.
 Spirituality. The word spirituality can be defined in many ways. By keeping the
definition of religion offered by the Kôngo people in the 15th century, as the n’kisi-nsi,
or the use of divine spirits in order to awake and develop one’s divine power, we can
define spirituality as the development of the spiritual faculties achieved thanks to the
practice of the purification of thoughts.
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Why study the Bantu spirituality? By Bantu spirituality, we essentially mean the
perceptive and healing abilities developed in the practice of Bukôngo, the Kôngo religion;
the potential of the realization of one’s divinity embedded in this religion. Thus, the
importance of studying this spirituality is none other than the need to learn this trend of
ATR, this importance is seen in the facts that:

 ATR, in its original trend which is the religion of ancient Egypt and Sumer (as this
civilization belonged culturally to Africa), was an exact science! This configuration of
ATR has been kept up to now in Bukôngo in some initiatory circles (especially
Nzil’Alowa).
 The migration of the African ethnics from the north to the south of the Sahara
brought the devolution, the epistemic regression, of ATR. In other words, the passage
from the religion-exact-science it originally was to the present religion-belief it is in
almost all of its trends. This change needs to be understood.
 There is a necessity to defend the validity of the African traditional science and the
technology it entails, which are based on the fact that reality is spiritual. The validity
of this epistemic basis cannot be demonstrated through the Western paradigm, as
this latter is based on the belief that reality is material. The natural systematic
theology of ATR alone offers the apologetics tools indispensable for this defense.
 There is a necessity to federate the different inherited colonial nations of Africa.
According to Cheikh Anta Diop (1984), this unity must first be a cultural one. But in a
continent (the diaspora not excluded) where there is thousands of different cultures,
this unity seems to be a utopia. However, a new perspective to this unity is offered
when one considers the scientific nature of Bukôngo as the original and true nature
of ATR. Since science is universal, Bukôngo offers a great hope that the unity of Africa
envisaged by the Fathers of Pan-Africanism can be reached thanks to religion. This
hope can be achieved through the correction of the “epistemic regression” of the
different trends of ATR.
 The scientific nature of Bukôngo, extended to all the trends of ATR, will bring a
serious and definitive blow to the Western assumption of the inherent inferiority of
the Blacks. For, this scientific nature proves the inferiority of the Western epistemic
paradigm:
o Religion in the West is a mere belief on which people cling with faith, while
Bukôngo is an exact science.
o The bases of Western science are mere non-provable beliefs, while the bases
of African traditional lore are demonstrable facts thanks to the systematic
natural theology of Bukôngo.

4 What is the Meaning of the Word Kôngo?

The word kôngo is well known as alluding to the people of the ancient Kingdom of
Kôngo, a great empire that was situated in central Africa. The exact extent of this kingdom is
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still a question of scientific debate. It is generally thought that it extended from the south of
Angola to the south of Gabon. But, there are scholars who may include in it the south of
Cameroon as well as the north of Namibia (Nganga, n.d.).

However, when they speak about the arrival in their present lands, the Kôngo people
mention that they came from the “Kôngo dia tûku” or the original Kôngo. The exact situation
of this original Kôngo is a subject of controversy. Our opinion on this matter is that the
“Kôngo dia tûku” is none other than the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, the famous kingdom that
was situated in the nowadays Zimbabwe. This position is justified by the following facts:

 The Kingdom of Kôngo was created in the 14th century shortly before the decline of
the Kingdom of Zimbabwe in the 15th century.
 Many makânda (plural of kânda, a unit formed of many great families (bivumu or
nzo) originating from the same ancestor) claim to have reached the Kingdom of
Kôngo after having crossed the desert of Kalahari that they call "Kôngo dia Mbângala
Nzûndu Tadi”, the land of hot climate and mines (Cuvelier, 1934). The fact that they
crossed the desert shows that they came from the eastern cost and went down to
the south and reached the Kingdom of Kôngo, or “Kôngo dia ntotila”, on the western
cost.
 There is a linguistic similarity between some Kôngo ethnics (Yômbe and Vili of
Luangu) and the Luba people of Kasai in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Both
groups can understand each other without interpret. Moreover, there is an old
tradition among the Luba people that they are the nephews of the Kôngo people.
These imply that in their migration toward the Kingdom of Kôngo the Yômbe and the
Vili went through the land of Kasai. This suggests northern migration from the
Kingdom of Zimbabwe to the western cost of Africa.
 In his book titled, “Kôngo ye Nza ya kunzungila” [the Kôngo people and the world
that surrounded him], Fukiau (1969) opines the dispersion of the Kôngo people as
starting from a place called Zimba which he assimilates to Zimbabwe.

As to the meaning of the word kôngo, we must first mention that it can stem from of
verb kônga meaning to meditate, to assemble (Laman, 1891). From könga comes kongudila,
to judge. One must remember that, in the traditional setting, the purpose of justice is always
to reunite parties that are in variance. When the conflict is within the kânda, the proverb
used is “n’sing’a kânda kani unîngina kautabukânga ko” (the link of the kânda can undergo
strains but it should never broke). If the variance were between two kânda, the principle
used by the judge would be “Kôngo tadi, kabue mbasinga” (the Kôngo nation is a stone that
cannot break).

According to Bittremieux (1936), the word khôngo (the Yômbe spelling of Kôngo)
alludes to the commandments of God. The same laws are called “n’kôndo mi Nzâmbi”
among the Bantandu, the Kôngo ethnic situated between the towns of Kinshasa and
Mbanza-Ngûngu (van Wing, 1956). We learn also from van Wing that the Bantandu
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designate by kôngo any place where the initiation was held in the forest. Hence, the word
kôngo alludes both to the locus and to the content of the initiation. Kôngo means the divine
mystery.

According to many initiates, the divine purpose of the Kôngo people is to unite (kônga,
kongudila) the Black nation. We can conclude that the means for bringing this unity is the
divine mystery (Kôngo). Now, as we have seen above, the accomplishment of this task
through the divine mystery is possible thanks to the scientific nature of the Bukôngo. The
universality of science is the power that will bring the political and economic reunification of
the Black nation, thanks to the elimination of the “epistemic regression” of the different
trends of ATR.

5 The Kôngo Concept of Religion

Using Western terms, while studying an African concept, is usually tricky. When it
comes to “religion”, our ancestors helped us by translating the word as meaning n’kisi nsi,
the local n’kisi. As we learn from the first book published by the Church using the Kikôngo
(the Kôngo language), a catechism printed in Madeira, Portugal, in 1624, this meaning
offered by the Blacks in the 15th century was accepted and adopted by the Catholic Church.
Thus, the church was called “nzo an’kisi”, the house of n’kisi as the Bible was certainly
named “n’kând’an’kisi”, the book of n’kisi.

After the battle of Ambuila (1665), and the great success of the opponent Antonian
movement of the Kôngo prophetess Kimpa Vita, the Church launched itself in a campaign of
the demonization of the Kôngo spiritual values. Thus the word n’kisi came to be cornered to
the demeaning denotation of fetish, something artificial.

5.1 The True Meaning of N’kisi

In its original meaning the word n’kisi has two denotations. Firstly, n’kisi means power;
thus it becomes in plural min’kisi. Secondly, n’kisi means spirit; and it becomes in plural
bakisi. Thus, the concept of religion was understood by our ancestors, at its highest
meaning, as the use of the divine spirits (bakisi) in order to awaken and increase one’s divine
power (n’kisi).

We speak about the “highest meaning” because ATR can be practiced at the divine
level, or at the human one. At the divine level, the power, n’kisi, is acquired through the
purification of thoughts. Moreover, the divine n’kisi can be used only for good purposes. At
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the human level, the power, n’kisi, is at the origin the transmission of the divine n’kisi
through faith in matter and in the illuminated ancestors. Once originated, the human n’kisi
can be acquired even through money or family inheritance. Moreover, the human n’kisi can
be used for good or for evil purpose. However, the evil use is forbidden.

When in the Bible Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”
(Mathew 5: 8). He is speaking of the divine practice of religion. When in the Bwiti (a trend of
ATR found in Gabon) the initiate eats the bitter roots of iboga to enter in contact with the
ancestors through a trance, we are facing a human practice of ATR.

5.2 The Classification of the Bakisi

In his book about the Kinkîmba, the Kôngo academy of martial initiation, Bittremieux
(1936) gives us a classification of the spirits (bakisi) as follows:

 God, the Most High, Nzâmbi Ampûngu Tulêndo, or Nzâmbi Mpûngu. One must know
that n’kisi and mpûngu are synonymous.
 The Bikînda, the transcendent divine Spirits. According to the Kôngo prophet Simon
Kimbangu, these are also called Balowa, the “Suns”; as one of them, the creator of
this temporal universe, is called Mbûmba Lowa.
 The Bakisi, the manifestations of the divine Spirits at the temporal plane. The bakisi
animate things and beings in the temporal realm. (p.189)

One understands that it is anomalous to translate the term n’kisi into fetish, something
artificial; for God is the highest n’kisi, Mpûngu Tulêndo.

The n’kisi can be classified also into divine (Nzâmbi-n’kisi, God as Divine Spirit, or his
highest manifestation, the Logos), human (mûntu-n’kisi, or the human being as empowered
by a spirit), or thing related (kîma-n’kisi, a thing empowered by a spirit). Everything is
inhabited by a divine spirit or by divine spirits; such a thing used for healing purpose will be
called n’lôngo. The mûntu-n’kisi and the kîma-n’kisi can be animated naturally by a divine
spirit (or divine spirits), or artificially by a human spirit or an enslaved one. The n’lôngo is a
kîma-n’kisi naturally animated by a divine spirit. When the other cases of kîma-n’kisi are
used for healing purpose, they are called simply n’kisi.

In the divine practice of ATR, water (n’lângu), or spiritual education (from lônga) may
be used as n’lôngo for the purpose of increasing one’s purity (bun’lôngo). Whenever, a kîma-
n’kisi animated by an enslaved spirit is used for any purpose, one is in the human practice of
ATR.

5.3 Comparative religion

The Kôngo people define religion as the use of n’kisi. This notion is akin to the Igbo
concept of the chi. The chi is defined as power and spirit. Like for the n’kisi, the highest chi is
God, Chukwu (a contraction of “Chi Ukwu”). The creator is called Chineke. There is a chi in
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every person. One realizes the existence of a" clear convergence between the notion of the
n’kisi and that of the chi.

Among the Yoruba, that notion becomes the ase, power. And in the Vodun of Benin,
the notion of the n’kisi as power becomes the concept of the aze, and it takes a benevolent
and a malevolent connotations. Thus, one easily concludes that the Vodun is a case of a
human practice of ATR.

6 African Traditional Religion as an Exact Science

History teaches us that ancient Greece was a polytheistic nation. And we know also
that being initiated by the Egyptian priests, Grecian students tried to demonstrate the
existence of God by the use of the cosmological argument. Since this attempt is contrary to
the polytheistic nature of the Helenian religion, we conclude that the Grecian students,
philosophers of antiquity, were taught the possibility of this demonstration in ancient Egypt.
This implies that the religion of ancient Egypt was a science and the notion of God was
demonstrable. However, the cosmological argument, as used in the West, has always been a
failure; it happens to demonstrate the existence of a creator of this temporal universe, but it
cannot prove that this creator is the Most High God.

6.1 The Kemetic Cosmological Argument

The kemetic cosmological argument (KCA) proves the existence of the ultimate cause
of this temporal universe and extends into a systematic natural theology, as it evolves the
essential doctrines of solar religion. The KCA can be summarily introduced this way:

 As an aggregate of individual entities, our temporal universe is an individual one.

 The individual nature of our temporal universe makes of it the product of an
individual cause.
 In the infinity of possibilities, the individual nature of this cause implies the existence
of other similar causes. Each of these different causes can be effective or potential,
i.e., having already or not having yet created its temporal universe.
 Under the hypothesis that every creation exists in its creator, a non-indispensable
hypothesis introduced only for the sake of brevity, there is an entity that includes the
sum total of these potential and effective causes. This entity is therefore the greatest
possible being; he is thus the Most High God.
 It follows that, as the greatest possible being, the Most High is absolutely immutable
and indivisible. For, a mutable and divisible God would require the existence of a
principle of his mutability and divisibility. Now, according to the law of causality this
principle must be greater than God, i.e., greater than the greatest possible being,
which is impossible.
 We know that every effective and potential cause, every Child of God, expresses an
individuality included in the Most High, the Father-Mother. Now, the Most High is
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indivisible; thus, every Child of God expresses the fullness of the Most High in an
individual manner. We call this fullness the Word or the Logos.
 It results from the absolute indivisibility of the Most High, that God, the Child of God,
and the Logos are all three inseparable in their substance, their existence, and their
action. This is solar trinity.
 As the greatest possible being, God is the greatest possible reality. There cannot be a
reality aside from him. Therefore, the temporal universe is only a limited perception
of the celestial reality. Since all reality is in God, this limitation is illusory; thus, the
temporal universe is only an appearance, a dream.

6.2 Bukôngo as an Exact Science

As we said above, the KCA can be extended to all the essential doctrines of solar
religion (Luyaluka, 2015, 2020, 2021). Being a deduction and a set of coherent statements
(as each stems deductively from the previous), the KCA is an exact science. Therefore, the
congruence of the religion of ancient Egypt (Memphis theology) and of Sumer implies that,
in its original trend, ATR is an exact science. As can be seen in the congruence of their
theisms (see table 1), this nature of the ATR has been preserved in the Bukôngo.

Table 1: Comparative theism, KCA, Memphis, Sumer, Kôngo

Table 2: Comparative theism, Bantu ethnics

7 The Key Doctrines of Bukôngo

Thanks to the comparative study of Bukôngo and the religion of ancient Egypt (the
theology of Memphis) by using their congruence with the KCA, we arrive naturally to the
conclusion that the main doctrines of both religions are the same. The equivalence of both
religions implies the same doctrine of creation and the same doctrine of the purpose of the
trip of the mûntu, the human being, in this temporal plane, and the same doctrine of
salvation.
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7.1 The Doctrine of Creation

Creation is preceded by the fall of Children of God (potential creators), and is a remedy
to this fall. The fall is taught by the myth of Mahûngu, the original male-female God-created
being. A myth in which Mahûngu, as the original divine Child of God, lost his divine power as
he turned around the sacred palm tree (ba dia Nzâmbi), an act forbidden by God. Mahûngu
found himself divided into two weak beings, a male and a female. The opposite
counterclockwise contour of the ba dia Nzâmbi having not solved their weakness, they
decided to marry each other, but to no avail.

Explained from the KCA, this myth teaches the original nature of the Children of God as
characterized by the manifestation of the fullness of the divinity. This fullness, that we called
the Logos (Kimalungila), is expressed in the myth as the fact of being male-female. The
manifest expression of this divine nature, the divine childhood, was lost in the fall.

Thus, thanks to the KCA the fall can be stated this way: due to his original bad use of
his God-given free will in heaven, the Child of God has lost the manifest expression of his
God-given divinity, the Logos (Kimalungila or Kimahûngu). Since like God the celestial realm
is indivisible and immutable, this original sin, sumu, caused the fall as the loss of the
expression of the indivisible divine substance, the loss of the manifest expression of God’s
indivisible fullness. Hence, the fallen Child of God found himself in state characterized by
darkness and chaos.

However, according to the absolute immutability of God, the fallen Child of God could
not be annihilated; otherwise God would have changed relationally, which is impossible.
Thus, the fallen Child of God became a non-incarnated spirit groping in darkness and chaos.
Therefore, creation consisted in helping the fallen Children of God acquire temporal
incarnations and begin their ascension back to the celestial level.

From the KCA we learn that the fallen state is only a dream, since all reality is in God.
Therefore, creation is included within the broader plan of helping the fallen Children of God
get progressively out of the dream. Creation will help the fallen Children of God to go from a
potential state, as a non-incarnated spirits, to a temporal manifest state and begin their
ascension. This nature of creation is expressed in the following proverb: “Nzâmbi Wûmba,
hula kuani kavânga” (God is a potter, he made only a bark), this implies that the creator only
helped the mûntu to become manifest in the temporal plane. In other words creation is not
ex-nihilo.

7.2 The Purpose of the Mûntu’s Existence

We have learned that the creative process helped the fallen Children of God find a
temporal incarnation after having fallen in a state similar to a dream. The next step will be
for the mûntu to begin to work for his salvation, which entails getting progressively out of
the dream to find back the celestial consciousness.
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We learned from the creative process that the mûntu is a potential Child of God,
because the absolutely immutable God could not deprive him of the Logos (Mpina Nza)
despite his fall. Thus, the aim of the mûntu in this temporal plane is to regain the manifest
expression of the Logos (Kimalungila or Kimahûngu) through the purification of his thoughts.

A song of Lêmba, one of the Kôngo academies of civil mystery, calls the candidate to
the initiatory process Mahûngu. Now, according to the myth of Mahûngu recounted above,
we know that the purpose of his going into the initiatory process was to become a Mahûngu,
to regain the divine nature he has lost due to the original bad use of his free will. And we
learn from the Kimpasi, the Kôngo sacerdotal academy, that the means for regaining this lost
divine nature is purification.

Ku bele bântu.
Ku bele Bakulu.
E Mahûngu e!
Nge bahungila!
Badianga
(Fukiau, 1969, p. 43).
Here is its translation !

Where abide humans of this plan.

Where abide the ancestors.
Hey Mahûngu,
They gather around you,
Those who eat.
This same doctrine is also taught by the “Egyptian book of the dead”. We read in that
book that the Osiris Ani once arrived in the beyond claims the right to be an Osiris, a Child of
God. Now, the fact that he was already being called Osiris shows that he was an Osiris
potentially and claims the right to be so in a manifest way, on the ground that he lived a life
of purity on earth.

All this shows that the purpose of the mûntu on this temporal plane is to progressively
regain the lost manifest expression of the Logos, to become a Child of God, a Malungila or
Mahûngu, an Osiris, in a manifest way.

7.3 The Kôngo Doctrine of Universal Salvation

From the KCA we learn also that salvation is universal. This is the case because God is
absolutely immutable; therefore, he is absolutely impartial. Moreover, the temporal
existence is only a dream. This dream is condemned to cease because:

 It appears in the temporal consciousness of the creator. Since the Logos is a constant
power working in the creator, we conclude that the creator is accelerating back
toward reality. Thus, the temporal realm, the dream, is accelerating toward its end.
 It cannot reach the point of becoming a reality, because all reality is in God.
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 It cannot be part of eternity, because the celestial eternal realm is, like God,
immutable.

Since, the dream of mortal existence is condemned to cease and as God cannot violate
the free will he gave to his Children, through knowledge, or through suffering, the mûntu will
reach, here or hereafter, to point of the necessity of seeking his salvation and obtaining it.

7.4 Salvation and the Double Nature of the Logos

We know that the Logos is the manifestation of the fullness of God in the Child of God.
Now, the Children of God taken around one of them constitute a collective Child of God. This
collective Child of God manifests also the Logos. Therefore, the Logos is the manifestation of
the fullness of God in the Child of God and around him.

The Logos, as the surrounding Love of God, constitutes an incentive to help the mûntu
seek his salvation. However, according to the immutability of God, this incentive cannot go
beyond the free will of the mûntu. This implies that it belongs finally to the mûntu himself to
accept this surrounding expression of Love and to live it in a life of sanctification in order to
bring out his salvation. Thus, salvation in Bukôngo is through the outer grace of the Logos
coupled to the inner working of the same Logos through sanctification.

8 The Kôngo Initiatory Academies

The Bukôngo had three kinds of initiatory academies as highest settings of education.
There was an academy of divine mystery called Kimpasi. This academy was astride of the
nowadays Angola and the DRC, between the present towns of Mbanza-Ngûngu and
Kinshasa.

The postulate of Kimpasi is that at his conception every one of us had a perfect path
laid by God. However, the evil spirits started from that very moment to kick the new traveler
out of his divine path. Thus, it is the purpose of the Kimpasi to help this mûntu to come back
into the path that God has designed for him.

The teachings of Kimpasi were foundational to any academy of human mystery (civil
and martial). This is justified by the fact that the highest n’kisi is a power obtained by the
purification of thoughts. The presence of the teachings of the Kimpasi in the academies of
human mystery shows the continued necessity to develop new higher kinds of min’kisi. The
Kimpasi taught the divine practice of Bukôngo.

There were many academies of civil mystery among the Kôngo people. We can name
among them: the Lêmba, the Buêlo, and the Nzobi. However, these were not the only ones
found in the Kingdom of Kôngo. As an academy of civil mystery, the Lêmba schooled people
in the field of medicine, law, trade, governance, etc.
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At last we must mention the presence in the human mystery of a martial academy, the
Kinkîmba. This academy was situated at the western cost of the Kingdom of Kôngo. That the
Kinkimba was a martial academy is seen in the fact that:

 The very word kinkîmba stems from kiba or kimba, and alludes to physical
endurance.
 Like in Vodun, the python was used as a symbol of the Logos.
 The army commander was called Nkuamboma, or Ngamboma, or Mamboma, which
mean the “owner of the python”. Thus we learn that the army stood as a python.
 The word boma, which is the name of a town found in the area of Kinkîmba, means a
retreat, or a military barrack.
 According to Bittremieux (1936), in an initiatory hut there were male tools including
“pebble guns” and “wooden rifles for tournaments” (p. 37).

As the setting of the implementation of the human n’kisi, the human mystery was
centered on the human practice of Bukôngo.

9 The Kulunsi, the Kôngo Cross

A Kôngo proverb says, “Mahûnga ma ntu a nkayi, mêso mona, makutu wa, nânga
ngângu zakukôndua.” Literally it says: the horns of the gazelle, your eyes see, and your ears
hear, unless you lack intelligence. To the profane, the proverb is explained as, “a clear
situation doesn’t beg questions”. However, this is not the true meaning. In order to know
the true meaning one must ask the question: why the horns referred to are exactly those of
the gazelle?

The horns of that animal are surrounded by a spiral or by rings. The proverb alludes to
that spiral. The spiral is the symbol of the summary of the teachings of Bukôngo. Seen from
the top, the spiral is simplified into a circle. By joining the four cardinal points of the circle
one get a cross. Thus the cross stands for the summary of the teachings of the Bukôngo.

Figure 5: the mvulu-mvulu, the cross of the Kimpasi

Adapted from van Wing (1959, p.462)

The cross has an epistemological, creative, cosmological. ethical, and initiatory

meaning. Fukiau (1994) called the kulunsi, kôngo-cosmogram. However, this appellation is
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misleading, because it corners the kulunsi to the cosmological meaning, while in reality the
kulunsi stands for the sum total of the doctrines of ATR.

10 Conclusion

We live in a moment where the world is witnessing a change of paradigm. The limiting
belief that reality is ultimately material is no more an unshakable affirmation. It is thus time
for the Black to avail of the scientificity of African traditional religion, as preserved in the
Bukôngo, in order to affirm the validity of the paradigm that made the success of ancient
Egypt. This new paradigm implies a perception of science where reality is demonstrated as
being spiritual. The scientificity of ATR is the key for the foreseen unity of the Black nations,
as it will help the trends of ATR to go from the belief-system they are now to the exact
science that the religion bequeathed by our ancestors was in yester time.

11 Bibliography

Bittremieux, L. (1936). La Société secrète des Bakhimba au Mayombe [The Secret

Society of the Bakhimba in the Mayombe]. Bruxelles, Belgique: Librairie Falk fils.

Cuvelier, J. (1934) Nkutama a mvila za makanda Mission Catholique Tumba, Tumba,

RDC.. Mission Catholique Tumba, Tumba, RDC.

Diop, C. A. (1984). Les Crises majeures de la philosophie contemporaine [The Major

crises of contemporary philosophy]. Revue sénégalaise de philosophie, 5-6
(January-December): 179-199.

Fukiau, A. (1969). Kôngo ye Nza ya kun’zungidila [The Mukongo and the world
surrounding him]. Léopoldville, DRC: Office National de Recherche et de
Développement.

Fukiau, K. K. B. (1994), Ntangu-Tandiiuiiioou-Kolo: The Bantu-Kongo concept of time. J.

K. Adaye (Ed.), Time in the Black experience, vol. 167, (pp. 17-33). Westport:
Greenwood Press.

Fu-Kiau, K. K. B. (2001). African cosmology of the Bantu-Kôngo. African Tree press.

Laman, K. (1932). Dictionnaire Kikongo-français [Kikongo-French Dictionary] (Doctoral

thesis, institute Royal Colonial Belge: Belgium.)

Luyaluka, K. L. (2015) Theocentric big-bang cosmology. ISA, Kinshasa, DRC. Available at

www.amazon.com.

Luyaluka, K. L. (2020) Bukôngo. Nzil’Alowa, Kinshasa, DRC. Available at

www.amazon.com.
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Luyaluka, K. L. (2021) Systematic Natural Theology Course, Nzil’Alowa, Kinshasa, DRC.

Available at www.amazon.com.

Nganga, A. F. (n.d.) Kikongo was spoken in New York, https://

youtu.be/HHUIQb_YM5s.

Van Wing, J. (1959). Etudes Bakôngo [Studies about the Bukôngo] (2nd Ed.).
Léopoldville, Congo-Belge: Desclee de Brouvwer

12 Biographical notes from the author

Kiatezua Lubanzadio Luyaluka holds a Ph.D. (Hon.) in theology (option apologetics) of

Trinity Graduate School of Apologetics and Theology, from Kerala, India. He is founder and
manager of Nzil’Alowa, a modern academy of initiation to traditional Black-African
spirituality. Nzil’Alowa includes an academic research branch called Institut des Sciences
Animiques and an initiation branch also called Nzil’Alowa. Dr. Luyaluka's publications are
focused on a defense of Black-African spirituality and epistemology (his books are available
at www.amazon.com, while his scientific articles can be consulted on the
independent.academia.edu/ Luyaluka). For more information on nzil’alowa please write to
[email protected].