The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is available in

Journal of Black Studies, 2017, Vol. 48(1) 91–112

DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

The Spiral as the Basic Semiotic of the Kongo

Religion, the Bukongo
By Kiatezua Lubanzadio Luyaluka, Ph. D. (hon.)

kiatezuall@yahoo.fr

Institut des Sciences Animiques

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract
In this paper the author demonstrates the spiral as being the basic sign of the system of signs used
in the kongo religion, the Bukongo, to convey spiritual teachings as well as to help the initiates recall
what they have been taught.

This symbol is shown to be the summary of the teachings of the Bukongo, it explains the celestial
origin and destiny of man, the divine completeness of being (the Verb) and universal salvation. The
spiral simplified at the most results in the kongo cosmogram.

Assuming the Egyptian origin of the kongo people, the author exposes the convergence of both
religion about the origin and destiny of man, and concludes in the Egyptian origin of the kongo
cosmogram.

Key words
Bukongo; religion; Egypt; spiral; cosmogram; Verb

Introduction
Symbolism is one the mode of the expression used by the African, the more as the religious
teachings are concerned. Symbolic language is one of the means used by the initiates of the Bukongo,
the kongo religion, to convey their teachings as well as to recall what they have been taught.

One of the symbols used in the Bukongo to help the initiates in their reminiscence of the mystery
teachings is the spiral. In this paper, we purpose to demonstrate that the spiral is basic to the semiotic,
the system of sign, used in the kongo religion. For this demonstration we will analyze the pattern of
the kongo initiation as well as the teachings of the thee kongo mystery academies and we will try to
show that he concept of the spiral is imbedded in the both of them.

Assuming the Egyptian origin of the kongo people we will try demonstrate a convergence of both
the Bukongo and the Osirian religion in the use of the symbolism of the spiral; for this purpose we will
resort to comparative study.

This study will allow us to expose the deep meaning of the kongo cosmogram as a summary of the
main doctrines of the Bukongo.

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Journal of Black Studies, 2017, Vol. 48(1) 91–112
DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

Approach of the research

Scientific research can start from an a priori affirmation for which the author tries to prove the
validity of the truth, therefore our starting hypothesis in this paper is that the spiral is basic to the
semiotic of the Bukongo. In order to demonstrate this we will use various tools of scientific
investigation; these tools will include: comparative study, ethnolinguistic, etc.

History teaches us that initiation was the basic element in the African pre-colonial culture because
traditional epistemology relies on the communication with higher humanities and only a formation
based on the development of the intuitive faculties could ensure such abilities. Thus from the ancient
Egyptian civilization to the present African traditional cultures, such a formation has always been an
initiation in the mysteries.

Therefore our first step will be an attempt to pinpoint the essential elements of the kongo initiatory
system and to show that a pattern of spiral is imbedded in these core elements in all the three
academies of the Bukongo. Next we will show that the symbolism of the spiral is evoked in the
different myths that are basic to the cosmology of the Bukongo; along with this we will also use
ethnolinguistic to show the validity of our hypothesis through an analysis of different proverbs, as well
as words of kikongo that provide inklings of the pattern of the spiral in the kongo language.

As for the Egyptian origin of the spiral based semiotic of the Bukongo, we will use a comparative
study between the spiritual teachings of the school of this ancient civilization and those of the kongo
culture.

The kongo initiatory academies

It is indispensable for a better understanding of the subject to introduce first of all the kongo
initiatory academies and their teachings. The formation in these academies obeyed to the common
schema of African initiatory system: a symbolical death, life among the ancestor (whose presence is
symbolized by the initiator), and the return to the world of the living which is tantamount to a
resurrection. (Mbiti, 1972: 131).

Janzen (1982: 249) speaks of this symbolism in these terms: “The verb fula is used in the eastern
variant, as well as in other accounts of Lemba in the Mayombe, to refer to the ritual resurrection of the
neophyte. The adept, having "died" (fwa ngambu) and seen spirits, is awakened (fulukidi) and given to
drink from the tsasa pot by the Lemba priestess.”

The Bukongo teaches that man at the origin was divine, a Son of God; but due to disobedience he
has lost the manifestation of his divine nature; this is the case because the kikongo language
recognizes every man as being potentially divine: male and female (the right part of the body being the
male and the left part the female, and this means completeness (Fukiau, 1969: 113-114, 112)).
Therefore the highest purpose of the initiation is to help man regain the effective expression of his
divinity (the Verb) through the purification the thought.

The kongo culture included in its initiatory system three academies: a divine academy (the
Kimpasi) and two human academies (the Lêmba and the Kinkimba). The first was a sacerdotal
academy; the Lemba was a civil academy while the Kinkimba was the kongo marital school, as we
will show it later.

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Journal of Black Studies, 2017, Vol. 48(1) 91–112
DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

The Kimpasi
The fief of the Kimpasi is the south-eastern region of the ancient Kingdom of Kongo. The word
kimpasi comes from the kikongo mpasi, a term which in the ancient time meant wealth, as it is still
conserved in the Tshiokwe dialect of the kikongo, while in others its meaning has been changed from
wealth to suffering. It is obvious that in a culture where everything is based on religion, the true wealth
is not measured in gold and diamond as in the West, but in spiritual elevation; thus the divine mystery
was the true wealth of the kongo people.

This truth is seen in the fact that the initiate were ready to speak openly of everything except of
their deep teachings that they were hiding even after having joined the Christian missionary Church;
this becomes clearer when we realize that to the inquiries of the africanists the initiates used to
respond that the kongo initiatory schools were centered on dances and obscenities, or at least included
them viscously (van Wing 1938: 197; Janzen 1982: 118, 134; Bittrémieux 1948: 98, 207), while to
Fukiau (1969: 146), a Kongo researcher, the Kongo initiates of the Lemba (the Kongo civil initiatory
academy) said that what they were taught in the forest is similar to the teaching of the Christian
church.

The high priest, whose name was always Nsaku Ne Vunda, reminiscence of his clan (Kimpianga,
1982: 184), belonged to the region dominated by the Kimpasi; therefore this was a school of the divine
mystery, the kongo sacerdotal academy. The power acquired through the divine mystery can be used
only for good purpose, because its basis is the purification of thought.

Some of the important teachings of the Kimpasi were transmitted through proverbs. These proverbs
are known of almost every person who is well acquainted with the tradition of the south-eastern part of
the Kingdom of Kongo, but only the initiates knew their deep meanings. It is through this use of these
homonymous meanings that the initiates used to hide the content of their teachings without hiding
their signifiers. One of this proverb, which helps us understand the concept of the Verb in the Kimpasi
is: “Malungila muana, mahasuka ka muana ko.”

The meaning the profanes generally give to this proverb is: he who answers the call of an elder in a
son, he who disobeys is not a son. Actually this meaning is not in accord with the semantic analysis; if
it were the proverb would read: ntumami muana, nkolami ka muana ko.

Literally translated this proverb says: he who is complete is a son and he who is incomplete is not a
son; hence it means that he who is conscious of his divine completeness is a son of God, but the
uninitiated is not conscious of this completeness, therefore he is not a Son a God in a manifest way.
This proverb teaches us that the Verb in the kimpasi is the Kimalungila, and the man who manifests
this nature is a Malungila, a Son of God. This nature is symbolized by the bracelet, nlungu, which the
initiate wears. The word nlungu means also the fact of being complete; Bentley gives the following
meanings in his dictionary: completion, fulfillment.

The Lemba
The Lêmba is know thanks to the work of Fukiau (1969), to whom the last initiates of this school
spoke openly and willingly of the initiatory knowledge they have acquired in the forest, a
circumstance which is an exception as far the deep teachings of the kongo academies are concerned, as
we said above, the initiates were prone to hide the true import of their teachings, even after a duly
conversion and in their loyal service to the Christian missionaries.

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Journal of Black Studies, 2017, Vol. 48(1) 91–112
DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

The word lêmba comes form the verb lêmba which means to appease; thus we learn that 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 society. This is not in contradiction with the spiritual teachings
imparted by this academy, because a kongo proverb says: buka mu kati, ya buka kumbazi. With this
proverb the Lemba initiates were asking God to heal the inner man, the spiritual man, while they were
tending to the visible man. CONCLUSION

Speaking of this school, Janzen reveals the following: ‘It is described as having been "a medicine
of the village"; "a medicine of the family and its perpetuation"; "fertility medicine"; "the sacred
medicine of governing" (Lemba i n'kisi wangyaadila) according to one clan head; "the government of
multiplication and reproduction" (luyaalu lua niekisa), by a former Lemba wife; and "sacred medicine
integrating people, villages and markets" (n'kisi wabundisa bantu, mavata ye mazandu), by a
contemporary merchant and clan head who wrote a local history.’ (Janzen, p. 4).

The Verb was understood in the Lêmba as the concept of the Kimahûngu; the man who expresses
consciously this nature is called a Mahûngu. According to Fukiau (169: 111), this concept stems from
the verb hûnga which alludes to the whirling activity of the wind. It should be added also that hûnga
evokes the act of assembling things by encircling them with both hands.

The Kinkimba
The Kinkimba occupied mainly the western part of the Kingdom of Kongo. As a human initiation
the mission of the Kinkimba was the protection of the land against invasion coming from outside, the
Kinkimba was a martial academy. Bittremieux (1936: 37) incidentally proves this by informing us that
in the initiatory hut were found men’s tools including “pebble guns” and “wooden rifles for
tournaments”. Only people who were going through a martial training could use different sorts of
guns for tournaments.

The martial nature of the Kinkimba is also conveyed by the very name kinkimba which stem from
the verb kimba, meaning to run, as can be understand by the conjugation of all that follow. Bentley in
his dictionary gives us the following meaning of the component kiba: stroll about, travel about. For the
word kimba Karl Laman supplies the French meaning vaillant which corresponds to brave,
courageous, valiant, bold, daring, etc., ; Bittremieux (1936: 25) agrees with Laman by telling us the
word kinkimba comes from kimba meaning to be courageous, valiant of heart. All these words evoke
physical endurance and prowess; thus we learn that the Kinkimba was a martial academy.

The concept of the Verb in the Kinkimba is called the Kitafu-maluangu, thus the one who expresses
this nature is called Tafu-maluangu. This nature is symbolized by the python; and as a snake the Verb
is designated Mbumba-Luangu. The other martial symbol of the Verb is the rainbow, which in the
kongo, even in the African, imaginary is perceived as a snake whose head and tails are in the water
(Bittremieux, 1936: 25-26).

The python is called in kikongo mboma; the army commander is designated by nkuamboma,
mamboma or ngamboma which literally means the owner of the python. Speaking of the Prime
Minister of Loango, who bore the title of Ma-Mboma-Tchiluângu Joseph Kimfoko Mandoungou says
that this name implies: "The acquisition of this character ntchiama (rainbow) the animal incarnation is
the python (mboma) and extending its magical protection on all that surrounds it.” (Kimfoko, 1985:
18)

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DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

The protective mission of the Kinkimba is clearly stipulated in the meaning Kimfoko gives of the
personage of Ma-Mboma-Tchiluangu; and this is the proof that despite the existence of a ministry of
defense in the Loango, the Prime Minster was the real commander of the army.

Speaking of the So initiation among the Betis of Cameroon, an author quotes this affirmation of
Philippe Laburthe-Tolra: “The rite of python-vane was a formation to endurance whose equivalent 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.

The spiral in the teachings of the Bukongo

As we said above, the general pattern of the great initiation in Africa is a succession of life and
death. Bittremieux (1936: 154) reports the following words of van Wing about the initiation of
Kimpasi, the kongo divine mystery: “the great initiation consists therein of dying and resuscitating by
[the spirit nkita], fua nkita, futumuka nkita,”

Now the kongo words for life are zingu and kimôya. Kimoya means the consciousness of being
alive. According to the African concept of death the kimoya never ceases, because death is trip
“towards other experiences” (Mbonji, 2006: 117), thus the dead goes from one plan to another. Now
the word zingu comes from zinga, which means to roll, a zingu is thus a spire. At death a zingu (a
spire) ceases and another one begins because the kimôya has not ceased; this implies that man starts
another zingu, another cycle of kimôya, on a higher or a lower plan. Therefore the two zingu
connected, according to the continuity of the kimôya, form a spiral endowed with an ascending or a
descending movement.

The spiral in the teaching of the Kimpasi

We have shown above that one of the pattern of the Kimpasi is the homonymous use of proverbs to
hide spiritual teachings from the profanes. One of these proverbs runs this way: “Mahûnga ma ntu a
nkayi, mêso mona makutu wa, nânga ngângu zakukôndua.” For the uninitiated this proverbs warns us
about a situation that is clear and calls no questions.

The literal meaning of this proverb is “the horn of the gazelle, your ears hear and your eyes see,
unless you lack intelligence.” Now one must ask the question why the horns referred to are precisely
those of the gazelle and not another animal, what is particulate about the horn of the gazelle? The
answer is that the horn of the gazelle is surrounded by a spiral; the proverb actually refers to this spiral
as a reminiscence of the teaching received by the disciple in the initiatory forest.

The spiral in the teachings of the Lemba

The concept of the Verb in the Lemba is the Kimahûngu. According to Fukiau (1969: 111) the word
kimahûngu comes from the verb hûnga, to whirl, by speaking of the wind. Thus like in the Kimpasi
the spiral formed by the wind is the reminiscent of the teaching received by the mystes at the mpemba,
the world of the ancestors.

In the Lemba the concept of the spiral alludes to the notion of the Verb, the divine completeness of
being, because as we have seen above the verb hûnga implies the act of assembling. The spiral teaches
us that the Kimahûngu assembles the male and female elements in man to constitute the fullness of
being.

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Journal of Black Studies, 2017, Vol. 48(1) 91–112
DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

The spiral in the teachings of the Kinkimba

Like in the Lemba the teachings of the spiral in the Kinkimba are imbedded in the symbols of the
verb. We know that the Kinkimba is a martial academy in which the Verb is symbolized by the python.
In order to attack or to smother something the python coils his tails to stand up or its coils around its
victim.

It is therefore for its coiling that the snake is used to be the reminiscence of the teachings of the
Kinkimba, as of all African martial academies. This snake is represented in the Kinkimba by the
python and the rainbow, which in the thinking of the kongo people is also a snake.

The spiral and the cosmology of the Bukongo

When a kongo elder is asked about the origin of this temporal universe the usual answer is:
“Nzâmbi wa lâmba luku tôngo beto bântu.” Literally this means: God has prepared the fufu (cassava
bread) and we men are the condiment. This apparently “naïve” statement summarizes the kongo
cosmology. Since it is not the purpose of this paper to develop the kongo cosmology, we will limit
ourselves to the exposition of the connection between this saying and the spiral.

The fufu is a paste prepared by kneading the cassava dough in a pot of boiling water. While it is
being mixed by the spatula the paste descends and ascends by making spiral movements. The
cosmological meaning these two spiraling movements is that we men came down from the heaven and
we are tripping back to celestial eternal plan through cycles of lives.

Concomitant to this is the myth of Mahûngu; (Janzen, 1982: 202-206) according to this myth God
made man perfect and divine. Mahûngu, the original man, had dominion other the animal, the vegetal
and the mineral realms. God planted a palm tree and forbid to Mahûngu to go around it. Motivated by
a mortal impulsion, Mahûngu disobeyed and went around the palm tree and at the end found himself
separated in two mortal beings: a male and a female, and both were weak. To remedy their weakness
the two beings made the opposite round of the tree to no avail, and finally they married each other.

This myth teaches us that disobedience is the cause of the fall of man. This is why in one of the
rites of the Kimpasi, the master takes the hand of the mystes in his, he raises both hands above their
heads and turns around himself while he makes the mystes turn around him. This implies that the
remedy to the fall of man caused by turning around the palm tree is not to go the opposite way around
the same tree but to turn ones thought toward God (or God’s representative), that is to purify one’s
thought.

In this myth and in the answer of the elder man the common element is the fact of turning, the main
pattern of the spiral. The ascending and the descending movements of the spiral is the main teaching
of the cosmology of the Bukongo.

The teachings of the spiral in the Bukongo

From what has been so far presented we have learnt that the spiral indicates the origin and destiny
of mankind: men come from the heaven where they go back through cycles of life; the divine origin
and destiny of man is the greatest of the lessons of the Bukongo.

But man can’t ascend back to heaven through personal or human efforts, thus turning around the
palm tree in the opposite way and getting married didn’t solve the problem of the fall of mankind. It is

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DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

only through a conscious relation, or communion, with the divinity which is potential in us that
salvation can be reached through the purification of thought.

Thus the spiral, as the Lemba illustrates it by the whirling of the wind, symbolizes the divinity of
man; the spiral is basic for the semiotic of the divine completeness’ of being, this explains why the
Verb in the Kimpasi is named the Kimalungila, the completeness. In his book titled les Maîtres de la
brousse, Réné Garliet (1976: 41) speaks of the Kimahungu as the “elder son of the heaven and the
earth”. He explains that this concept of the completeness of being in seen as the concept of the Komo
among the Mandés and of the Do among the Senufo.

The whirling of the wind teaches us also that salvation in the Bukongo is universal; as the wind
swirls it takes in it every dead leaf. This shows that if man is not saved through the knowledge of
Truth, he will be forced by suffering to seek the ascending power of the Verb evoked by the spiral. The
spiral is the summary of the teachings of the Bukongo.

The spiral simplified

We have seen above that the spiral is the symbol of the Verb, the completeness of being. In the
Kimpasi the Verb is called the Kimalungila, the divine completeness of being. This completeness is
also symbolized by the circular bracelet that the initiate wears on his wrist. Thus we learn that the
spiral is simplified as the circle, its plan representation. The circle as the spiral simplified is also what
the figuration of the Verb by the rainbow teaches us.

But the Bukongo semiotic didn’t stop with the circle in its simplification. We know from Fukiau
(1969: T29) that the cross was used in the Bukongo in the pre-colonial time as the simplification of the
circle. The kôngo cosmogram, the kongo cross, is the ultimate summarized form of the spiral. In his
book titled Four Moments of the Sun, Farris Thompson, quoted by Derric “Rau Khu” Moore, says of
the kôngo cosmogram that it “is coded as a cross, a quartered circle or diamond, a seashell spiral, or a
special cross with a solar emblem in each extremity”.

The Egyptian origin of the spiral

One of teachings of the Egyptian cosmology is the Vision of Thoth. These ancient teachings have
“come down to us only in a slightly changed Alexandrian form” (Brown, 1923: 263, note 1). In this
vision it was revealed to Thoth in a vision that souls start their journey from a region of light beyond
the seventh heaven and come down on earth: “Some are beaten back to earth like eddies of birds
beneath thee might of the tempest. The rest with mighty wings reach the upper sphere, which draws
them with it as it rotates.”

What we learn here from this vision of Thoth through the expressions “eddies” and “draws them
with it as it rotates” is that men descend from heaven and ascend back through spiraling movement
symbolizing cycles of life.

Thus the Egyptian records give us the oldest account we have of the spiral as a basis element of the
cosmological semiotic. Moreover we have seen that the spiral symbolizes the conjunction of the male
and the female as the original divine nature of man. We read in the Shabaka stone (James, 1954: 140)
that as Aton emerges from the water and sits upon Ptah, “there remain in the waters four pairs of male

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Journal of Black Studies, 2017, Vol. 48(1) 91–112
DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

and female gods”. Thus we learn that according to the Memphis theology the original state of the Sons
of God is purity and completeness.

Thus any hypothesis of the Egyptian origin of the kongo people (Batshikama, 1971: 267.) entails
the Egyptian origin of the Bukongo as explained by the similitude of the semiotic use of the spiral in
both cultures.

The direction of the kongo cosmogram

The question here is what is the direction in which we must read a cosmogram, clockwise or
counterclockwise? The answer is that both ways are correct; each direction gives us a precise meaning
of the cosmogram as we will see it below.

Fig. 1: Cosmogram A

The cosmogram is the simplified form of the spiral, what then is the direction of the spiral? The
answer is clearly is both directions, because one is indicates the descent the other the ascension. The
wind can blow in both ways, and when the African lady prepares the fufu, she turns the spatula in both
ways to have a perfect mixture.

Fig. 2: Cosmogram B

Therefore the most important question is the position of the east and the west on the cosmogram.
We solve this issue by recalling the Egyptian origin of this symbol, and the fact that the Egyptian
where always looking at the south as their promised land, for Diop (1972: 54) this is emphasized by
the fact that the hieroglyph for north means also behind. Thus by so doing they always had the east at
their left.

Thus each of the cosmograms described above has two meanings:

 Cosmogram A:
o Descending cosmogram
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DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

oA cosmogram depicting the world of the ancestors as one of purity (mpemba or

kalunga); nseke is the earth as the world of the here living in opposition to
mpemba.
 Cosmogram B:
o Ascending cosmogram:
o A cosmogram depicting the world of the ancestors as higher above us in power and
in perfection; zulu means the heaven and ntoto the earth.

The ritual of the raised hand

There is one more sign of the Bukongo which alludes to the completeness of being that stems
directly from the kongo cosmogram B; it is a rituals of the Kimpasi , a prayer in which the initiate
raises up an arm toward the firmament while the other hangs down the palm facing upward ; men lift
the left arm , as for women it is the right arm.

We have seen that in the Bukôngo , as in many other African traditions , the right side is considered
male while the left side is female. Thus by this posture the initiate expresses the elevation of the nature
which is weak in him so that he may express the divine completeness of his being.

This posture of the Kimpasi is actually a prayer of invocation of the divinity of man, the
completeness of the Verb. This prayer is also a request so that the glory of the heaven (symbolized by
the raise arm) may come on earth or on everything toward which the lowered palm hand is turned to.

This posture was brought by the kongo initiates oversea and to the USA and passed into the
American olympic tradition where an athletes may raise an arm before competing.

Conclusion
The use of the symbols to convey religious teachings is a common practice in Africa. In this paper
we have worked to show that the spiral is basic to the knogo system of sign used to convey the
teaching of the initiatory academies.

This symbol has been shown first to be the signifier of the very concept of the initiation which
involves the succession of death, life among the ancestors and resurrection to the community with
renewed identity; thus the spiral has been shown to be the symbol of the ascending and descending
succession of lives, as convey by the very meanings of the kongo words for life: zingu (cycle) and
kimoya (consciousness of being alive).

By analyzing the teachings of the three kongo academies, we have shown that the spiral is signals
the heavenly origin and destiny of man; but also that it alludes to the divine completeness of being (the
Verb) and to the universal nature of salvation.

Assuming the Egyptian origin of the kongo people, we have shown a convergence between the
kongo cosmology and the vision of Thoth, thus concluding that ancient Egypt is the origin of the
kongo semiotic.

At last we have shown that the spiral is simplified in the form of the circle and at the ultimate the
cross replaces the spiral and the circle as the summary of the teachings of the Bukongo.

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DOI: 10.1177/0021934716678984

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