The Great And Important Difference Between The M'pongwe, {167}
Igalwa, And Ajumba Fetish, And The Fetish Of Those Tribes Round
Them, Consists In Their Conception Of A Certain Spirit Called O
Mbuiri.
They have, as is constant among the Bantu races of South-
West Africa, a great god - the creator, a god who has made all
things, and who now no longer takes any interest in the things he
has created.
Their name for this god is Anyambie, which when
pronounced sounds to my ears like anlynlae - the l's being very
weak, - the derivation of this name, however, is from Anyima a
spirit, and Mbia, good. This god, unlike other forms of the
creating god in Fetish, has a viceroy or minister who is a god he
has created, and to whom he leaves the government of affairs. This
god is O Mbuiri or O Mbwiri, and this O Mbwiri is of very high
interest to the student of comparative fetish. He has never been,
nor can he ever become, a man, i.e. be born as a man, but he can
transfuse with his own personality that of human beings, and also
the souls of all those things we white men regard as inanimate, such
as rocks, trees, etc., in a similar manner.
The M'pongwe know that his residence is in the sea, and some of them
have seen him as an old white man, not flesh-colour white, but chalk
white. There is another important point here, but it wants a volume
to itself, so I must pass it.
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