ABSTRACT
The High God, indeed the only1 god, of the Lozi is called Nyambe. This name recalls the term Nzambi,2 employed by Lunda, Chokwe and Luchazi to designate the Supreme Being. The Rev. A. D. Jalla3 has collected some interesting Creation myths concerning Nyambe. They fall into two sharply distinguished categories. The first category describes the creation by Nyambe of the world and its natural resources, and of his wife Nasílele. Most important of all, it treats of the relations between Nyambe and Kamunu, the first man, who, together with his wife, was made by Nyambe after his other creations. Kamunu represents generic Man; he does not seem to have been the specific ancestor of the tribes of men known to the Lozi. In fact, the second category of myths attributes the origin of the tribes and nations directly to Nyambe who, while he was still on earth, created for himself many wives of all kinds and by them had children who “ formed the nations so different in forms, customs and languages/'4
Kamunu is a Prometheus rather than an Adam but unlike either he escaped punishment or banishment on account of the skills he borrowed from the Supreme Deity. On the contrary, his aggressive behaviour finally compelled Nyambe to quit the earth altogether and go, with Nasílele and some followers, according to some authorities,5 to Litooma, a village in the sky, and according to others,6 to ascend to heaven above.
