Arebati is known as the god of creation or supreme god in the mythology of the
Efé people
The Efé are a group of part-time hunter-gatherer people living in the Ituri Rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the depths of the forest they do not wear much clothing, using only hut (dwelling), leaf huts as shelter for their bod ...
of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
.
The deity is also worshipped by the
Mbuti people
The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages.
Subgroups
Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the oldest ...
, but under a different name, which is Baatsi. In other
African Pygmies
The African Pygmies (or Congo Pygmies, variously also Central African foragers, "African rainforest hunter-gatherers" (RHG) or "Forest People of Central Africa") are a group of ethnicities native to Central Africa, mostly the Congo Basin, trad ...
' mythologies, Arebati and
Tore
Tore is a Scandinavian masculine name. It is derived from the Old Norse name ''Thórir'', which is composed of ''thorr'' which means thunder, and ''arr'' which means warrior. So Thunder Warrior or Thor's Warrior. The most famous person by this nam ...
are synonymous to one another, while in others, Tore is a forest god while Arebati is a lunar god.
Legend
In Efé mythology
According to Efé myths, Arebati created the world and the first man from clay with the help of the Moon. At first, humans were immortal. Whenever a person grows elderly, Arebati returns them to their younger selves. One day, a woman passed away under Arebati’s watch. He planned to resurrect her and asked a frog for help. He needed the frog to move the woman’s corpse to the side of the road. However, a toad appeared and requested that he do the task instead of the frog.
To see whether the toad would be capable of doing so, Arebati asked the toad to sit on the edge of the pit with the woman’s corpse. Arebati warned the toad that if the toad and the woman’s corpse fell into the pit, a great misfortune shall befall them. In one version, the toad’s anger over this challenge led both him and the woman’s corpse to fall into the pit, while in another version, his clumsiness is to be blamed.
Nevertheless, the toad and the woman’s corpse ended in the pit, and the woman was unable to be revived by Arebati. Because of this event, the rest of humanity is fated with the same experience, which is to die permanently and be buried in a grave.
See also
*
List of African mythological figures
This is a list of African spirits as well as deities found within the traditional African religions. It also covers spirits as well as deities found within the Afro-American religions—which is mostly derived from traditional African religions. ...
References
{{Reflist
African gods
Pygmy mythology