The Kalunga line is a watery boundary between the world of the living and the dead in religious traditions of the Congo region. The word Kalunga is

Kikongo Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Angola. It is a tonal language. It was spoken by many of those who were taken from th ...

for "threshold between worlds". The Kalunga line is often associated with bodies of water, with the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

being prominent. They believed the

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

after death traveled the path of the sun as it set in the west. The enslaved believed they were being taken to the land of the dead, never to return. Thus the Kalunga line became known as a line under the Atlantic Ocean where the living became the dead and the only way back to life was to recross the line. Some religions today still make reference to the Kalunga Line believing that the soul of an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

travels back to Africa upon death and re-enters the world of the spiritually living although the body has passed on. Kalunga was considered like a goddess or more commonly a god; the guardian of the border between the world of living and dead, who was the Atlantic sea. He was welcoming dead in Kalunga, the land of death, under the sea. Kalunga was also one of the names of Nzambi a Mpungu, the high creator. Kalunga in ngangela means God and if they say mukalunga they are referring to the sea.

References

Kongo culture Water and religion {{Africa-myth-stub