Khonvoum is the supreme god and creator in the mythology of the

Bambuti 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 ...

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people of

central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

. He is the "great hunter", god of the hunt, and carries a bow made of two snakes which appears to mortals as a rainbow. He rules the heavens and when the sun sets, he gathers pieces of the stars and throws it at the sun so that it may rise the next day in its full splendor. He contacts people by means of the mythical elephant Gor (the thunderer) or through a

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...

.Lynch, Patricia Ann; Roberts, Jeremy , ''African Mythology, A to Z'', Infobase Publishing (2010), p. 67

/ref> Khonvoum created black and white people from black and white clay and the Pygmies from red clay. For them, he also created the jungle with its lush vegetation and animal life.

References

Creator gods Hunting gods Sky and weather gods Pygmy mythology {{Africa-myth-stub

See also

References