Kalûnga Line

The word Kalûnga is a Kikongo word that means "threshold between worlds." In the Congo region, Kalûnga is considered to be the nzadi o nzere, or Congo River. This idea was also translocated to the Americas via Africans in the Atlantic slave trade and used in reference to the sea, bodies of water, and ancestral spirits related to the sea. == Creation ==

The Bakongo believe that in the beginning there was only a circular void, called mbûngi, with no life. Nzambi the Creator god created a spark of fire, or Kalûnga, and summoned it into mbûngu, where it grew into a great force of energy. As the force heated, it became a great mass, which broke apart and hurled heated elements across space, forming the universe with the sun, stars, planets, etc. The creation of a Bakongo person, or muntu, is also believed to follow the four moments of the sun, which play a significant role in their development. Because Bakongo people have a "dual soul-mind," or mwèla-ngindu, they are able to exist and live in both realms during the different moments of their lives. Even while in Nu Mpémba, a muntu still has a full life with as they prepare for Kala time once again. The right side of the body is also believed to be male, while the left side is believed to be female, creating an additional layer to the dual identity of a muntu. == Kongo cosmogram ==

The nature of Kalûnga is also spiritual. As Kalûnga filled mbûngi, it created an invisible line that divided the circle in half. The four moments of the sun are also represented on the Kongo cross. Musoni is the time when a muntu is conceived both in the spiritual realm and in the womb of a Bakongo woman. Kala is the time when a muntu is born into the physical world. This time is also seen as the rise of the sun. Tukula is the time of maturity, where a muntu learns to master all aspects of life from spirituality to purpose to personality. The last period of time is luvemba, when a muntu physically dies and enters the spiritual world, or Nu Mpémba, with the ancestors, or bakulu. These four moments are believed to correlate to the four times of day (midnight, or ''n'dingu-a-nsi; sunrise, or ndiminia; noon, or mbata; and sunset, or ndmina''), as well as the four seasons (spring, summer, fall and winter). == The Americas ==

Due to the deep, spiritual connection that Bakongo people had to water, the Kalûnga line is often associated with bodies of water. After many were captured and forcibly taken to the Americas, the line and the sacred circle became associated with the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, the Bakongo interpreted their enslavement in the Americas as imprisonment in the spiritual realm and believed that their soul would return to Kongo, after death, which they viewed as the land of the living. Enslaved Bakongo believed that they would have to travel the path of the sun as it set in the west, as they thought that they had been taken to the land of the dead, never to return. Thus, the Kalûnga 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 line and hold the belief that the soul of an African American travels back to Africa upon death and re-enters the world of the spiritually living although the body has passed on. ==References==