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== Etymology == |
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== Etymology == |
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While there is little written historical record of the word ''simbi'', there is consensus that it originated within ] communities and almost certainly began as a means for the Bakongo people to understand the spiritual nature of the world around them.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Ras Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1rEgAwAAQBAJ |title=African-Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry |publisher=Cambridge |year=2012 |isbn=9781107668829 |edition=1st |location=New York, NY |pages=1, 2, 111–113, 122–124}}</ref> Some believe the word ''simbi'' derives from ''simba'', a Kikongo word that means "to hold, keep, preserve."<ref name=":1" /> The similar phrase, ''isimba ia nsi'', which translates to "a distinguished person in the community," was recorded in an early Kikongo dictionary in the seventeenth century. This phrase and others, such as ''kisímbi kinsí'', which translates to "the very old person who does not die" are a few of the earliest evidences of the spiritual connection of bisimbi to the land of the living and the land of the dead.<ref name=":1" /> The word ''basimbi'' also translates to "guardians" with the phrase ''isimba ia nsi'' later becoming "guardians of the land."<ref name=":1" /> |
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While there is little written historical record of the word ''simbi'', there is consensus that it originated within ] communities and almost certainly began as a means for the ] to understand the spiritual nature of the world around them.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Ras Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1rEgAwAAQBAJ |title=African-Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry |publisher=Cambridge |year=2012 |isbn=9781107668829 |edition=1st |location=New York, NY |pages=1, 2, 111–113, 122–124}}</ref> Some believe the word ''simbi'' derives from ''simba'', a Kikongo word that means "to hold, keep, preserve."<ref name=":1" /> The similar phrase, ''isimba ia nsi'', which translates to "a distinguished person in the community," was recorded in an early Kikongo dictionary in the seventeenth century. This phrase and others, such as ''kisímbi kinsí'', which translates to "the very old person who does not die," are a few of the earliest evidences of the spiritual connection of bisimbi to the land of the living and the land of the dead.<ref name=":1" /> The word ''basimbi'' also translates to "guardians" with the phrase ''isimba ia nsi'' later becoming "guardians of the land."<ref name=":1" /> |
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== Kongo spirituality == |
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== Kongo spirituality == |
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The ] traditionally believe that bisimbi are magically water spirits (in ]: ''nkisi mia mamba'') that can appear as a person, a snake, a ], or ''Kalûnga'', a spark of fire, similar to the spark that begot the universe in Kongo ].<ref name=":2" /> There have also been claims of bisimbi appearing as birds, twisted trees and ].<ref name=":1" /> They are seen as the guardians of nature and the intermediaries who travel the ] between ''Ku Seke'', the physical world of the living, and ''Ku Mpémba'', the spiritual world of the ancestors. Bisimbi are also believed to be spiritual guides, using storytelling and oral tradition to connect the living to the ancestors and their history.<ref name=":2" /> The likening of the living elders to the bisimbi in the phrase ''kisímbi kinsí'' highlights the importance of Bakongo elders to the spiritual well-being of the community and the passing of their beliefs from one generation to the next.<ref name=":1" /> |
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The ] traditionally believe that bisimbi are magically water spirits (in ]: ''nkisi mia mamba'') that can appear as a person, a snake, pottery, a ], or ''Kalûnga'', a spark of fire, similar to the spark that begot the universe in Kongo ].<ref name=":2">{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Natalie P. |title=The "Cymbee" Water Spirits of St. John's Berkeley |url=http://www.diaspora.illinois.edu/news0607/news0607-3.pdf |access-date=16 April 2021 |website=The African Diaspora Archeology Network |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign}}</ref> There have also been claims of bisimbi appearing as birds, twisted trees and ].<ref name=":1" /> They are seen as the guardians of nature and the intermediaries who travel the ] between ''Ku Seke'', the physical world of the living, and ''Ku Mpémba'', the spiritual world of the ancestors. Bisimbi are also believed to be spiritual guides, using storytelling and oral tradition to connect the living to the ancestors and their history.<ref name=":2" /> The likening of the living elders to the bisimbi in the phrase ''kisímbi kinsí'' highlights the importance of Bakongo elders to the spiritual well-being of the community and the passing of their beliefs from one generation to the next.<ref name=":1" /> |
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== Hoodoo == |
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== Hoodoo == |
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{{Kongo religion sidebar}} |
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{{Kongo religion sidebar}} |
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In Central Africa's ] region, "...bisimbi inhabit rocks, gullies, streams, and pools, and are able to influence the fertility and well being of those living in the area." "What are bisimbi? They have other names, too. Some are called python, lightning gourd or calabash, mortar or a sort of pot. The explanation of their names is that they are water spirits (] mia mamba). The names of some of these ] are: Na Kongo, Ma Nzanza, ] and Londa. There is a significant amount of Kongo culture that continues today in the African American community, because 40 percentage of Africans taken during the ]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade - Database |url=https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/database#timelapse |access-date=2023-04-13 |website=www.slavevoyages.org}}</ref> came from ] ].<ref name=":2">{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Natalie P. |title=The "Cymbee" Water Spirits of St. John's Berkeley |url=http://www.diaspora.illinois.edu/news0607/news0607-3.pdf |access-date=16 April 2021 |website=The African Diaspora Archeology Network |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Young |first1=Jason R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-8-iakwtXgC&q=+40+percent |title=Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery |date=2011 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=9780807137192}}</ref> |
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The belief that bisimbi "inhabit rocks, gullies, streams, and pools, and are able to influence the fertility and well being of those living in the area"<ref name=":2" /> was translocated to the United States by enslaved Bakongo and ].<ref name=":1" /> Because forty percent of Africans taken during the ]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade - Database |url=https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/database#timelapse |access-date=2023-04-13 |website=www.slavevoyages.org}}</ref> came from ] ], and bisimbi became revered in the United States in ] communities in ] across the ].<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Young |first1=Jason R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-8-iakwtXgC&q=+40+percent |title=Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery |date=2011 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=9780807137192}}</ref> Some ] prayed to Kongo-derived simbi spirits during ] and it was believed that simbi spirits were present when congregants were dipped into the water and washed clean. This belief highlighted the Central African influence on Christian baptism, the fusion of both traditional African and new Black American spiritual practices, and the evolving nature of Black spirituality in the Americas.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Jeffrey E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1pFxDwAAQBAJ&dq=simbi&pg=PA108 |title=Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook |date=2008 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=9780313342226 |location=Westport, Connecticut |page=114}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Manigault-Bryant |first1=LeRhonda S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dw8tBAAAQBAJ&q=spirits |title=Talking to the Dead: Religion, Music, and Lived Memory among Gullah/Geechee Women |date=2014 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9780822376705 |location=Durham}}</ref> |
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Bisimbi are also revered in the United States in the ] community in the practice of ] in the ]. Academic historians conducted research in the ] and have found continued ]n spiritual practices. For example, some African American churches in the Southeast prayed to Kongo-derived simbi spirits during ]. "Baptism also had a distinctly African side to it. The nineteenth century Georgia practice of praying to Kongo-derived simbi spirits before immersion demonstrates this aspect of an other wise Christian rite."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Jeffrey E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1pFxDwAAQBAJ&dq=simbi&pg=PA108 |title=Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook |date=2008 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=9780313342226 |location=Westport, Connecticut |page=114}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Manigault-Bryant |first1=LeRhonda S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dw8tBAAAQBAJ&q=spirits |title=Talking to the Dead: Religion, Music, and Lived Memory among Gullah/Geechee Women |date=2014 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9780822376705 |location=Durham}}</ref> |
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=== Sightings === |
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=== Sightings === |
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=== Sukey and The Mermaid === |
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=== Sukey and The Mermaid === |
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In ], the ] people in the Carolina Lowcountry have a children's story called ''Sukey and the Mermaid'' about a girl named Sukey meeting a mermaid named Mama Jo. Mama Jo in the story helps and protects Sukey and financially supported her by giving her gold coins. This story comes from the belief in Simbi spirits in Central Africa that came to the United States during the ]. In Africa, Simbi nature spirits protect and provide riches to their followers. In Central Africa, there are folk stories of people meeting mermaids.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Connolly |date=2021 |title=Breaking the Surface: Mermaids and the Middle Passage |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/marvelstales.35.1.0079 |journal=Marvels and Tales |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=79-83, 83-85 |doi=10.13110/marvelstales.35.1.0079 |jstor=10.13110/marvelstales.35.1.0079 |access-date=31 January 2022 |s2cid=236647533}}</ref> |
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In ], the ] people in the Carolina Lowcountry have a children's story called ''Sukey and the Mermaid'' about a girl named Sukey meeting a mermaid named Mama Jo. Mama Jo in the story helps and protects Sukey and financially supported her by giving her gold coins. This story comes from the belief in Simbi spirits in Central Africa that came to the United States during the ]. In Africa, Simbi nature spirits protect and provide riches to their followers. In Central Africa, there are folk stories of people meeting mermaids.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Connolly |date=2021 |title=Breaking the Surface: Mermaids and the Middle Passage |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/marvelstales.35.1.0079 |journal=Marvels and Tales |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=79-83, 83-85 |doi=10.13110/marvelstales.35.1.0079 |jstor=10.13110/marvelstales.35.1.0079 |access-date=31 January 2022 |s2cid=236647533}}</ref> |
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==Palo== |
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==Palo== |
The belief that bisimbi "inhabit rocks, gullies, streams, and pools, and are able to influence the fertility and well being of those living in the area" was translocated to the United States by enslaved Bakongo and Mbundu peoples. Because forty percent of Africans taken during the trans-atlantic slave trade came from Central Africa's Congo Basin, and bisimbi became revered in the United States in Black American communities in Hoodoo tradition across the American South. Some Black churches prayed to Kongo-derived simbi spirits during Baptism and it was believed that simbi spirits were present when congregants were dipped into the water and washed clean. This belief highlighted the Central African influence on Christian baptism, the fusion of both traditional African and new Black American spiritual practices, and the evolving nature of Black spirituality in the Americas.
West-Central African water spirit MIA
Category
