User:Desmondx2000/Pende people

Culture
In Eastern Pende culture some ways they lived were by building their own residences called, kibulu, which was made out of materials such as brick, reed, bark, and other vegetal materials. A kibulu functions varies depending on what its used for at that time. For example, it didn't only serve as a home it could be used for ritual practices and built in ways to convey a visual aesthetic. Ritualistic ceremonies were reserved for the chiefs of all ranks to carry out lineages under their protection, but the distinction is that a great chief kibulu can have sculptural adornment and domed roof. The domed roof over the square model wasn't common and was rare to see as this relates to the prestige and aesthetic of the kibulu. Since a kibulu is made out of materials that will soon perish another way the kibulu is meant to represent is power and impermanence. Since they can hold power objects a kibulu must be regularly destroyed and new one built in its place.

Beliefs
According to Pende cosmology, the God Maweze put humans in a continuous cycle of reincarnation to be able to move between both the living and the kalunga. For the Pende Kalunga is the world that is located underground. It is believed that when people pass away they journey among the dead, or vumbi.