Editing Simbi

{{Short description|Spirit in traditional Kongo religion}}
{{other uses}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Kongo
| name = Simbi
| image = Mami Wata Figure MIA.jpg
| alt = <!-- for alternate text of the title image per [[WP:ALT]] -->
| caption = Mami Wata, Igbo artist, [[Minneapolis Institute of Art|MIA]]
| other_names = 
| script = 
| affiliation = {{hlist|[[Kongo religion|Kongo]]|[[Hoodoo (spirituality)|Hoodoo]]|[[Palo (religion)|Palo]]|[[Candomblé]]}}
| cult_center = 
| abode = [[Atlantic Ocean]], Seas, Rivers (Nzadi), Forests (Mfinda)
| animals = 
| symbol = <!-- or | symbols = -->
| predecessor = 
| successor = 
| region = 
| ethnic_group = {{hlist|[[Kongo people|Bakongo people]]|[[African Americans|Black Americans]]}}
| god_of = Water Spirit
| equivalent1 = [[Jengu]]
| equivalent1_type = Sawabantu
| equivalent2 = [[Lwa]]
| equivalent2_type = Haitian
}}
A '''Simbi''' (also '''Cymbee''', '''Sim'bi, pl. Bisimbi''') is a Central African [[Water spirit|water]] and [[List of nature deities|nature spirit]] in traditional [[Kongo religion]], as well as in [[African diaspora religions|African diaspora spiritual traditions]], such as [[Hoodoo (spirituality)|Hoodoo]] in the southern United States and [[Palo (religion)|Palo]] in Cuba. Simbi have been historically identified as water people, or mermaids, pottery, snakes, gourds, and fire. Due to the forced removal of [[Bantu peoples]] from [[Atlantic slave trade|Africa to the Americas]], the [[Veneration of the dead|veneration of simbi]] exists today in countries, such as the United States, Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti.

== Etymology ==
While there is little written historical record of the word ''simbi'', there is consensus that it originated within [[Bantu languages|Bantu-speaking]] and [[Kongo language|Kongo-speaking]] communities and almost certainly began as a means for them 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" />

== Kongo spirituality ==
{{Main article|Kongo religion}}
The [[Kongo people|Bakongo people]] traditionally believe that bisimbi are magically water spirits (in [[Kongo language|kikongo]]: ''nkisi mia mamba'') that can appear as a person, a snake, pottery, a [[Calabash|calabash vine]], or ''Kalûnga'', a spark of fire, similar to the spark that begot the universe in Kongo [[creation myth]]ology.<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 [[Mermaid|mermaid-like beings]].<ref name=":1" /> They are seen as the guardians of nature and the intermediaries who travel the [[Kalûnga Line]] 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" />

== Hoodoo ==
{{Main|Hoodoo (spirituality)}}
{{Kongo religion sidebar}}
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 [[Southern United States|United States]] by enslaved Bakongo and [[Ambundu|Mbundu peoples]].<ref name=":1" /> Because forty percent of Africans taken during the [[Atlantic slave trade|trans-atlantic slave trade]]<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 [[Central Africa|Central Africa's]] [[Congo Basin]], and bisimbi became revered in the United States in [[African Americans|Black American]] communities in [[Hoodoo (spirituality)|Hoodoo tradition]] across the [[Southern United States|American South]].<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 [[Black church]]es 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.<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>

=== Sightings ===
Academic research on the [https://south-carolina-plantations.com/berkeley/pooshee.html Pooshee Plantation] and Woodboo Plantation in [[South Carolina]], showed a continued belief of African water spirits among enslaved African Americans. Both plantations are "now under the waters of [[Lake Moultrie]]."<ref name=":2" /> The earliest known record of simbi spirits was recorded in the nineteenth century by [[Edmund Ruffin]] who was a wealthy slaveholder from Virginia, and traveled to South Carolina "to keep the slave economic system viable through agricultural reform."<ref name=":2" />

"At Pooshee plantation on the [[Santee Canal]] not too far from Woodboo, Ruffin stated that a young slave boy went to a fountain for water late at night and was very frightened by a cymbee (Simbi water spirit) who was running around and around the fountain. Although few witnesses to the appearance of cymbees were found by Ruffin, he stated that they are generally believed by the slaves to be frequent and numerous. Part of the superstition was that it was bad luck for anyone who saw one to 'tell of the occurrence, or refer to it; and that his death would be the certain penalty, if he told of the meeting for some weeks afterwards." Another occurrence from an enslaved man said simbi spirits have long hair.<ref name=":2" />

=== Sukey and The Mermaid ===
In [[African-American folktales|Black American folklore]], the [[Gullah|Gullah Geechee]] 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 [[Atlantic slave trade]]. 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|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Haitian Vodou ==
{{Main|Haitian Vodou}}
The belief in bisimbi also exists in the traditional spiritual practices of [[Haiti]]. While Haitian Vodou has been known for its [[West Africa]]n influences, primarily those from Benin and Nigeria, it also contains Central African influences from the [[Republic of Congo|Congo Republic]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Democratic Republic of Congo]], and [[Angola]] in the form of bisimbi. Though often referred to as [[lwa]], bisimbi such as [[Mami Wata]], Nsimba and Nzuzi are still ''nlongo'', or sacred, in traditional Haitian spirituality and culture.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heywood |first=Linda M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EKd-q4oVHOsC |title=Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-00278-3 |pages=213–219 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mami Waters – OCCULT WORLD |url=https://occult-world.com/mami-waters/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Palo==
In an Afro-Cuban religion called [[Palo (religion)|Palo]], bisimbi are called ''Nkitas''. They are deities of all aspects of nature, such as lakes, forests or mountains.<ref>{{cite book |last1=MacGaffey |first1=Wyatt |title=Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular |date=2000 |publisher=Indiana University Press |pages=141–142 |isbn=0253336988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VwF77SIQ0HsC&q=bisimbi&pg=PA141}}</ref>

==In culture==
*[[Governor General of Canada|Governor General]] [[Michaëlle Jean]] of Canada, who was born in Haiti, bears two simbi serpents as supporters on her coat of arms.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-05-28 |title=Coat of Arms, Michaëlle Jean |url=https://www.michaellejean.ca/coat-of-arms-e |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=Michaëlle Jean |language=fr-CA}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Jengu]]
* [[Kianda]]
* [[Nkisi]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=g14oDwAAQBAJ&dq=simbi&pg=PT144 The Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa]'' by Kenaz Filan, Inner Traditions (2006)
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=UIntnxaXMjQC&dq=simbi&pg=PA41 Voodoo and Afro-Caribbean Paganism]'' by Lilith Dorsey, Kensington Publishing (2005)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/drumhoelifeloreo1960cour/page/90/mode/2up/search/simbi?q=simbi The drum and the hoe: Life and lore of the Haitian people]'' by Harold Courlander, University of California Press (1960)
{{Kongo religion footer|state=autocollapse}}{{Bantu}}{{Afro-American Religions}}{{Hoodoo}}{{Fairies}}

[[Category:African mythology]]
[[Category:African deities]]
[[Category:Ancestors]]
[[Category:Fairies]]
[[Category:Kongo]]
[[Category:Kongo culture]]
[[Category:Kongo religion]]
[[Category:Magic goddesses]]
[[Category:Mermaids]]
[[Category:Mythological creatures]]
[[Category:Nature goddesses]]
[[Category:Sea and river goddesses]]
[[Category:Tutelary goddesses]]
[[Category:Water spirits]]
[[Category:Water goddesses]]
[[Category:Central African legendary creatures]]
[[Category:American legendary creatures]]