extracted from "Péril blanc", ("White Peril"), by René Bureau.
Harmattan edition, 1978.

What was it that made me run away over there, leaving behind the easy life of a Paris university? I was always searching for a mirror, a mirror in which I, a white man, could see my true reflection. And this time we were reflected. You, me, all of us, saw our true image.

The Fang Bwiti, knowledgable about anatomy and physiology, saw the fixed expressions on our faces, and quietly made their diagnosis.
Their examination relied not on ideology, nor politics, nor psychology, nor metaphysics. But on mythology.

In the beginning, Mebeghe, who had neither father nor spouse, laid in the first "tohu-bohu" a ball, an egg or a foetus. A being hatched, Nzame. Finding himself alone, he began to cry. Mebeghe ordered him to cut up his own body: and the blood that flowed became the base matter from which all the beings of the earth grew. Nzame then recovered his wholeness. Next from the egg came Ninepone, the little sister of Nzame, but, "at that time, the orifices of her body were not opened". Lastly the youngest, None, came to life. The placenta and the umbilical cord remained. They took the form of two beings in one: Evus, and the opposing twin, Ekurana. So, the three first creatures on earth found themselves flanked by a fourth, an extra, a half-being complete with siamese twin. Trouble brewed.

Mebeghe took precautions to prevent excess conflict. Each of the four was given their own job and place of residence. Nzame becomes the boss, and is given the job of producing Nature and Man, in his own image. In the same village, Ninepone and None stay, each having their own sector. Evus occupies a fourth sector: in the brush. Mebeghe forbids them from crossing the boundaries and entering each other's sector.
Nzame begins his job of creating Nature and Man. Ninepone, made jealous by the activities of her older brother, decides, when he's away, to enter the brush where Evus resides. Finding herself at the edge of a marsh, she asks: Who has killed the antelopes and the wart-hogs ? ‹ Me, comes the reply. ‹ Who are you ?, she asks. ‹ I am Evus. ‹ Why don't you come into the village ? ‹ Because I am difficult to feed and hate the light. Why do you want me to come ? ‹ My brother Nzame has tricked me. He's already begun his work: he's made a man in his image and not mine.
Ninegone spread her legs and Evus entered her. The next day, Evus said: I am hungry, let me eat that goat passing in front of the hut. The goat died and Evus ate it. Soon there were no more goats. Evus said: I am hungry, give me your daughter (inconsistency unimportant). The girl died and Evus ate her.
Nzame returned from his trip away. He said: I no longer recognise this village. Have you brought Evus here? He should have stayed in the brush where he could hunt for food. Thus, Nzame retired to his hut, leaving the World forever in the hands of Woman and of Evus.
Ninegone then approached her brother None, and had him give her a child. The child was Nsem, product of the first incest.
All Man descended from this union - mortal, though Nzame should have made them immortal like himself.
Evus then started a relationship with None (a term which also means the anvil of a forge) to teach him of the foundry and the forge. He gave him the primordial breath, of which, the soft part made of leather, is a book which the white people can interpret. He showed him how to forge a ring of metal, hardened then cooled in the water of the female cauldron, and thanks to this we can now make tools and other useful objects.
Mebeghe, following these events and seeing the breaking of his first law, caused Ekurana to attack Evus and to imprison him in the centre of the earth.
Ninegone, betrayer of God's will, was also removed from power, and was sentenced to carry the Earth upon her head.

The Chalice and the Old Sack

"That which happens to man, first happened to the Gods".

In some ways the lives of the first human couple can be seen as the result of their makers' wrongdoing.Mukengué and Mangongo (Adam et Eve), also allowed themselves to be seduced by Evus. They also committed incest. Their oldest son, Abona-Litougo (Cain), "the-man-between-life-and-death", shared his wife, Massana (Theresa), with his brother. Then he became jealous and killed him. Before fleeing to hide in the forest, his mother, Mangongo (Eve), gave him a grain of eboga, so that he could once again see the brother he'd killed, and also his parents when their time came. (Vision and knowledge are aquired as a result of the loss of a loved one: this is the law of Evus).
Adam was already dead. "He is the first one dead". It was on his tomb that the first eboga grew. But Adam (Mukengué) became transformed. The avatar of Adam is Nzambia-Pongo (a word containing the root Nzame), that's to say Jesus, son of Egnèpe, Mary, herself the avatar of Eve.
"Jesus died twice, once as Adam, once as Jesus". He is both a sinner and the one who "showed the way to God".
Nzambia-Pongo, before coming down to earth, in the bosom of Mary, was with God, accompanied by his brother Nzambia-Vanga (or Ekurana, or Saint Michael). Both were offered a choice: to take an old sack filled with eboga, or to take a chalice and a Bible. Jesus chose first: he took the chalice and the Bible.
"he descended to earth and was taken in by the Whites; then, when he said he wanted to go and live with the Blacks, the Whites became jealous and killed him. Michael said : Jesus taught the Whites, me, I'll take the sack of Eboga and I will teach Bwiti to the Blacks; he sowed one seed on the tomb of Adam, (or of Jesus)". This is how Caïn, the ancestor of the Blacks, came to inherit it, via his mother.

This is a condensed version, drawn from numerous and diverse Bwiti sources. These are the basic elements that make up Fang Bwiti religious belief. I've left out the myth of Benzogo, the Mitsogo woman who first used eboga to speak to her dead husband, and paid for doing so with her life, but elements of mitsogo belief are not often found in legend.