of mameto, after crossing the Atlantic, we must go a little deeper into Central African history.  
In Mbundu oral traditions, the malunga (plural of lunga) are insignias of belonging and power, 'a sacred relic that comes in many physical forms but generally takes the form of a human figurine carved in wood'. The Mbundu explain that the first malunga were brought from Kalunga, from the 'great water', by their ancestors. Joseph Miller (1995, pp. 58-59) further suggests that the identification of Kalunga with the Atlantic Ocean appears to have come later, after the Portuguese established themselves on the coast. It is possible that the meaning of Kalunga as a land of the ancestors was shared by various Mbundu groups, which explains the name of Kalunga as a title for a great lord or distinction for a chief or Soba among the Ndembu (Vansina, 2004, pp. 190-91) Mameto Kalunga nevertheless carries many meanings: recognition of authority, a privileged relationship - constituted by spiritual kinship - with the land of the ancestors. It is possible that, as the Atlantic slave trade imposed itself as an increasingly dreaded and sometimes relentless reality, the protection of a great water spirit became essential when crossing the Kalunga (MacGaffey, 1994).