In Bantu ontology illness and misfortune are losses of vital force

Evidence

The Supreme Being is the creator and source of it all. This Supreme Being is a deus otiosus, meaning a resting, inactive God, who is truly the source of all vital forces, but will not directly intervene in everyday life. The concept of vital force is open to spiritual and material aspects, because, apart from a material life, Bantus desire a spirit of community, a dialogue of relationships based on vital force. In this religious universe, the vital force is a communal movement. When one element gains in vital energy, another element will be less. An increase or decrease of vital force is determined by (respective) good or bad actions within the relationship with another or with something. The essence of the human being is force. When a person gets sick, she, he or they will lose vital force, which is taken by someone else. In this way, sickness, dying and unhappiness are explained ontologically, which also has consequences for guilt and sins. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 813

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces deus otiosus and explains the zero-sum communal economy of vital force and its ontological explanation of sickness.
• QUESTION: The moral economy of vital force - gain for one meaning loss for another - has profound implications worth interrogating further.