The Kongo people, state the colonial era accounts, included a reverence for their ancestors and spirits. Only Nzambi a Mpungu, the name for the high god, is usually held to have existed outside the world and to have created it. Other categories of the dead include bakulu or ancestors (the souls of the recently departed). In addition, the traditional Kongo belief considered fierce looking "Nkisi" as guardians of particular places, such as mountains, river courses, springs and districts, called "simbi" (pl. "bisimbi").