Bangwe
Shambaa · mortal · Shambaa traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Bangwe is the lethal woman of Shambaa myth whose story is bound to that of the ancestor Sheuta. She killed every man who lay with her, and men from across Shambaai died one after another until the land was being stripped of its males. Her reign of death was ended by Sheuta, who came armed with the elephant's charm and turned her own destructive power back upon her during their union. As the embodiment of a mortal disorder threatening the continuity of the people, Bangwe is the antagonist whose defeat legitimises the hunter-hero's elevation to chiefship.
Domains
- death
Powers
- kills men through sexual union
Relations
- enemy: SheutaBangwe is killed by Sheuta, who turns her own lethal power against her.Harold Scheub, A Dictionary of African Mythology (Oxford University Press, 2000), s.v. 'Sheuta and the Man-killing Woman.' (secondary)
Sources
- Bangwe is the man-killing woman of the Sheuta myth, whose fatal embraces destroyed the men of Shambaai until the hunter-hero Sheuta killed her.: Harold Scheub, A Dictionary of African Mythology: The Mythmaker as Storyteller (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), s.v. 'Sheuta and the Man-killing Woman.' (secondary)