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.