Sheuta

Sheuta is one of the primeval ancestors of the Shambaa and the hero of a foundational charter myth that parallels the later story of Mbegha. Living apart in the wilderness, he was befriended by a lion that shared its meat, and while hunting he encountered an elephant which stretched and then charmed his body so that he could make it long or short at his will. In that age a woman named Bangwe was killing every man who lay with her, and the country was being emptied of its men; Sheuta went to her and, using the charm during their union, killed her instead. The grateful people made him their chief. The tale establishes the recurring Shambaa pattern in which an outsider-hunter who has mastered the wild rids the land of a lethal disorder and is spontaneously raised to rule, and the name of Sheuta was carried by the lineage tradition of later Usambara rulers.

Domains

• the hunt
• sovereignty

Powers

• lengthens and shortens his body at will by charm
• wins the friendship of wild animals

Epithets

• Sheuta — the primeval ancestorHarold Scheub, A Dictionary of African Mythology (Oxford University Press, 2000), s.v. 'Sheuta.' (secondary)

Relations

• enemy: BangweSheuta kills Bangwe and so ends her slaughter of men.Harold Scheub, A Dictionary of African Mythology (Oxford University Press, 2000), s.v. 'Sheuta and the Man-killing Woman.' (secondary)

Sources

• Sheuta is a primeval ancestor of Shambaai: a lone hunter fed by a friendly lion, endowed by an elephant with a charm that lengthens his body at will, who destroys the man-killing woman Bangwe and is made chief in gratitude.: 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); Steven Feierman, The Shambaa Kingdom: A History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1974). (secondary)