Tembandumba
Encyclopedia
Tembandumba was a ruler of the Jaga
s of what is now Angola
. Her mother was Mussasa
, whom she rebelled against and declared herself queen. She would take lovers, but would kill them after a brief dalliance. After taking power, she organized the Jaga for war by demanding that infants be killed by their mothers and their bodies pounded into ointment, which was mixed with herbs. In order to enforce this decree, she assembled the tribe and pounded her own infant son to death on a mortar and prepared the ointment. She then rubbed it on her body, declaring that it would make her invunerable. The women of the tribe immediately imitated her actions with their own children. She eventually encountered resistance to this practice in the tribe, and had to resort to using only male infants captured in war for the ointment. She was eventually poisoned by one of her lovers. She was described as being repulsive and having only one eye, having lost the other in battle.
Jaga
Jaga may refer to several different things:* Jaga in present-day Africa, also known as Kasanje, whose people were the Imbangala and often confused with the Yaka further north....
s of what is now Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
. Her mother was Mussasa
Mussasa
Mussasa was a 17th century Jaga queen. Her nation was on the Cunene river in what is now Angola. She expanded her empire greatly through her military, and led soldiers into battle. She was succeeded by her daughter, Tembandumba.-References:...
, whom she rebelled against and declared herself queen. She would take lovers, but would kill them after a brief dalliance. After taking power, she organized the Jaga for war by demanding that infants be killed by their mothers and their bodies pounded into ointment, which was mixed with herbs. In order to enforce this decree, she assembled the tribe and pounded her own infant son to death on a mortar and prepared the ointment. She then rubbed it on her body, declaring that it would make her invunerable. The women of the tribe immediately imitated her actions with their own children. She eventually encountered resistance to this practice in the tribe, and had to resort to using only male infants captured in war for the ointment. She was eventually poisoned by one of her lovers. She was described as being repulsive and having only one eye, having lost the other in battle.