Bear Spirit (Shona)

spirit · Zimbabwe · Southern Africa

Not independently attested in folklore literature. No bear species is native to southern Africa, and Shona clan totems (mitupo) and ancestral spirits (vadzimu) draw only on native animals. The entry itself concedes this and then invents a bear role in Shona cosmology; the genuine analogues are the vadzimu ancestors and mitupo animal totems of Shona religion.

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