The mambele is a bladed weapon used by African cultures south of Lake Chad

Lake Chad

Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...

. It consists of an iron blade with a curved back section and rearward spike. It can be used in close combat, or more typically thrown.

The weapon is also called "danisco" by the Marghi, "goleyo" by the Musgu, and "njiga" by the Bagirmi. These African iron weapons are thrown with a rotatory motion, and inflict deep wounds with their projecting blades. They vary constantly in form and their use extends across Africa from the Upper Nile on the east through Central Africa by Lake Chad to the Africans of the Gabon

Gabon

Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

 in West Africa. In parts of Central Africa, these weapons assume the form of a bird's head.

Pop culture references

• The character Buffy Summers
  Buffy Summers
  Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
  
   uses the weapon in the episode "Anne" in the third season of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a moment from the episode was featured in the opening credits for several seasons thereafter.

• The weapon was featured in the second season of Deadliest Warrior
  Deadliest Warrior
  Deadliest Warrior is a television program in which information on historical or modern warriors and their weapons are used to determine which of them is the "deadliest" based upon tests performed during each episode...
  
  as one of the weapons of the Zande
  Zande
  Zande may refer to:* A variant spelling of Azande, a people of north central Africa* Zande language, the language of the Azande people* Zande, Belgium* Xande, Zande in the NES fan translation, a major antagonist of Final Fantasy III...
  
   Warrior, where it was called a "kpinga."

• A variant of a Hunga Munga was used in the movie "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
  Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
  Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a third-person action-adventure computer and video game published by Ubisoft. It was released on November 21, 2003 and is a reboot of the landmark video game series Prince of Persia, created by Jordan Mechner in 1989.The Sands of Time, developed internally at...
  
  ", by a character called Seso.

External links

• Guido T. Poppe, Collection of mambeles, belgium