Mamlambo

Mamlambo is a deity in South African and Zulu mythology, the "goddess of rivers",^[1] described as a large snake-like creature.

The myth of the Mamlambo became of interest to cryptozoologists in 1997, when South African newspapers (including Johannesburg's The Star and Cape Town's Cape Argus) reported on sightings of a "giant reptile" monster in the Mzintlava River near Mount Ayliff in South Africa. Villagers in the area claimed that the creature was 20 meters (67 feet) long, had the head of a horse, the lower body of a fish, short legs, and the neck of a snake, and that it shined with a green light at night. During the period between January and April 1997, as many as nine deaths had been attributed to the Mamlambo.^[2] According to police, the victims had been in the water a while and had the soft parts of their heads and neck eaten by crabs; local villagers, on the other hand, claimed that these mutilations had been caused by the Mamlambo's habit of eating faces and brains. For this reason, the Mamlambo is often referred to as "the Brain Sucker".^[2]

Film & TV

• An expedition in search of the mamlambo was done on the SyFy Show Destination Truth; the mission found no evidence of the creature's existence.

See also

• Hippocampus (mythology)
• List of hybrid creatures in mythology

Footnotes

1. ↑ Dictionary of Gods & Goddesses, 2nd Edition by Michael Jordan, Facts on File, Inc., 2004
2. 1 2 Articles on the 1997 Mamlambo "sightings" (from The Star and Cape Argus)