Shilele

The Shilele, better known as the Lele or Bashilele, are a Bantu people of the interior Congo basin, occupying the forest and savanna between the Kasai and Loange rivers around Ilebo in Kasai province.

By language and tradition they are close to the Kuba and Wongo, all three claiming descent from a common ancestor named Woto, but the Lele never joined the Kuba kingdom built from about 1625 onward and kept to autonomous villages led by elders.

Their society drew attention for its polyandrous marriages and for raffia cloth woven by men and used as trade goods and internal currency. Hunting carried high prestige, and Lele villages maintained ritual cults centered on the pangolin.