Legendary Monsters Of Africa

By on November 8, 2012 in News 5

Mental Floss has a nice rundown of supernatural monstrosities of traditional African folklore, including ghost apes, flying reptiles, and, at right, the one-eyed Popobawa bat and airborne vampiric pest the Adze:

The Popobawa is a fairly recent manifestation reported in Zanzibar and Tanzania. The creature is a demon who appears as a normal human by day, and a one-eyed, bat-winged monster at night. The Popobawa attacks and sodomizes both men and women in the dark of night. Reports of attacks come every few years, with a large number in 1995 attributed to mass hysteria.

The Adze is a vampire in the legends of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo. It takes the form of a firefly, but if you capture one, it will revert to human appearance. In the insect form, the adze will suck your blood while you sleep and spread disease, which is a possible explanation for malarial outbreaks. Its preferred victims are young children. The victim of an adze becomes a witch who is possessed by the adze’s spirit.

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  • Rex Vestri

    Is Obama on that list?

  • kowalityjesus

    Has anyone ever heard of the Victorian-era “jumping man” or the 18th century creature La Bete of Gevaudan? It is sad that we can’t really verify anything from sub-Saharan Africa, because of lack of documentation. That is the spookiest thing about these stories, the veracity.

  • Roark

    Spike TV has secured $10,000,000 from Lloyds of London for conclusive evidence of Bigfoot.

    • Matt Staggs

      When are you going to claim the money? ;)

      • Roark

        I wish. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this. Spike is airing it as a reality show. With that kind of money….I have mixed thoughts on Bigfoot, on the one hand you have very credible people saying that they have seen him, on the other hand there is a lack of tangible evidence. We’ll see, my guess is that something substantial will come of this….