The Popobawa is an evil spirit supposedly thriving on the island of Pemba, near Africa's Tanzania. Over the years it has triggered widespread hysteria. The Popobawa is said to be a one-eyed, bat-like insect. It is medium in size and has skin which is leathery. The word Popobawa means "bat leg" in Swahili
Popobawa is a shapeshifter and described as taking various forms, not just the one of a bat as its name implies. It can take human or animal shape, and can transform from one to the other. Popobawa usually visits homes in the night, but is often apparent in the daytime. It is sometimes linked to the presence of a sulfurous smell, but this is not always the case.
Popobawa targets men, women , and children, and can attack all household members before moving on to another neighborhood building. His nocturnal attacks may include simple physical assault and/or poltergeist-like phenomena; but most feared are adult men and women's sexual assault and sodomizing. Victims are often told to tell someone they have been raped, and if they do not, the Popobawa is threatened with repeated visits.
During Popobawa panics several people try to protect against attack by spending the night awake outside their houses, mostly huddled with other family members and neighbors around an open fire. Panics most often occur in Zanzibar, throughout the island of Pemba and on the island of Unguja (Zanzibar) in the north and west, including Zanzibar. There were also accounts of episodes in Dar es Salaam and other towns on Tanzania's mainland coast.
Content created and supplied by: Vee-tecnology (via Opera News )
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