Lilith
05-17-2005, 10:05 AM
(submitted by gekkogecko)
By William Maclean
CHAKE CHAKE, Tanzania (Reuters) - Mohammed Juma starts
to sweat and fidget as he recalls his rape by Popo
Bawa, the most feared spirit-monster of the Zanzibar
spice islands.
"We believe reading the Koran is our only defense,
nothing else," says the 41-year-old driver and father
of four. "But Popo Bawa is real, and well prepared."
Vacationers on the Indian Ocean islands tend to smile
dismissively at accounts in guidebooks of the bat-like
ogre said to prey on men, women and children. But for
superstitious Zanzibaris a visit from the sodomizing
gremlin is no joke.
Although no one ever has seen it, belief in the
monster and his unnatural lust is so strong that
entire villages will sleep out of doors for
protection: Popo Bawa (Swahili for Bat's Wing) prefers
to attack behind closed doors at night.
In huts set amid rustling groves of jackfruit and
mangoes on Zanzibar's Pemba island, victims told
Reuters in interviews that they detected a bad smell,
became cold and went into a trance in the moments
before they felt the creature's inhuman strength.
Some attacks were heralded by the sound of giant wings
and claws rattling and scraping on huts' tin roofs.
Others cringed in terror at what sounded like a car
engine ticking over.
"We heard a rustling on the roof," recalls Asha Saleh,
in her late 50s, in Machomanne village near Pemba's
main town of Chake Chake. "I felt someone fondling me.
I felt very cold. I felt weak," she said, recalling
the attack some 35 years ago.
LEGENDS
"I couldn't call out for help to my husband who was
lying asleep beside me. Popo Bawa is strong: He really
presses down on you. And it took such a long time: One
hour! Eventually I lost consciousness. And I was one
of many who were attacked."
Successive waves of colonizers and traders -- Arabs,
Portuguese, Hindus, Chinese, Britons, Persians and
Africans -- left behind a multinational array of
legends on Zanzibar.
Accordingly, many dismiss Popo Bawa as another of the
satanic stories swapped over the centuries by
migratory Indian Ocean peoples as they moved back and
forth on the tides from Indonesia to the Comoros, from
Madagascar to the Maldives.
Zanzibar's distinctive past as an Arab-run slave
market prompted some academics to speculate that the
story of Popo Bawa emerged from a collective race
memory of the horrors of slavery.
But Popo Bawa is unlike the many goblins believed by
the islanders to populate the tall grasses that ring
their huts.
Many on the islands are adept at exorcisms, placing
charms at the base of fig trees or sacrificing goats
to avert evil or draw favor from the spirit world.
So experienced are the isles' traditional healers that
they draw visitors from the Gulf and east Africa, with
the successful amassing riches and prestige.
But no placatory offering or witch doctor can deflect
Popo Bawa when he has made his mind up to strike,
islanders say.
The monster favors Pemba, the poorer and more backward
of the archipelago's twin islands despite being home
to the clove plantations that provide the mainstay of
Zanzibar's economy.
He also becomes active at election time: a habit that
is testing nerves ahead of polls due in October.
His last major visitation was during elections in
1995, when Juma says he endured his terrifying ordeal,
although some reported his presence again in 2000 and
in 2001.
"APOLITICAL"
Pemba's population are staunch opposition supporters.
Many accuse the ruling party of Tanzanian President
Benjamin Mkapa of neglecting the island since 1964,
when Zanzibar merged with mainland Tanganyika to form
the United Republic of Tanzania.
But Juma says Popo Bawa is apolitical even though
electoral emotions seem to summon him from the beyond.
"He can strike even if the opposition wins the
elections," he said.
The driver vows to do his utmost to avoid what
happened to him back in 1995 as he sat alone late one
evening.
"Many were afraid and were sleeping outside. But I was
confident and was alone in my room. I was reading the
Koran for protection. After about 20 minutes I started
feeling sleepy. I heard something falling on the roof.
I continued reciting. I started feeling something in
the room.
"I felt my mouth becoming bigger and bigger. I started
losing my ability to form words. My feeling was that
my lower lip had stretched to my lap. I felt weak in
my body. I became very sweaty. My experience was like
that of a neighbor of mine who said his head seemed to
grow to an enormous size."
Popo Bawa gets annoyed if villagers deny his existence
-- a fact to which Khamis Juma Hamad says he can
testify.
Hamad, a retired village chief now aged 75, said that
in 1971 Popo Bawa spoke to terrified villagers on
Pemba through a girl possessed by the monster.
"I am Popo Bawa," said the girl, called Fatuma,
speaking in the unnaturally deep voice of a man. "You
have challenged my existence so I have come to prove I
am here."
Seconds later, he says, the villagers heard the sound
of a car revving and a rustle on a nearby roof --
signs of Popo Bawa. "The people felt cold, almost
paralyzed. They were terrified."
By William Maclean
CHAKE CHAKE, Tanzania (Reuters) - Mohammed Juma starts
to sweat and fidget as he recalls his rape by Popo
Bawa, the most feared spirit-monster of the Zanzibar
spice islands.
"We believe reading the Koran is our only defense,
nothing else," says the 41-year-old driver and father
of four. "But Popo Bawa is real, and well prepared."
Vacationers on the Indian Ocean islands tend to smile
dismissively at accounts in guidebooks of the bat-like
ogre said to prey on men, women and children. But for
superstitious Zanzibaris a visit from the sodomizing
gremlin is no joke.
Although no one ever has seen it, belief in the
monster and his unnatural lust is so strong that
entire villages will sleep out of doors for
protection: Popo Bawa (Swahili for Bat's Wing) prefers
to attack behind closed doors at night.
In huts set amid rustling groves of jackfruit and
mangoes on Zanzibar's Pemba island, victims told
Reuters in interviews that they detected a bad smell,
became cold and went into a trance in the moments
before they felt the creature's inhuman strength.
Some attacks were heralded by the sound of giant wings
and claws rattling and scraping on huts' tin roofs.
Others cringed in terror at what sounded like a car
engine ticking over.
"We heard a rustling on the roof," recalls Asha Saleh,
in her late 50s, in Machomanne village near Pemba's
main town of Chake Chake. "I felt someone fondling me.
I felt very cold. I felt weak," she said, recalling
the attack some 35 years ago.
LEGENDS
"I couldn't call out for help to my husband who was
lying asleep beside me. Popo Bawa is strong: He really
presses down on you. And it took such a long time: One
hour! Eventually I lost consciousness. And I was one
of many who were attacked."
Successive waves of colonizers and traders -- Arabs,
Portuguese, Hindus, Chinese, Britons, Persians and
Africans -- left behind a multinational array of
legends on Zanzibar.
Accordingly, many dismiss Popo Bawa as another of the
satanic stories swapped over the centuries by
migratory Indian Ocean peoples as they moved back and
forth on the tides from Indonesia to the Comoros, from
Madagascar to the Maldives.
Zanzibar's distinctive past as an Arab-run slave
market prompted some academics to speculate that the
story of Popo Bawa emerged from a collective race
memory of the horrors of slavery.
But Popo Bawa is unlike the many goblins believed by
the islanders to populate the tall grasses that ring
their huts.
Many on the islands are adept at exorcisms, placing
charms at the base of fig trees or sacrificing goats
to avert evil or draw favor from the spirit world.
So experienced are the isles' traditional healers that
they draw visitors from the Gulf and east Africa, with
the successful amassing riches and prestige.
But no placatory offering or witch doctor can deflect
Popo Bawa when he has made his mind up to strike,
islanders say.
The monster favors Pemba, the poorer and more backward
of the archipelago's twin islands despite being home
to the clove plantations that provide the mainstay of
Zanzibar's economy.
He also becomes active at election time: a habit that
is testing nerves ahead of polls due in October.
His last major visitation was during elections in
1995, when Juma says he endured his terrifying ordeal,
although some reported his presence again in 2000 and
in 2001.
"APOLITICAL"
Pemba's population are staunch opposition supporters.
Many accuse the ruling party of Tanzanian President
Benjamin Mkapa of neglecting the island since 1964,
when Zanzibar merged with mainland Tanganyika to form
the United Republic of Tanzania.
But Juma says Popo Bawa is apolitical even though
electoral emotions seem to summon him from the beyond.
"He can strike even if the opposition wins the
elections," he said.
The driver vows to do his utmost to avoid what
happened to him back in 1995 as he sat alone late one
evening.
"Many were afraid and were sleeping outside. But I was
confident and was alone in my room. I was reading the
Koran for protection. After about 20 minutes I started
feeling sleepy. I heard something falling on the roof.
I continued reciting. I started feeling something in
the room.
"I felt my mouth becoming bigger and bigger. I started
losing my ability to form words. My feeling was that
my lower lip had stretched to my lap. I felt weak in
my body. I became very sweaty. My experience was like
that of a neighbor of mine who said his head seemed to
grow to an enormous size."
Popo Bawa gets annoyed if villagers deny his existence
-- a fact to which Khamis Juma Hamad says he can
testify.
Hamad, a retired village chief now aged 75, said that
in 1971 Popo Bawa spoke to terrified villagers on
Pemba through a girl possessed by the monster.
"I am Popo Bawa," said the girl, called Fatuma,
speaking in the unnaturally deep voice of a man. "You
have challenged my existence so I have come to prove I
am here."
Seconds later, he says, the villagers heard the sound
of a car revving and a rustle on a nearby roof --
signs of Popo Bawa. "The people felt cold, almost
paralyzed. They were terrified."