Popobawa

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Popobawa ( Swahili , plural Mapopobawa ) is a ghost on the Tanzanian island of Pemba , who is described as a human-sized, one-eyed , bat- like being that is said to occasionally unsettle or harm people. The Popobawa phenomenon, which has existed since the 1960s, also became known outside the country through media reports. In Swahili society on the East African coast, ideas of malevolent spirits can be seen against the background of the widespread pepo obsession cults.

etymology

The word Popobawa is etymologically composed of the two components popo ( Swahili : bat ) and bawa (Swahili: wing ). Locally, the creature is also referred to as Zain Haider , where Haydar means lion in Arabic , with which the danger is taken into account. Zain Haider justifies its name as a “description of a shadowy shadow of a ghost”, which starts to attack at night.

background

With the colonial rulers and their ideas of a civil society, especially the coastal strip of East Africa was strongly Christianized by the early 18th century at the latest . Today, the three most important religions are almost equally distributed throughout Tanzania, each with a third: Christianity, Islam and traditional African religions . The ideas of other powers besides a god are still widespread, especially among the rural population, and are also very vividly reflected, for example, in the creation of art objects.

Events

It is therefore not surprising when an inexplicable phenomenon, as it was documented for the first time on Pemba in 1970, evokes this old belief. Eight years later, the creature reappeared, and in 1995 it caused mass hysteria that spread to the neighboring island of Zanzibar , Dar es Salaam and other coastal cities.

In October 1995 the local "The Guardian" (Dar es Salaam) reported on these events. According to the testimony, one man is said to have been killed and another seriously injured. Since only men had been harmed in their sleep so far, they fled their houses and huts and gathered around large fires, where they felt safer in the community. Even the Tagesschau reported on it in its February 28, 2007 issue.

rating

To what extent these reports and the news are true is not understandable for bystanders. A large part of the population of “civilized cultures” will doubt such descriptions. But you should not fail to recognize the enormous importance of such incidents for cultures that have developed differently and are closely linked to traditional religions. Given this importance, figures like Popobawa have a high standing in a society like Tanzania. In addition, the figure Popobawa has entered countless works of fine art and literature .

literature

  • Katrina Daly Thompson: Popobawa: Tanzanian Talk, Global Misreadings. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2017

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Collection of "Batman" stories ( Memento from February 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) in the Internet Archive

Web links

Popobawa as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse