From:
http://ireland.iol.ie/~bfogarty/strange.htm
Dwarf Batman terrorises Zanzibar
LAST YEAR, there was widespread fear in Zanzibar concerning the return
of the
popobawa, a dwarf with a Cyclops eye, small pointed ears, bat wings and
talons,
notorious for swooping into houses and raping men. The name is derived
from the
Swahili word for bat and wing.
One victim was Mjaka Hamad, a quietly-spoken peasant farmer aged 55 from
the
village of Sogea. At first he though it was a dream, but the stifling
force pushing
him into his matress dragged him from his sleep. "I couldn't imagine
what was
happening to me", he said. "You feel as if you are screaming with no
voice. It
was just like a dream, but then I was thinking it was this popobawa and
he had
come to do something terrible to me, something sexual. It is worse than
what he
does to women. I was fighting it."
The popobawa first appeared on Pemba, the smaller of Zanzibars two main
islands, around the time that the country's president was assassinated
in 1972. Fear
overcame shame as the popobawa instructed its victims that if they told
others it
would be back.
The island was in uproar as men went about announcing they had been
sodomised.
After a few weeks the popobawa departed. There was another period of
attacks in
the 1980s, but nothing more until April 1995, when the winged beast
swooped on
Zanzibar's largest island. Hamed was one of its earliest victims. He
knew it was
not a dream because when he woke his whole house was in uproar. "I
couldn't see
it. I could only feel it. But some people in my house could see it.
Those who've
got the spirits in their heads could see it. Everybody was terrified.
They were
outside screaming 'Huyo!'. It means the popobawa is there. I had this
bad pain in
my ribs where it crushed me. Mabey it will attack anybody who doesn't
belive", he
warned.
There is no known protection against attack by the popobawa, except
seeking
saftey in numbers. Whole families took to sleeping arm-in-arm in front
of their
houses. Some said the popobawa took human form during the day. Fingers
were
pointed. A mentall ill man was hacked to death after inexplicably
confessing he was
the popobawa. The country's main hospital treated men with bruised,
broken rips
and other injuries which the victims blamed on thecreature. One month
later, the
popobawa disappeared.
Even sceptics admit that for true belivers the attacks are real. Some
attribute the
return of the beast to times of political tension. The islands faced
the uncertainty
of elections and calls for self-government. The chief minister blamed
the oposition
for bringing the popobawa, while his opponents responded by wondering if
he
himself might not be the creature.
REPORT by Chris McGreal in the Gaurdian, 2 OCT 1995.
--
---------------------------------------------------
Dan Clore
The Website of Lord Weÿrdgliffe:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/index.html
Welcome to the Waughters....
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