http://dorsetghostinvestigators.tv/the-paranormal/popobawa/ PLEASE SUBSCRIBE & JOIN THE D.G.I FAMILY. Please follow us on twitter at https://twitter.com/DorsetghostDGI & like our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Dorset-Ghost-Investigators/259833150723729 Popobawa, also Popo Bawa, is the name of an evil spirit, or shetani, which is believed by residents to have first appeared on the Tanzanian island of Pemba. In 1995, it was the focus of a major outbreak of mass hysteria or panic which spread from Pemba to Unguja, the main island of the Zanzibar archipelago, and across to Dar es Salaam and other urban centres on the East African coast. Meaning of the name: Popobawa is a Swahili name which translates literally as "bat-wing" (from Swahili popo, "bat", and bawa, "wing"). This name is said to have originated as a description of the dark shadow cast by the spirit when it attacks at night: it does not refer to the actual form of the spirit, which is liable to change. Swahili speakers also use a plural form of the name -- mapopobawa -- to refer to multiple manifestations of the feared spirit. This plural is anglicized as "Popobawas". Description and behaviour: Popobawa is a shapeshifter and described as taking different forms, not just that of a bat as its name implies. It can take either human or animal form, and metamorphose from one into the other. Popobawa typically visits homesteads at night, but can also be seen in the daytime. It is sometimes associated with the presence of a sulfurous odor, but this is not always the case. Popobawa attacks men, women and children, and may attack all of the members of a household, before passing on to another house in the neighbourhood. Its nocturnal attacks can comprise simple physical assault and/or poltergeist-like phenomena; but most feared is sexual assault and the sodomising of adult men and women. Victims are often urged to tell others that they have been assaulted, and are threatened with repeat visits by Popobawa if they do not. During Popobawa panics many people try to guard against attack by spending the night awake outside of their houses, often huddled around an open fire with other family members and neighbours. Panics occur most often in Zanzibar, throughout the island of Pemba and in the north and west of Unguja (Zanzibar) island, including Zanzibar town. Episodes have also been reported in Dar es Salaam and other towns on the mainland coast of Tanzania. Origin and history: As legendary creatures go, Popobawa is of fairly recent origin. Sightings of the popobawa only go back about forty years; Parkin states that the first reports date back to 1965 on the island of Pemba, appearing shortly after that island's political revolution. Better-known sightings followed in 1970, and the creature resurfaced periodically in the 1980s, reaching a peak in 1995. Five years passed without a sighting, but the popobawa appeared briefly in 2000 and again in 2007. Music credit to: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)". Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Licence for Images in video: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

• published: 14 Sep 2013
• views: 11105