POPOBAWA - Zanzibar’s Shapeshifting Demon

Bi Mwanaidi has washed the dead for thirty-one years and has never been afraid of a body. Then she finds the same tiny puncture beneath the eyelid on three bodies that seem to have nothing in common. And then a living man comes to her gate and asks her to prepare his body before sunset.

This week on Freaky Folklore, we travel to Pemba and Zanzibar to dig into the legend of the Popobawa (also spelled Popo Bawa), the shapeshifting spirit said to come for you while you sleep. Its smell is burnt matches. Its terrible rule is that you must tell everyone what happened, or it comes back. We cover the legend's origins in 1965, the 1995 panic that sent whole villages out of their beds to stay awake by the fire, the story of the sheikh who lost control of a jinn, and what skeptics and scholars say is really going on.

Freaky Folklore is part of the Eeriecast Network. Find more terrifying tales at eeriecast.com.

If you love the dark side of the human mind, check out Deadly Intent, where we dig into the monsters that are entirely human. If you'd rather have your monsters made up, come find Carman's Crypt, where I make new ones up to keep you awake.

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