Case file · High strangeness
Popobawa
A shape-changing evil spirit (shetani) of Zanzibar whose name means 'bat-wing', blamed for night attacks in a 1995 panic that spread from Pemba to the Tanzanian coast.
1995 CE · -5.17, 39.80 · status: account
The account
The panic reached Unguja, Dar es Salaam and other coastal towns. It flared again briefly in 2000 and 2007.
The sceptical view
The 1995 outbreak is described as mass hysteria or panic; no attacker was ever identified.