Case file · Cryptid
Hunting the Ninki Nanka in The Gambia
In July 2006 the British Centre for Fortean Zoology sent an expedition to The Gambia to collect eyewitness accounts of the Ninki Nanka, the dragon of Mandinka lore, and to look into the Gambo carcass.
2006 CE · 13.37, -15.93 · status: claim
The account
The team interviewed villagers who described a long, crested, horse-headed swamp creature whose sight brings illness or death. They found no physical evidence. The plotted area along the south bank of the Gambia river is approximate.
The sceptical view
Stories of the Ninki Nanka are part of a living tradition, used partly to keep children away from dangerous mangroves; witness descriptions mix the Nile crocodile, the monitor lizard and the spirit world.