Alexa, Play Geto Boys My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me
“This year Halloween fell on a weekend”…..a Saturday to be exact. A Saturday of a full moon. A Saturday that falls on Daylight Savings Time. The perfect combination for shenanigans and fuckery. What are the fucking odds that the stars would align smack dab in the middle of a global pandemic. So I guess that means Halloween is “cancelled” this year.
Oh, 2020.
Be that as it may, I felt this is a great opportunity to learn about African folklore, myths, and urban legends. Halloween’s monsters and ghouls tend to be wrapped up in whiteness, which make sense to a degree because being Black in America is its own horror story, however it is time that we learn about and tell our stories that are connected to us through melanin. This is how traditions are passed down.
So without further ado, lets try and creep you the fuck out!
(all drawings were done by Ken Wilson-Max)
ADZE: The Firefly Vampire
Adze have a taste only for the blood of the innocent. They are hunters of children, and only children, and they especially like to feed on infants.
Impundulu: The Lightning Bird
The Impundulu creates thunder and rain, with powers to cause people to have sex, can afflict disease and some even believe that it can suck blood or suck the breath out of people with Tuberculosis.
Ninki Nanka: The Dragon
This west African dragon-snake can breathe fire, bring on your doom, or make a handy ladder to the heavens.
Bultungin: The Werehyena
They have been known to call out people’s names at night to taunt them and lure them away from safety, singling them out before eventually devouring them.
Yumboes (Good People): The Fairies
The “Good People” attach themselves to a chosen family and love and care for them.
Tokoloshe: Dwarf-like Water Sprite
These creatures attack you in your sleep and are said to be a part of the reason while many people in the Zulu culture used to sleep with their beds raised off the floor.
Jengu: The Mermaid
Jengu are beautiful mermaid like creatures, with long hair. They are worshipped by the Sawa ethnic groups, and live in rivers and the ocean.
Kholomodumo: The Gluttonous Monster
What Khloe Kardashian turns into when night falls. I jest.I jest. The Kholomodumo is one of the first beasts of creation who consumed many animals and all of humanity except one woman.
Abada: The Unicorn
A creature similar to a horse, but larger. It had a head similar to a deer. It had two horns, one on the forehead and the other on the nose.
