Morning Myth - They Live Amongst Us

The word myth has never sat right with me. It still doesn't. A myth is generally characterized as a false belief associated with religion (it is used more broadly and more narrowly as well depending upon the person discussing myths). Many across the globe might find that their system of belief being characterized as myth offensive. Those who know me, know that I have a very tenuous and fluctuated grasp of what is real and what is not. So, when I refer to a myth, I generally refer to anything anyone believes to be true. I choose to offend everyone instead small or large select groups of people. 

To wit, when looking up child sacrifice I was digressed to Zanzibar, the slave trade, and the jinn. I shortly landed up the popobawa because of this article. The myth (or legend really) of the popobawa only goes back a few decades. The 1960s is first time it seemed to have appeared.

Of those descriptions I read of the popbawa it variously appears as a bat, a large man sized bat, a large man sized bat with one eye, can shapeshift into a male or female or other animals. It attacks those who deny its existence and, well, I guess everyone else who it happens to happen upon. Mostly it is associated with causing mischief and poltergeist type phenomena. It can kill though but its most feared attack is rape, especially sodomy. 

So the interesting thing about the popobawa is its 'appearance' in or around 1965. At this time, the people of of Zanzibar rose up against their rulers and gained a new government. The previous government had been in power for roughly 200 years and was controlled by the princes of Oman and the British Empire. (Zanzibar was a center of slave trade for a millennia, controlled by the various entities from the Middle East that later came under control of the British - its complicated.). In any respect, the popobawa appears after the revolution. Its real origins are probably much deeper in history, we just don't know them yet (or that i can find). Of the recent origin stories I find interesting is one that claims the popobawa is a manifestation of an executed leader enacting revenge and another claiming it a jinn that the summoner lost control of. 

Myths, legends, stories, dreams, and 'fanciful' tales probably tell us more essential truths about the world we live than any other medium. Interpreting that truth is notoriously difficult and has generally been left up to mystics and religious figures. The new mystics are psychologists, anthropologists, scientists, and similar. I suppose we needed new mystics for a new age.