The legendary bush baby !

The inspiration of today's article was drawn from a previous article written by @Princessbusayo when she wrote about some superstitious beliefs in her culture .

Superstitious beliefs are an integral part of the African culture which have endured for many years since the time if our ancestors to the present day. Due to westernisation and technological advancement, some of the these beliefs are rapidly being eroded from the psyche of the young Africans . Nevertheless alot of African societies still uphold their spirituality, especially the older generation of Africans.

Even though each African society have its own unique culture and tradition, there are a few belief system that are generally accepted by most ethnic groups.

The "bushbaby" is a mythical creature that is widely believed by virtually all the ethnic groups in the Southern parts of the country. I'm very sure that many young Nigerians in this platform have been told some really horrifying tales of the bushbaby in their younger days especially those born in the 1990s.

Growing up, I heard alot of unnerving tales about the bushbaby that were believed to be true. But surprisingly, our elders who told us about them never saw a bushbaby. They had also been told about this spiritual being by the generation before them.

We were told that the bushbaby was an animal with very large eyes which was only active at night. It could be found in villages that had thick Forest around. Once in a while,this creature would start crying at late hours of the night.

Perhaps, the most unique feature about this animal is that the sounds of it's cry is exactly thesame as that of a human infant and one might mistake it for the child of the next-door neighbor. But if one is foolhardy enough to go out towards the forest in search of the source of the cry, he or she might see the bushbaby and that would be the end of that person.

We were told that the bushbaby was a man-eater that had also eaten an armed soldier who attempted to shoot it when he was returning from patrol late at night. These stories gave me alot of sleepless night. Often times, I would imagine a few months old baby with blood dripping from his lips as he eats the flesh of a fully grown man laying in the pool of his blood, while giggling at regular intervals.

Sometimes, I'd scream after a terrible nightmare and would urinate on the bed rather than going to the restroom since the busbaby might probably be waiting for me there. Especially those nights when there's a power failure. Lol. I was around eleven at the time.

I remember a senior cousin who had just graduated from a boarding school, told me that there was a bushbaby living in the bushes around the school. And as soon as it was twelve midnight, it would begin to cry like the way infants do, but in a much higher pitch. And any student who was unfortunate to be outside at this time would immediately go blind as soon as he makes an eye contact.

Grandmother told me more about this creature. According to her, the bushbaby was a very short creature that looks exactly like a monkey . It's distinguishing feature was that it walks the way humans do, but only walks at night. And wherever it goes, it carries along with it a badly stained and stinky mat on it's shoulders. Grandma said that any man who was able to disposses the bushbaby of the man and escapes with it would become so weathly overnight. She told me the story of the richest man in our village and in the surrounding villages who met a bushbaby a long time ago on his way back from the farm when he was still a boy.

The Bushbaby became sympathetic towards this little boy when he told him he was a orphan and pleaded with him to spare his life. The Bushbaby then handed him his mat as a parting gift.

Grandma also told me the story of a very popular mad man in the village whose mental disturbance began the night a bushbabyaby slapped him with his long mammary glands. Lol. The oldest man in the village at that time was over a hundred years and Grandma said that the secret of his longevity is that he had magically acquired some of the furs of a bushbaby which was still in his possession.

As a matter of fact, I have been told numerous fables about the mysterious bushbaby that it would be impossible to write them all in this article. All these myths were bursted a few years ago when I was in my penultimate class in senior high school.

We were all ready for a new biology topic called "conservation of wildlife". Our biology teacher launched into a long but interesting discussion. He mentioned some animals termed as the "endangered species" and the " extinct species". When he mentioned the popular "Bushbaby" as an endangered animal, almost all the students in class agreed, since we all believed it was dangerous.

The whole class was shocked when the biology teacher told us that the Bushbaby was an harmless animal. We all shook our heads in disapproval and the class became very noisy as every student wanted to tell the teacher about the scary stories they were told about the Bushbaby.

Mr. Dayo laughed at our ignorance and told us that these stories about Bushbaby were mere superstition and non of them was true. We still weren't convinced as we were very sure that our elders would never lie to us. He was definitely the one lying here.

Mr. Dayo said that understood how we felt and he couldn't possibly blame us. He said that healso believed these stories until science opened his eyes. He went further to show us real images of the galagos that was popularly known as the Bushbaby.

We noticed the very large eyes too. Mr. Dayo also told us that it was a primate just like the monkey. We were also surprised when Mr Dayo told us that the galagos (Bushbaby) needed our help to survive and reproduce successfully, else they would die off.

"How help, how?" The whole class asked almost in unison. Mr. Dayo still maintained his smile and patiently explained to us what an "endangered animal" is. I later realized that it doesn't mean thesame thing as a dangerous animal. Lol. Our teachers also showed us internet pictures of the Bushbaby been handled by humans.

This has got to be the most interesting biology lesson I have ever had in high school. I was now quite convinced that I have been brainwashed for a long time.

Image Source

On my way home, I kept thinking, maybe the dead soldier had been bitten by a venomous snake or ripped by a tiger. Maybe my cousin heard the cries of a wildcat or a owl. It could be possibly be a harmless Bushbaby.

As for grandma's stories, well I think I would just accept them as stories.

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Thank you for staying with me 💖💖