Jawnomicon

Sasabonsam

Also called Shamantin, Susabonsam, Asanbosam.

Sasabonsam is the forest man-eater of Akan tradition, a tall thin figure with bloodshot eyes who sits in the high branches with its legs hanging down and hooks travellers passing beneath with its feet.

At a glance

Tradition
African folklore (general)
Region
Ghana (place of origin)

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Backward facing feet confuse trackers
    why

    The descriptions are consistent and specific: very tall and thin, with bloodshot eyes, long hair, and feet that point both ways so that its tracks give no indication which direction it went.

  • Hook-shaped feet hangs from trees
    why

    sits in the high branches with its legs hanging down and hooks travellers passing beneath with its feet

Behaviour

  • Sudden ambush from above
    why

    It sits in the branches of certain large trees with its legs dangling, and takes anyone who passes underneath by hooking them upward. The being is bound up with ideas about the forest's danger and with the practice of hunting: certain trees are associated with it, and hunters are the people most exposed to it.

Offensive powers

  • Aerial ambush
    why

    It sits in the branches of certain large trees with its legs dangling, and takes anyone who passes underneath by hooking them upward. The being is bound up with ideas about the forest's danger and with the practice of hunting: certain trees are associated with it, and hunters are the people most exposed to it.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.