Sasabonsam est une créature vampirique du folklore akan, au Ghana et en Côte d'Ivoire. Perché dans les grands arbres de la forêt profonde, doté de dents de fer et de jambes démesurées qu'il laisse pendre des branches, il happe les chasseurs imprudents qui s'aventurent sous son repaire.

À quoi ressemble Sasabonsam ?

Les récits akan décrivent Sasabonsam comme un être velu aux grands yeux injectés de sang, armé de dents de fer, avec de longues jambes terminées par des pieds crochus tournés dans les deux sens. Certaines versions lui prêtent des ailes de chauve-souris. Il se tient sur les hautes branches des arbres de la forêt dense, d'où il laisse pendre ses jambes comme un piège vivant.

Quelle différence entre Sasabonsam et Asanbosam ?

Sasabonsam et Asanbosam désignent la même famille de créatures vampiriques du folklore akan, avec des variantes selon les régions et les conteurs. Les deux noms décrivent l'ogre des arbres aux dents de fer qui capture les voyageurs. Les folkloristes les distinguent parfois en attribuant les ailes au sasabonsam et les crochets aux jambes à l'asanbosam, mais les traditions orales mêlent librement les deux figures.

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SASABONSAM

ally

Forest vampire

☥ SpiritPan-africainAfrique de l'Ouest — Ghana (Ashanti)Youth

Gender: MasculineSign: Jambes crochues

Sasabonsam, also named Asanbosam or Asasabonsam, is a vampiric creature of Akan folklore, widespread in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire and carried as far as Jamaica by the Akan deported in the eighteenth century. It is the ogre of the forest depths: a hairy being with great bloodshot eyes, iron teeth and, according to some accounts, bat's wings. It dwells in the great trees of the dense forest, notably the silk-cotton trees, and its favourite trap has remained famous: seated on a high branch, it lets its outsized legs hang down, ending in hooked feet turned both ways, to snatch the hunter passing beneath. The anthropologist R. S. Rattray, who documented Ashanti beliefs in the 1920s, describes it as the ally of the evil powers: the sasabonsam serves the abonsam, the malevolent spirit, and keeps company with the mmoatia, the little beings of the forest. A figure of the dangers of hunting and of the unknown of the woods, it embodies the border that humans cross only with respect: the deep forest belongs to others. The Akan narratives make of it less a metaphysical demon than a territorial predator, the fearsome keeper of a world where the human is only a passing guest.

Powers & Attributes

forest vampire

Role in the ROHO universe

A fragment of Onionkupón's Breath, bound to one of the five elements of the cosmic balance.

Sacred Mask

A mask carved of ancient energy — a symbol of the cosmic force proper to its pantheon.

Era

3,000–1,000 BCE — Cycle of Elemental Powers

Spiritual Lesson

To understand the nature of one's own balance and the wisdom hidden behind every trial.

Words of the Spirit

“The spirit crosses what the body cannot.”

Frequently asked questions

Who is Sasabonsam?

Sasabonsam is a vampiric creature of Akan folklore, in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Perched in the great trees of the deep forest, armed with iron teeth and outsized legs that it lets hang from the branches, it snatches careless hunters who venture beneath its lair.

What does Sasabonsam look like?

The Akan accounts describe Sasabonsam as a hairy being with great bloodshot eyes, armed with iron teeth, with long legs ending in hooked feet turned both ways. Some versions credit it with bat's wings. It sits on the high branches of the trees of the dense forest, from which it lets its legs hang like a living trap.

What is the difference between Sasabonsam and Asanbosam?

Sasabonsam and Asanbosam designate the same family of vampiric creatures of Akan folklore, with variants according to region and storyteller. Both names describe the iron-toothed tree ogre that captures travellers. Folklorists sometimes distinguish them by attributing the wings to the sasabonsam and the hooked legs to the asanbosam, but the oral traditions mingle the two figures freely.

Related spirits

ASANBOSAM ABONSAM MMOATIA

Sources and references

R. S. Rattray, Religion and Art in Ashanti (1927)
Hans Werner Debrunner, Witchcraft in Ghana (1959)
Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology (2010)