Popobawa and Voodoo Midgets

Zanzibar is one of the most otherworldly places I've ever visited, and that is certainly reflected in the superstition/mythology and/or sincere religious beliefs that lurk right beneath the surface (or right at the surface, for that matter).  When reading my Lonely Planet guide I had come across the popobawa, which is a very popular and feared being of relatively recent origin.  It's first appearance only stretches back to 1965 on the northern island of Pemba.  Since then it has spread to the rest of Zanzibar and even to Dar Es Salam, and tends to appear during times of political stress such as elections.  The name itself is Swahili and means something like bat wing, although that is supposed to relate to the shadow that it makes and less to the creature itself (being a shapeshifter).  It is a pretty terrifying entity that appears at night and is supposed to sodomize both male and female victims.  The inhabitants of Zanzibar certainly don't consider it an amusing topic, and during times of popobawa appearances some of them will actually sleep outside or even stay awake all night with family members around big bonfires.  According to the story one way to keep the popobawa at bay is to admit that it has attacked you (because it doesn't like it when people deny its existence) so you can see how the tension and belief would spread quickly.  You are also supposed to be aided in stopping it by reciting certain Quranic verses, but the shopkeepers I talked to about it didn't like to discuss the subject.  I was in the middle of the mangrove swamp with a guide and I was telling him how beautiful I thought it was.  He said that it certainly was during the day, but that you couldn't pay him enough to get him to come back at night.  In the darkness evil spirits, which mainly took the form of shrunken old women - or in his terminology "voodoo midgets", would come out of the water, both the brackish water of the swamp and the ocean, in search of victims.  I asked him if they were related to the popobawa, and he responded with a laugh that was somewhere between nervous and hysterical.  Being a rational and secular westerner I only scared myself with the thought of it around three times a night, and never gave serious thought to the idea of walking down to the shore at midnight.  I really need to talk to my friend Trish about it since she is the expert on all things Zanzibar (and is much braver than I am).