A Swahili spirit, a shetani, whose name joins popo, bat, and bawa, wing. It was first recorded on Pemba Island in 1965. It returned in 1970 and again in the 1980s. Witnesses described a shapeshifter that slipped into locked houses at night and attacked sleepers, heralded by a foul stench. In The Popobawa Panic of 1995, it spread from Pemba to Zanzibar Town. On 3 April 1995 a mainland visitor was killed by a mob who took him for the spirit. Later panics, from the Muhnochwa of Uttar Pradesh to the Sri Lanka Grease Devil, are set beside it.
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