Book of Shadows (MYTHICAL CREATURES A-Z)

Abiku

Abiku

Mythology: African

Classification: Spirit

Habitats: Forest or Jungle

Associated with: Health, Childbirth or Fertility

Behavior: Evil

They are evil forest spirits that inhabit West Africa. They are known to possess babies to young children to drain their life essence until the child dies.

They are also referred as spirits of children who died before reaching puberty.

In legend, if a mother gave birth to a child of an Abiku, the mother was known to offer a sacrifice of food so that the Abiku would devour the essence of the food. While the creatures attention was diverted, the mother would attach iron rings and small bells around the child ankles and hangs iron chains around the child's neck. The sound of the iron and the bells was to keep the Abiku at a distance. After that, the child sometimes will recover its health and people believe that the procedure had worked. But if the child doesn't recover then the mother has to make small incisions into the child's body, and then is to put in green peppers or spices, believing that the pain to the Abiku would be driven out of her child. But by doing this, the child suffers great pain, and therefore the mother's heart hardens because she believes that the Abiku is suffering too.
If the child dies, if buried at all, the child would be buried without a funeral ceremony, beyond the outskirts of the village, in the bush. Some natives say that the corpse would be thrown in the bush to punish the Abiku. Sometimes it is known that a mother who had a child possessed by an Abiku, she would beat, pound, and mutilate the little corpse, hoping to cause evil upon the Abiku who did this. It was believed that the Abiku felt all the blows and wounds inflicted on the body and to hear and be terrified by the threats and curses.