**3. Africa**

Bats have fascinated humans for millennia, and this cultural and spiritual relevance is reflected in the presence of bat symbols in Egyptian tombs from 2000 BC [7]. In Africa, "house bats" occur in distinct colors and sizes, but they are usually hard to identify. Although they live near humans and are common, it appears that some of the species have not been described and given scientific names [17]. To date, ethnobiological information regarding bats in Africa has mainly focused on utilitarian aspects of bats as food and medicine, whereas knowledge concerning symbolism and beliefs surrounding bats in that continent has not been assembled, apart from ancient Africa [18], Ghana [19, 20], Kenya [21], and Madagascar [22].

Among the Ibibio people of southern Nigeria, bats are associated with witchcraft, and for any bat to fly into a house and touch a person is a sure sign that this person is thereafter bewitched and will soon perish because his or her heart is eaten at night while he or she sleeps. Also, in Nilotic Sudan, witchcraft was usually performed at night, and therefore, owls and bats were associated with it. In the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, spirits, devils, and witches had their general name "Bitaboh," wood-goblins being specially called "Ronga." All the bats were comprehended under the same name, especially the Yellow-winged Bat *Lavia frons*, formerly *Megaderma frons*, which flutters about from tree to tree in broad daylight [18].

In Cameroon, the superstition of the vampire is attached to bats. Among the Ndop people, bats, owls, and bush-cats are said to be witch shapes. Should a bat or an owl come near the house, or a bush-cat defecate in the compound, the owner must go at once to diviner to discover what remedies must be taken to ward off the evil. A witch shape is believed to be capable to suck out the life of a sleeping man or woman [18].

From Sierra Leone comes an account of the gruesome habits of the Hammer-headed Fruit Bat *Hypsignathus monstrosus*. It is the largest bat found in continental Africa and was believed to suck the blood of sleeping children until they die. It was called "Boman," and it was able to turn into a stone or a snake at will. Interestingly, blood sucking has been attributed to bats both in Cameroon and Sierra Leone despite the countries being widely separated and when no such type of bat is found in Africa [19].

Although the bats roost in the sacred forest in Ghana, they are not regarded as sacred animals. Bat hunting is illegal, but hunters readily admitted to having hunted bats and even directed the research people to other hunters. Bat meat is widely consumed because it is considered more delicious than other types of meat. However, consumption was influenced by religious beliefs, food taboos, and some myths about bats. Muslims and Seventh Day Adventists did not consume bat meat. Men hunt and consume bats more often than women who have fears that consuming bat meat would give them strange or deformed children. Bats are not associated with any diseases, and it was felt to be safe to eat bat meat, but both studies were conducted before the 2013 Ebola outbreak (**Figure 2**) [19, 20].

In Kenya, a bat attitude questionnaire was presented to 394 people living around the Arabuko-Sokoke forest. Belief in myths seemed to prevail among those surveyed. Just over one-third of the respondents (36%) did not see any benefits of bats to humans. Nearly another third reported actively killing bats or destroying bat roosts, and most respondents associated bats with the destruction of farmers' fruits, especially mangoes. Female respondents in this study showed more negative attitudes and a stronger belief in myths about bats than males. Only older and somewhat educated people reported more positive attitudes toward bats than others [21].

In Madagascar, the exploitation of bats for bush meat regularly takes place during periods of food shortage, especially fruit bats, which are heavily hunted. The study estimated that in the karstic Mahafaly Plateau some 50–100 caves are exploited for bats and that between 70,000 and 140,000 Microchiroptera bats

*Bats in Folklore and Culture: A Review of Historical Perceptions around the World DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102368*

*Large-bodied old-world fruit bats, like this Egyptian fruit bat* Rousettus aegyptiacus*, are disproportionally targeted to be hunted for bushmeat. Photo credit to "creative commons" https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-sa/4.0/legalcode.*

may be collected annually in the region. This is bound to threaten the continued existence of local bat populations. Thus, more famine relief food aid is desperately needed to reduce the bush meat use during the food crises, which are nearly annual in the region [22].

In Malawi, negative bat superstitions caused recently quite disproportionate behavior when rural people in southern parts of the country killed nine people accusing them to be "vampire bats" [23]. The police arrested 200 vigilante youth suspected of involvement in gangs that attacked persons allegedly engaged in vampirism. Medics said there is no truth or clinical evidence that blood suckers or vampires exist in Malawi, and the United Nations mission withdrew its personnel from the riots-affected areas [24].
