Reading Katrina Daly Thompson’s Popobawa: Tanzanian Talk, Global Misreadings, reminded me of Screwtape Letters, by C S Lewis where he wrote,

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

Screwtape Letters is a compilation of correspondence between a senior devil, Screwtape, and his apprentice, Wormwood. Screwtape Letters is worthy of its own review, but refracting Katrina’s Popobawa through it makes for good insight in understanding the legend of a ghost named Popobawa who invades people’s homes and rapes them. He then commands them to retell their ordeal to 10 people lest he makes them his wife.

Thompson recounts the evolution of this legend in her book with pithy analyses on how this legend has several functions.

The legend is set in Zanzibar, but it has also traversed mainland Tanzania taking various versions.

Over the decades, the legend of Popobawa has developed and evolved among the locals in a manner that makes it impossible to come up with one specific version.

Of interest is not whether the legend is true or not but how Popobawa talk serves other ends in Tanzanian society. It enables locals to transgress norms and taboos surrounding homosexuality, gender segregation and female sexual agency.

Belief in the spirit world provides justification for locals to discuss these issues since spiritual beings are not subject to societal norms.

In a sense, Popobawa talk provides a “virtual environment” where people transgress taboos without any consequent social sanction — losing one’s reputation as a “good Mswahili” or a “good Muslim”.

Western commentators have developed metanarratives to explain the phenomenon of Popobawa. Katrina argues, metanarratives can be a tool for denying the humanity of the people one writes about.

Multiple versions

For instance, most Western commentators cite fellow commentators without realising that the legend of Popobawa has multiple versions and meanings.

Curating metadiscourse that locks out all other recent versions of the legend shows how some Western commentators view Africans — as unintelligible and incapable of understanding their own phenomena.

They view African experiences as too simple and one that “the things Africans do, believe, and say are irrational; whereas the things Western commentators say are logical as well as obviously and unquestionable true”.

Popobawa talk enables women in Tanzania to construct themselves as sexual and discursive agents as opposed to “objects”.

They use Popobawa talk to shift norms that prevent them from freely engaging in topics outlawed by Islamic imperatives on discretion. The women reclaim their voices by invoking sexual debates within the context of Popobawa.

Beyond such conversation, coastal women also utilise nonverbal means to communicate their views on prohibited topics — khanga sayings and taarab lyrics.

The Popobawa legend is also a gateway into how people may define themselves. When some people talk about him they may construct their identity as an “expert”.

Locals may present themselves as “narrating subjects and objects of discussion”. Western commentators use Popobawa to construct their metanarratives as more authoritative than the firsthand accounts of locals who participate in the research.

Lack of expertise

Locals, mostly women and the young, emphasised their lack of expertise during the research. One of the reasons is that people feel implored by the Koranic verse “And don’t follow (going around saying or doing) what you don’t have education (knowledge) about.

Certainly ears and eyes and heart; all of those will be questioned.” In order to escape attribution of gossip, the people start with a disclaimer that they do not have expertise or are uncertain about the version of the tale they are giving.

For skeptics, the Popobawa legend is a source of mirth. Those who do not believe in the legend use it to convey jokes and amusement.

Thompson writes: “...because humour can make people feel superior to the butt of the joke, it can be used to critique transgressors, mock others, and thus to uphold norms.”

The book presents terse perspectives that can be gleaned from the legend. Everyone will use Popobawa talk for his or her own ends.