Sasabonsam

Also called Shamantin, Susabonsam, Asanbosam.

Sasabonsam is the forest man-eater of Akan tradition, a tall thin figure with bloodshot eyes who sits in the high branches with its legs hanging down and hooks travellers passing beneath with its feet.

Tradition: African folklore (general)
Region: Ghana (place of origin)
Symbols: Legswitchcraft

Symbols

Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.

Legs bears image-domain Legs denote upright support and the individual journey of a life, answering the Sphinx's riddle by their number, and hobbled to signify conquest.
why
Sasabonsam is the forest man-eater of Akan tradition, a tall thin figure with bloodshot eyes who sits in the high branches with its legs hanging down and hooks travellers passing beneath with its feet.
witchcraft bears Witchcraft denotes harmful or socially condemned magic; Mesopotamian law punished it, while modern Celtic discussion distinguishes reconstructed Wicca from older beliefs in solitary witches.
why
It is also connected in the traditional accounts with witchcraft — described as an ally or familiar of witches, and in some tellings as the male counterpart to a forest woman with her own dangerous character.

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

Backward facing feet confuse trackers
why
The descriptions are consistent and specific: very tall and thin, with bloodshot eyes, long hair, and feet that point both ways so that its tracks give no indication which direction it went.
Hook-shaped feet hangs from trees
why
sits in the high branches with its legs hanging down and hooks travellers passing beneath with its feet

Behaviour

Sudden ambush from above
why
It sits in the branches of certain large trees with its legs dangling, and takes anyone who passes underneath by hooking them upward. The being is bound up with ideas about the forest's danger and with the practice of hunting: certain trees are associated with it, and hunters are the people most exposed to it.

Offensive powers

Aerial ambush
why
It sits in the branches of certain large trees with its legs dangling, and takes anyone who passes underneath by hooking them upward. The being is bound up with ideas about the forest's danger and with the practice of hunting: certain trees are associated with it, and hunters are the people most exposed to it.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.