Have you heard anything about the legend of the bush baby? There are so many of such scary stories that it seems like one long continuation of the same story. It appears that where one ends, the other begins. And as a secondary school student in 2001, I remember a friend recount his experience with what he thinks was a bush baby thus:
It happened on a Friday night, the house was dark because there was no electric supply, and everyone was asleep. “It was the cries that woke me up”, he said. “You know, those sounds you hear in your sleep when you think you are dreaming?” ‘”Only that it was not a dream, it was real!”
Those horrible cries sounded like that of a newborn baby, yet there was no new child in my house nor in the compound where my family lives at Idi-Oro in Mushin. This baby cried non-stop, and it seemed it was positioned right in our backyard, right there behind our windows.
His parents had gone for a vigil organised by their church, and as the first child of the family had been left in charge of his younger siblings. Though only 15 at the time, he thought of going out to find out what was happening – which his mother later thanked God profusely he hadn’t done – as his instincts told him to stay back within the safety of their house.
The cries persisted for some time more, only to stop as the first rays of that fateful Saturday sun began to shine on our part of the world. I recounted the experience to my parents when they came back, and upon further inquiries from neighbours, they found out that no other person in that compound had heard those cries!
He concluded by saying there were lots of talk that it must have been the cries of the mythical, diabolical bush baby – that evil creature that no one has seen and lived to describe in detail. It is believed that this creature chooses to cry like a helpless baby to lure kindhearted people to come to its aid, and upon which it kills them!
Do you think he imagined those cries? Some people insist that these stories are true even though they have no personal experiences, while others maintain that this creature walks about with a mat and lantern, which if successfully stolen, could make one stupendously wealthy!
But research tells us differently. It tells us that there are indeed animals called bush babies, also known as galagos. That they are mammals, are nocturnal (that is, they come out only at night), can only be found in sub-Saharan Africa, and feed on insects, fruits, and acacia gum. But people still turn their nose at this explanation, and will tell you that “this is Africa, where anything and everything is possible.”
But you, what do you think?
See Also: 10 Amazing Animal Facts (GALAGOS, also known as BUSH BABIES)
