African legendary creatures

thumb|The Catoblepas as depicted by Jan Jonston, Historia naturalis de quadrupedibus, Amsterdam, 1657 The catoblepas (from Latin catōblepas, ultimately from Greek καταβλέπω (katablépō) "to look downwards") is a legendary creature from Aethiopia, first described by Pliny the Elder and later by Claudius Aelianus.

The aigamuxa (a.k.a. 'Bushmen') are legendary creatures of the Khoikhoi people. Its main diet is humans, which it regards as zebras, and eats with its extremely elongated teeth. The bushmen are said to target lone desert travelers at night. The monster is said to have eyes on its feet, meaning that it cannot see the humans it preys upon as it hunts. In order to see, it must stand on its hands or head, or lie in the sand. Tales of the aigamuxa were notably collected from the Khoikhoi people by Leonhard Schultze-Jena for his book Aus Namaland und Kalahari.

A jengu (pl. miengu, also called bisima) is a water spirit in the traditional beliefs of the Sawabantu groups of Cameroon, like the Duala, Bakweri, Malimba, Subu, Bakoko, and Oroko people. Among the Bakweri, the term used is liengu (plural: maengu). Miengu are similar to bisimbi (singular: simbi) in the Bakongo spirituality and Mamba Muntu, who is present in many West and Central African cultures.

thumb|A hyena as depicted in a medieval bestiary|alt=A hyena hunches over a prone male figure on a bed or platform, biting his shoulder. The hyena is portrayed with spines along its back and tail, and with bird-like talons. In folklore, a werehyena (a neologism coined in analogy to werewolf) is a creature which can shapeshift into a hyena. The creature has origins across countless African cultures. It is also present in tales on the Arabian Peninsula. Unlike werewolves and other therianthropes, which are usually portrayed as being originally human, some werehyena lore tells of how they can als