A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Sasabonsam is a dangerous forest figure associated with witches in the British Museum’s catalogue. A hardwood sculpture attributed to Osei Bonsu and registered as made in Kumasi in September 1935 gives it a human face, bat-like wings, horns, a long beard and long looping legs, seated in a tree. The accompanying catalogue describes broader representations as hairy and red, with an ape-like body and snake-like legs, inhabiting tall trees in the bush.
The object’s maker and commission matter: the museum associates Bonsu’s early Sasabonsam carving with a 1925 linguist-staff commission, and describes the selected 1935 work as commissioned by donor Robert Powley Wild. Its interpretation acknowledges Christian devil imagery alongside Ghanaian religious roots. A second Menil object is deliberately titled Figure in the style of a Sasabonsam, dated approximately 1950–1970, with uncertain maker and place. That qualified attribution cannot prove a uniform Asante iconography.
Rattray’s separately collected Akan tale puts a Sasabonsam beside a fruiting kola tree. A hunter climbs to gather nuts while his four dogs remain at home. The being confronts him, claims the nuts and threatens immediate death. It permits three calls to the dogs before carrying out the threat, so the repeated summons creates a timed rescue sequence. The dogs advance from distant, faint hearing to arrival just before the third call ends. Their translated names explain their successive actions: Sniff-sniff smells the adversary, Lick-lick licks him, Tie-in-knots knots his throat and Gulp-down swallows him after he falls. The forest being is powerful enough to threaten the isolated hunter but vulnerable to these animal helpers. The tale continues with the same dogs wrongly killing their master after Fly hides their reward meal; that later reversal belongs to the dogs’ story, rather than a resurrection of Sasabonsam. This textual confrontation and Bonsu’s winged sculpture are distinct witnesses, each supplying its own represented form and actions.
Origins & earliest records
Selected evidence centers a commissioned Osei Bonsu carving and museum catalogue interpretation, with another more cautiously attributed object. These are material and curatorial witnesses, not a first oral-attestation claim. A separately inspected Akan narrative in Rattray’s collection adds the hunter confrontation; original publication 1930, scanned copy a later lithographic reprint.
Records & interpretation
British Museum Af 1935,1212.1 exact catalogue search text supplies maker, date, morphology and interpretation; full object page returned 403. Menil Y 123 page directly readable and preserves style/maker/locality uncertainty. Public Archive full text clicked from the item’s download menu and complete selected narrative read; Akan text and English translation appear on facing printed pages.
In the literature
“A Sasabonsam (stood) before him.”
How It Came About That When Nwansana the Fly Settles on Kraman the Dog, He Snaps at It; p. 165; encounter at the kola tree · R. S. Rattray
The hunter encounters the owner of the kola nuts.
“Then Gulp-down took him away and gulped him down.”
How It Came About That When Nwansana the Fly Settles on Kraman the Dog, He Snaps at It; p. 169; defeat by the fourth dog · R. S. Rattray
The hunter’s fourth dog completes the defeat of Sasabonsam.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Sasabonsam figure, Af 1935,1212.1
Selected material witness; commissioned carving rather than earliest known being.
- 02
Akan-Ashanti folk-tales
Selected hunter, Sasabonsam and four dogs episode, printed pp 164–168; scanned lithographic reprint.
- 03
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales — How It Came About That When Nwansana the Fly Settles on Kraman the Dog, He Snaps at It
Oxford: Clarendon Press, first published 1930. Inspected scan is a later lithographic reprint; its reprint year is not established here. Twi and English occupy facing pages. English quotation page numbers were read visually from the facsimile, rather than inferred from OCR page breaks. Selected witness: English pp. 165–169.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales — How It Came About That When Nwansana the Fly Settles on Kraman the Dog, He Snaps at It
Oxford: Clarendon Press, first published 1930. Inspected scan is a later lithographic reprint; its reprint year is not established here. Twi and English occupy facing pages. English quotation page numbers were read visually from the facsimile, rather than inferred from OCR page breaks.
- A hunter returns without his dogs to gather kola nuts; Sasabonsam claims the fruit and threatens to kill him, allowing three calls for his dogs.
- Sniff-sniff, Lick-lick, Tie-in-knots and Gulp-down rescue the hunter, knot Sasabonsam’s throat and swallow him. The complete tale continues with Fly hiding the dogs’ food and their mistaken killing of the hunter.
Complete selected English episodes read. Named individual narrator is not established by the selected heading. The narrative is a located historical witness, not a universal assertion about current Akan belief. No ritual formula or song refrain reproduced.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Museum object catalogueBritish Museum — Af 1935,1212.1Research access: 2026-10-05
- Museum object catalogueMenil — Figure in the style of a Sasabonsam, Y 123Research access: 2026-10-05
- Primary collected narrative translationRattray — Hunter, Sasabonsam and four dogsResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.