There's something lurking in the swamps of Africa. Something prehistoric. Something unknown.
Deep in the wilds of Zambia, Tanzania, and Congo, there are stories of a creature that exists beyond the furthest bounds of known science. First-person accounts trickle out of something fearsome, something prehistoric, that calls the skies over the rivers and swamps home. It must just be a local legend, a case of mistaken identity. Or is it?
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We’re back… well, sort of. The full season of Camp Monsters will be coming to your ears in September of 2020, but because we know that monsters are a year-round interest, we’re excited to bring you our mini-monster episodes.
This is just a taste of what’s to come this September when we release our second season of Camp Monsters.
And remember. These stories are just that... Stories. It's up to you to decide what to believe, and how to explain what you don't.
So gather ‘round -- welcome to our mini monster series.
Deep in the wilds of Zambia, Tanzania, and Congo, there are stories of a creature that exists beyond the furthest bounds of known science... First-person accounts trickle out of something fearsome, something prehistoric, that calls the skies over the rivers and swamps home. What is it? It must just be a local legend, a case of mistaken identity. Otherwise…
Dinosaurs are extinct. Of this we are almost certainly certain. Those ancient creatures are long gone and what we know of them now is based on their fossilised bones and footprints. Stories that imagine a modern world where dinosaurs walk the earth make popular fiction, but science assures us that this is impossible.
But as far back as 1745, there were rumours of a beast living deep in the African bush, beyond the furthest fringes of scientific exploration. In that year “The Harleian Collections of Travel, Vol II,” related reports from the region that: “There are also certain other creatures which, being as big as rams, have wings like dragons, with long tails and long chaps, and diverse rows of teeth, and feed upon raw flesh.” In the “Collections of Voyages” book that came out a year later in 1746, there was a similar account: “There are winged serpents or dragons having a forked tail and a prodigious wide mouth, full of sharp teeth, extremely mischievous to mankind, and more particularly to small children.”
The people who live in the wilderness of east central Africa know the creature by as many names as there are local languages, but the most widespread seems to be Kongamato, which translates as “the overwhelmer of boats”. The creature came to the broader world’s attention through a book written by Frank Melland in 1923. Melland describes the Kongamato as a sort of bird/dragon/dinosaur hybrid that lives amidst the thick vegetation of the swamps, posing an extreme threat to anyone that meets it. It is one of the most feared monsters of the African skies, Melland says, known locally to swoop down on boats, attacking and killing those on board. Melland claims in his book that he initially had a difficult time visualizing what the Kongamato looked like, based on the eyewitness accounts that he’d collected. Then one day he was reading a book about ancient creatures when one of the local guides, glancing over his shoulder, pointed to a picture of a prehistoric pterodactyl and said emphatically: “Kongamato!” Melland showed this picture to other people familiar with the beast, and he says that their recognition of the creature was similarly immediate.
Two years later, in 1925, an English newspaper man named G. Ward Price was traveling with the future Duke of Windsor on an official visit to Southern Rhodesia (which is now Zimbabwe). Price reported that a civil servant there told them of an adventurer who had recently entered a feared swamp known to be haunted by this mysterious Kongamato. The man didn’t believe the stories the locals told, of course, and intended to spend five days mapping the waterways of the area. But in the light of the first dawn after his departure he was found at the edge of a village near the swamp, on the verge of death from deep gashes in his chest and throat. His wounds left him unable to speak, but when the civil servant who was telling the story visited the man in the local hospital and asked him who or what had attacked him, the man motioned for pen and paper and drew a creature that looked exactly like an ancient pterodactyl.
Another striking account of the Kongamato came from British explorers on a specimen-collecting expedition for the British Museum in 1932. Well-known zoologist and writer Ivan T. Sanderson was in charge of the team. While camping near a river they went out hunting one evening, and Sanderson shot what he thought was a large fruit bat. The animal dropped into the river and Sanderson waded in to collect it. Unfortunately, he stepped on something that moved under the water, and he fell in. When he came to the surface he heard a shout from his companion and turned to see something big and black burst out of the river and begin flying toward him -- and it was most definitely not a fruit bat. It had a pointed beak and a mouth full of sharp teeth. His fellow explorer took aim and fired another shot at the creature, which veered and flew off into the dusk. Everything went quiet until they heard a noise like snapping teeth and turned to see the creature again hurtling through the air towards them, teeth chattering and giant bat-like wings outstretched. They both ducked and the animal flew over them and away into the night.
Flash forward to 1956 when an engineer, JPF Brown, encountered the creature at Fort Rosebery near Lake Bangweulu. It was dusk, and he saw two of them flying directly overhead. He stated that everything about them looked prehistoric: a wingspan of more than three meters-- nine feet; a long beak that stretched nearly 5 feet in front of a narrow, elongated head; and a long, thin tail trailing through the air behind.
All these reports are from Europeans, because these are the accounts that get published overseas. For the people who live in east central Africa, Kongamato is not a mystery at all, but a dangerous fact-- an animal that lurks in the water by day and lives in the sky at night -- landing near villages and leaving behind large tracks, a warning to those who would wander near the swamps after dark.
So what is this creature that has been seen so many times in the skies of east central Africa? Is it a living fossil, a kind of pterodactyl that has survived in that remote area into the present day? Stranger things have happened. Remember the coelacanth, rediscovered living in the ocean deeps 66 million years after it was believed to have gone extinct. Of course those that don’t want to believe the Kongamato exists say that it’s all an example of misidentification. There are enormous bats that routinely wheel through the evening skies in the area. And a huge, peculiar bird called the shoebill stork also lives in the region. This dark-colored bird boasts an 8-foot wingspan and flies with its massive beak drooping at the end of a long neck, with its thin legs trailing out behind like a tail… it can look quite prehistoric, especially at dusk, silhouetted against the sunset. But shoebills are never known to threaten humans… so why are there so many reports of attacks? And how would a peaceable creature like the shoebill stork earn a name like Kongamato: “the overwhelmer of boats”?
So does some sort of prehistoric creature still soar the skies over the eastern central African? It’s up to you to decide. But if you ever find yourself looking out on a quiet sunset over the wild green shores of Lake Bangweulu... I think you’ll agree that anything seems possible.
If you like these mini-monster episodes, you’ll like our full-length shows even more-- Season One is available now, Season Two is coming in September of 2020. Please subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts: it’s your support that keeps these spooky stories on-air.
Our mini-monster series is written and produced by Chelsea Davis. These sounds are engineered by the very talented Nick Patri from Cloud Studios. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby.
We got our mini-monster facts this week from GenesisPark.com, Occultopedia.com, and good old Wikipedia. Links to our sources will be in the show notes if you want to learn more. Thanks for listening. I’m Weston Davis, see you next month.