Adze

The adze belongs to the folklore of the Ewe people, between the southeast of Ghana, Togo and Benin, and its defining trait is that it is not only a creature: it is also an accusation. In its free form it flies like a firefly, and in that harmless appearance it sneaks at night into the houses. But when it is captured it loses the disguise and appears under human figure, that of a specific neighbor: to that person the Ewe call it adzeto, the bearer of the adze. There is what makes this being singular compared to other vampires of the world: the adze explains the inexplicable deaths by pointing to someone from the own community, so that the creature and the suspicion of witchcraft are the same thing.

In its insect form the adze passes for firefly, fly or beetle, and enters through the cracks and through any poorly closed window. Once inside it does not bite in the manner of a European vampire: it settles in the victim and empties it from the inside, drinking its blood or its vital breath. It prefers children, who get sick with convulsions and fevers, fade away without diagnosis and die at dawn. The logic of the story is that of a society without medicine for childhood malaria: the disease arrives at night, comes through the air, insects bring it and it takes the smallest ones. The adze gives a face to all that.

His power is in stealth and in possession, and his weakness in gluttony. The ewe tradition maintains that if palm oil or coconut milk is offered to him he cannot resist, and that upon accepting them he is obliged to show his true human form. Discovered, he can be captured and killed with fire or with a knife. That detail has a dark reverse that it is advisable not to gloss over: as the adze always turns out to be someone from the village, accusations fell on real people, and frequently on solitary old women or neighbors who had prospered more than they should. The myth served to explain the death of a child, but also to punish whoever was bothersome.

The adze condenses three fears into a single figure: the disease that is not understood, the envy inside the village and the betrayal of the one who sleeps near. It is told to the children so that they do not go out at night, and to the adults to remind them that the misfortune of others always has a culprit. Its presence in the ewe folklore remains alive in the rural zones, where the word adzeto continues having very concrete social consequences for whoever receives it. That validity is what differentiates it from the purely legendary creatures: the adze is not only a tale about the past, but a way of naming the suspicion that still functions.