Zangbeto

According to Ogu oral traditions and sources cited in the supplied materials, Zangbeto are associated with an older power that 'inhabited the earth long before the appearance of man' and some oral accounts identify them specifically as sea spirits who once emerged from the ocean clothed in raffia to serve the community. They are embedded in a cult or secret society (the Zangbeto society) that frames their role as custodians of communal order and continuity.

Zangbeto appear as tall, fully shrouded figures covered in an intricate mass of tiny strands of hay, raffia, or other threadlike materials, sometimes dyed in bright colors. Costumes may be adorned with masks or crowned with horns. The raffia robes are a visible symbol of the Zangbeto society and are treated as sacred; tradition holds it is a serious offense to touch the robes or to claim they are merely worn by men.

Tradition attributes to Zangbeto a combination of social and spirit powers: they patrol the night to watch over people and property, detect thieves and witches, present wrongdoers to the community, and purify towns from social evils. They are said to fall into trances in which spirits inhabit their bodies and grant special knowledge of people's actions. Local accounts also ascribe spiritistic feats such as swallowing splinters of glass without harm and frightening away witches; these are reported as traditional attributions rather than empirically documented abilities.