Reported to live in the forests of East Africa, the agogwe (“little furry men”) are said to be two-legged humanlike creatures that stand about 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5m) tall and are covered with curly, reddish brown hair. The creatures initially came to the attention of Westerners in 1937, when Captain William Hitchens claimed to have seen two unknown creatures during a lion hunt several years earlier; the name agogwe, he said, was provided by his native guide. Other hunters and tourists in the region subsequently claimed to have seen the same “furry men,” and similar humanlike creatures have been reported in other parts of Africa as well. Some cryptozoologists consider the agogwe to be a population of what they call proto-pygmies: small, fur-covered, primitive, humanlike beings. Some say that proto-pygmies might be relics of early forms of human beings, such as Australopithecus, whose prehistoric fossil remains have been found in East Africa. Skeptics, however, have suggested that what Hitchens and others saw was actually some type of monkey.

SEE ALSO:

• Cryptozoology

SOURCE:

The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena – written by Patricia D. Netzley © 2006 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning