In 1995, it was the focus of a major outbreak of mass hysteria or panic which spread from Pemba to Unguja, the main island of the Zanzibar Archipelago, and across to Dar es Salaam and other urban centres on the East African coast.
During Popobawa panics many people try to guard against attack by spending the night awake outside of their houses, often huddled around an open fire with other family members and neighbours.
[5] It has been argued that because of Zanzibar's past as an Arab-run slave market, the story of Popobawa is an articulated social memory of the horrors of slavery (Parkin 2004).
[6] One explanation put forth for the election cycle connection is the claim that the Popobawa is the vengeful ghost of the assassinated President Abeid Karume, or was summoned by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi political party.
The girl, called Fatuma, spoke in a man's deep voice and then villagers say they heard the sound of a car revving and rustling on a nearby roof.
In the article Nickell compared the experiences described of a visit from Popobawa with the symptoms of a waking dream, also known as sleep paralysis or a hypnopompic or hypnogogic hallucination.
[8] Nickell also compared these symptoms with those experienced by people who claim to have been attacked by incubi, succubi or Hags from western folklore, and in more modern cases, with alien abductions.
A book released in 2017 entitled "Popobawa: Tanzanian Talk, Global Misreadings" by Katrina Daly Thompson[9] was critical of Nickell, claiming that he was "associating Zanzibaris with fear and Westerners with skepticism".