Kongamato
Frank Melland's 1923 book is the earliest written account of the Kongamato, a pterosaur-like flier of Zambian swamps. No body or clear photograph exists.
The Kongamato is a pterosaur-like flying creature reported from the Jiundu swamps of western Zambia. Its name is usually translated as “overwhelmer of boats”. It is said to have a wingspan of four to seven feet, reddish skin and a toothed beak. No physical evidence exists.
What Is Documented
The earliest written source is Frank H. Melland’s book In Witchbound Africa (London, 1923), on the Kaonde people. In the usual retelling, informants said a pterosaur picture looked like the Kongamato, but the picture test could have led them, and we could not read the book itself. In 1932 Ivan Sanderson and Gerald Russell claimed a sighting of a large flying animal in Cameroon, which is a different creature. In 1956 the engineer J. P. F. Brown reported two flying reptile-like animals over the Bangweulu swamps.
The 1957 Hospital Story
Popular retellings say a man with chest wounds reached a hospital near Fort Rosebery (now Mansa) in 1957 and drew a pterosaur. We found no hospital record, doctor or contemporary report, and sources disagree on the details, so treat it as legend. Names sometimes given for the patient or other witnesses could not be traced.
Explanations
Sceptics suggest storks, such as the shoebill and the saddle-billed stork, or large bats. A late 1950s photograph by Ian Colvin of the Daily Telegraph was judged most likely to show a shoebill or saddle-billed stork. The main page is The Kongamato of Africa.
Sources
- Kongamato (Wikipedia) - timeline of the reports and the skeptical explanations
- Melland, In Witchbound Africa (Glottolog bibliography record) - confirms the 1923 publication by Seeley, Service & Co., London