Legends say the chief from Kyebi could control bats
A remarkable legend from Kyebi in Ghana’s Eastern Region has endured for generations: a powerful chief who ruled not only his people, but the bats of the night.
Before his death, he is said to have maintained a spiritual bond with hundreds of bats; his personal guardians.
Among the Akan and other Ghanaian clans, totems play a deep role in culture and identity. Each clan, a foundational social group, is linked with an animal or plant believed to be a spiritual relative or ancestral protector.
Among the eight matrilineal Akan clans, like Asona (crow), Asakyiri (vulture), Aduana (dog), and Bretuo (leopard), Asenie (bats), totems are more than symbols.
They are sacred: members must never kill, eat, or harm their totem animal. These totems reinforce group identity, guide social rules such as marriage taboos (you cannot marry someone of the same totem), and even help conserve wildlife, since harming a totem bring spiritual and social consequences.
In this context, the chief, according to a video shared on Facebook, held an extraordinary spiritual link to bats.
Stories tell of him commanding these nocturnal creatures as if they were pets, protecting them from local hunters who saw them as bushmeat.
The bats reportedly respected him, gathering around him and obeying his call.
When the chief fell ill and was taken to Accra’s 37 Military Hospital, his followers did something rarely seen: the entire colony of bats relocated with him.
They settled in the mahogany and neem trees that stood guard outside the hospital. After his passing, legends say the bats refused to leave.
To this day, you can see them, winging across the hospital at dusk, only to return by dawn.
Every evening, just as dusk approaches, the bats take to the sky to search for food across Accra, but no matter how far they roam, they always return to the same trees at the 37 Military Hospital to rest.
Over the years, efforts were made to chase them away, some of the trees were cut down, hunters even fired shots to drive them off, but the bats would simply move to the nearby Afua Sunderland Park for a while, then come back home to the hospital grounds.
Decades later, they still guard the place where their chief drew his last breath, never missing their spiritual home, no matter how far they fly each night.
Watch the video below:
FKA/AE
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