The Man-Leopard Murders: History and Society in Colonial Nigeria

The Man-Leopard Murders is an account of murder and politics in Africa and an historical ethnography of southern Annang communities during the colonial period. Its narrative leads to events between 1945 and 1948 when the imperial gaze of police, press, and politicians was focused on a series of mysterious deaths in southeastern Nigeria attributed to the "man-leopard society." These murder mysteries, reported as the "biggest, strangest murder hunt in the world," were not just forensic but also historical. The murders were related to the broad impact of commercial, Christian, and colonial relations on Annang society, and debate and conflict over the moral order of Annang society.