Irimu/Rimu/Izimu

The Irimu is from Wachaga myth. A man would become an Irimu by breaking some taboo. Descriptions of what it looks like varies. Sometimes it is a man who has brambles growing out of his body until he’s just a walking bush, and then he eats everyone. This form is cured by burning the bushes growing out of him. One story tells of one that got swept away in a river and got turned into a banana tree on the shore. A child took a banana and lost a finger in a type of sympathetic magic thing. Sometimes it is seen as an ogre-like creature. It is also sometimes in the form of a wereleopard. It sometimes has ten tails. It is said that it sometimes arrives at a house as a human and presents itself as a potential husband. It can be caught if the potential wife sees the back of its head where there is another mouth.

Citations:

The Mythology of All Races …. United States, Marshall Jones Company, 1916.

Werner, Alice. Myths and Legends of the Bantu. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis Group, 1968.