Key Info

- Attractive human man's face in front charms young women 

- Hyena face in back eats them.

Brief Bio

The kishi is a two-faced, werehyena demon that exists in the folklore of Kimbundu and Bakongo peoples in Angola. According to one legend, a kishi has an attractive human man's face on the front of its body and a hyena's face on the back. Kishi are said to use their human face as well as smooth talk and other charms to attract young women, who they then eat with the hyena face. The hyena face is said to have long sharp teeth and jaws so strong they cannot be pulled off anything it bites.

The word kishi, nkishi, or mukisi means "spirit" in several Bantu languages spoken in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, northern Angola, and parts of western Zambia.