Adze
A being in the beliefs of the Ewe people of West Africa, said to possess people, who are then treated as witches.
Among the Ewe, saying someone is possessed by an adze is a witchcraft accusation. It falls mostly on women, including women without children or thought to envy co-wives, and also on old and poor people (Atlas Obscura, 2020; Wikipedia).
The adze is a being in the beliefs of the Ewe people of West Africa. Emma Starer Gross, writing for Atlas Obscura in 2020, calls it an insect-like source of misfortune. According to Wikipedia, a man or woman possessed by an adze is regarded as a witch, abasom in Ewe, and the harm falls on the people around them, mostly the possessed person's own family or those they envy.
Suspicion follows set patterns. Atlas Obscura says a woman who seems jealous of her co-wives, one who cannot have children, or one with a changeable temper may be thought possessed. Wikipedia adds women with brothers, especially when a brother's children do better than hers; old people, when the young begin to die while the old live on; and the poor, when they are thought to envy the rich.
Anthropologist Meera Venkatachalam, who spent ten years doing fieldwork with the Ewe in south-eastern Ghana, told Atlas Obscura she met many women accused of adze possession, and described the adze as a common spiritual affliction. Atlas Obscura also cites Levack, who writes that Ewe Christians kept their earlier beliefs and fears and laid Christianity over them, so that the adze came to look more like the Devil.
"People, male or female, possessed by an adze are viewed as witches[1] (Ewe: abasom). The adze's influence would negatively affect the people who lived around their host. A person is suspected of being possessed in a variety of situations, including: women with brothers (especially if their brother's children fared better than their own), old people (if the young suddenly started dying and the old stayed alive) and the poor (if they envied the rich). The adze's effects are generally felt by the possessed victim's family or those of whom the victim is jealous.[1]"
- In West Africa, the Adze Is an Insectoid Source of Misfortune, Emma Starer Gross, Atlas Obscura (2020)