Ogbanje

An ọgbanje for what was thought to be an evil spirit that would deliberately plague a family with misfortune. Belief in ọgbanje in Igboland is not as strong as it once was, although there are still some believers.

Its literal meaning in the Igbo language is "children who come and go". Sometimes the word ọgbanje has been used as a synonym for a rude or stubborn child. The word ogbanje once served as a mythological ways of understanding what were once unknown diseases that often claimed the lives of children (such as SIDS and sickle cell disease),as the inheritance of these diseases within families may have led people to conclude that the children involved were all incarnations of the same malevolent spirit.