When the Vampires Come for You: A True Story of Ordinary Horror

This paper tells the story of a community in rural Malawi who, fired by rumors that regularly sweep this east and central Africa, believed themselves under assault by “bloodsuckers”—vampireshiredby the country’s president, in exchangefor “foreign aid,” to siphon the blood of poor African villagers for Satanic rituals by rich Whites overseas. In response, the villagers organized and took action to defend themselves, with dire results: a young child was beaten to death as a witch; a man out late, seeking love, was beaten nearly to death. Through telling these and other stories, the paper raises questions of how people in Africa manage relations with dangerous invisible forces and how those of us who do not live with such fears might make sense of what happens when stories of vampires come to you.