Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Leopard Society
open-in-new
<p>Leopard Society, leopard men, and Anyoto were names used for one or more <a href="/facts/Secret_society/xq3AkToK">secret societies</a> that operated in <a href="/facts/West_Africa/oV8Dk0kp">West</a> and <a href="/facts/Central_Africa/ufJ003ex">Central Africa</a> approximately between 1890 and 1935. It was believed that members of the society could transform into <a href="/facts/Leopard/nXn20qBa">leopards</a> through the use of witchcraft. The presumably earliest reference to the society in Western literature can be found in George Banbury's <i>Sierra Leone, Or the White Man's Grave</i> (1888). In <a href="/facts/Western_culture/rPbgAhzI">Western culture</a>, depictions of the society have been widely used to portray Africans as barbaric and uncivilized. </p>