I’m not going to lie to you folks; this is a weird one. But isn’t that why you’re here on an obscure monster-centric blog? Of course it is! Saddle up everyone, we are going to dive back into some African lore, which we haven’t visited since my first blog installment!
This week’s monster is called the Aigamuxa, also known as the “Bushman.” This terrifying creature is completely carnivorous and always ravenous. It is said to lurk in the dunes of the Savannah, waiting for lone or weary travelers to stumble into its midst.
The Aigamuxa hails from the lore of the Khoekhoe people (also known as the Khoikhoi of south western Mongolia). It stands 9-12 feet tall, making it a veritable giant of a creature. For context, that’s as tall as a fully grown African bull elephant—the largest species of elephant.
They are deadly fast, utterly merciless, and like most predators of the desert, constantly searching for any source of sustenance. That said, this cryptid does have one severe disadvantage. Its eyes are located on the bottoms of its feet, so to see its prey, it must stop running and stand on its hands.
Now, on all the posts I’ve read about this monster, the eyes on the feet thing is usually regarded as an easy way to escape from the Aigamuxa, and that logic is sound if you are under the proper circumstance. I posit, however, that this creature would not be such a source of profound fear for a tribe of hunters and warriors unless it was actually dangerous.
The Aigamuxa stories remind me of the dark fey character portrayed in the movie Pan’s Labyrinth that had eyes on its hands. This might have been a hindrance for the fey creature, but it didn’t make it less scary.
In a way, the disfiguration and mutation of the Aigamuxa’s humanity make it even more disturbing and frightening, as it separates us from it entirely.
If you see a creature like this in the world, you will not be able to write it off as an optical illusion or “just some weird dude.” You’ll know definitively you have seen something which you cannot fully explain, and when it starts sprinting at you with the speed of a cheetah, a mouth of razor-sharp, slavering fangs, and the colossal height of 12 feet, you will also know you are likely to be lunch.
I posit further that the Aigamuxa might be a stealth predator, attacking as people camp (which in the desert, is generally during the day) or attacking them under the cover of darkness when traveling across the scorching dunes during the absence of the oppressive sun.
In any case, interpreting something as a weakness because it would be a weakness to us is foolish. Squids have no bones. To humans, this would seem like a crippling weakness. But let a giant squid get a hold of you in the ocean and see who is stronger.
Perhaps the Aigamuxa has its other senses heightened due to its lack of sight and it merely needs its eyes to clarify direction. Who knows? No one has ever written detailed accounts of these mysterious monsters. They live only in what we have managed to preserve from ancient oral traditions. For my purposes, I found out about this monster on oxfordreference.com and fandomwiki.com
So, if you are ever wandering the desert and you see someone doing a handstand, pointing their feet towards you, and looking as if they might be supernaturally tall, you may want to start running, and perhaps, zig-zag a whole lot. Good luck out there travelers ;).
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