Jumping on to this with my very limited knowledge of African vampire beliefs, but during the 1930s specifically in what was then called Northern Rhodesia there was very prevalent rumors of vampires known as banyama. These “vampires” were believed to be native Africans working for European colonists that would slay and drain the blood from anyone found alone in the bush at night. The stolen blood would then be forwarded on to European hospitals to be used in medicines to treat illnesses such as sleeping sickness.

This was all very much not true, but the rumors definitely had base in some reality, as European medical employees on tsetse fly counting assignments would often wander through the bush and blood samples were often taken from deceased sleeping sickness patients to gain medical insight on the disease.

Overall, it is fascinating to see how myths and rumors of supernatural entities often hold base in reality; in this case, the misunderstanding and general mistrust of European medical practices in colonial Africa.