It's why Ashanti, Ibo, Yoruba
and countless other peoples were stolen from Africa and enslaved to build America.
He was prominent in the 1980s and
1990s with many Mithun Chakraborty starrers like Ashanti(1982), Mujrim(1989), Guru(1989) and Yaar Gaddar 1994.
Various regions of Africa have folkloric tales of beings with vampiric abilities:
in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling asanbosam,
and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children.