Wewe Gombel, the Child Kidnapper, Just Wants to Teach Families a Lesson

In Indonesia, every child knows that bad things happen after the sun goes down. That's when all the ghosts come out of their hiding, including Wewe Gombel, a female ghost who kidnaps children and tucks them behind her long, papaya-shaped breasts forever. Marching straight home and doing the Maghrib prayer is 100 percent safer than the alternative.

The legend of Wewe Gombel, or "Hantu Kopek" as she’s known in Malaysia, goes like this: as a human, Wewe Gombel was married to the love of her life, but they were childless because she was infertile. Her husband eventually began to cheat on her, and one day she caught him in bed with another woman. Enraged and heartbroken, Wewe Gombel killed the man. Their neighbors, outraged by the killing, started hunting her down. Feeling cornered, she committed suicide. Her restless soul now wanders around longing for children to raise and keep behind her breasts where she thinks they are safe.

It's some creepy shit, right? The legend of Wewe Gombel is so popular across Indonesia that not only is her name is used to scare children into running back home before dark, she’s also sometimes the main suspect in real-life cases of missing children. In 2017, a child in Medan went missing without a trace after he as last seen running into the woods one night. The next day his family and neighbors went out looking for him for hours to no avail. It was not until one of them cited the adzan did they find the boy, who suddenly crawled out of a bush looking disoriented. They unanimously agreed that he was snatched by Wewe Gombel.

It's easy to put all the blame on Wewe Gombel, but here's the thing—she's a really misunderstood ghost. True, she does kidnap children (and is real messy and leaves her bras everywhere as well, apparently), but people overlook the part of the story where she only takes kids who are being abused by their parents. Her inability to conceive grew a seed of hate for those who mistreat their kids. According to some literature, she even goes as far as scaring and guilt-tripping parents until they realize their wrongdoings. After the parents have repented, she will return the children to them. She's basically an agent with the National Commission for Child Protection (KPAI).

But of course, as far as ghosts go, there is rarely any one version of the stories that could be assumed to be the most true. These legends are typically oral legends, so naturally there are a lot of discrepancies between the stories. In one version, Wewe Gombel feeds the kidnapped children feces and treat them poorly. In another, she’s a motherly figure who raises the kids as if they're her own. One of the most widely-accepted versions depicts her as a heroine, whose mission is to rescue children from abusive households (this is the adapted into Joko Anwar’s film, “A Mother’s Love").

Wewe Gombel, according to Risa Permanadeli, a senior researcher and cultural sciences lecturer at the University of Indonesia, is far from a weird or creepy ghost. Like many female ghosts or mythical creatures in Asia, Wewe Gombel's core narrative is connected with her fertility.

“Our culture is largely influenced by Buddhist and Hindu culture and in these cultures, women are usually referred to as sacred beings,” Risa told VICE. “During harvest, the Javanese pray to Goddess Sri. While men's power is typically depicted by phallic symbols, women’s vigor is symbolized by her womb. It’s a life giver."

Wewe Gombel’s persona is a complicated one, to say the least. While there are a lot of versions where she's a ghost, most people believe that her tragic life story as a barren wife with an unfaithful husband is the root to the problem. But aside from being an effective tool for parents to ensure their children don't wander outside at night, she can also teach families to never take their children for granted.

“Technology is always advancing, but ghost stories always remain," Risa explained. "These stories contain a message passed from our ancestors, and they won't diminish so easily."

I bet that a hundred years from now, regardless of how the KPAI transforms, Indonesian parents will still say to their children just before they go outside to play, "Come home at Maghrib or else…"