Vampiric creatures from African lore, the nyam nyam are members of a mythical tribe of dwarflike people with short tails. During the period of slavery, the word came to be used as a racial slur to describe the Azande people and their allied tribes. It could have been a mispronunciation of the word nimyam, which means “cannibal”.

Source: Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa, 379; Hasluck, Letters on Religion and Folklore, 38; Petrinovich, Cannibal Within, 121; Volta, The Vampire, 116