Agogwe are humanoid dwarf-like creatures standing at about 120-150 centimeters (4 to 5 ft) tall, allegedly inhabiting the forests of East Africa. Eyewitnesses describe them as resembling bipedal monkeys with red or yellowish skin and orange-colored hair.

The first documented encounter of a European with the Agogwe occurred during a hunting expedition, when British Army officer Captain William Hitchens stumbled upon two such creatures, which he reported in the December issue of the Discovery magazine in 1937:

Lastly, there are mystery men-beasts, such as the agogwe, little furry men, which are said to lurk in the Ussure and Simbiti forests on the western side of the Wembare Plains. Some years ago I was sent on an official lion-hunt to this area and, while waiting in a forest glade for a man-eater, I saw two small, brown furry creatures come from the dense forest on one side of the glade and disappear into the thickets on the other. They were like little men, about four feet high, walking upright, but clad in russet hair. The native hunter with me gaped in mingled fear and amazement. They were, he said, agogwe, the little furry men whom one does not see once in a lifetime. I made desperate efforts to find them, but without avail in that well-nigh impenetrable forest. They may have been monkeys, but if so, they were no ordinary monkeys, nor baboons, nor colobus, nor Sykes, nor any other kind found in Tanganyika. What were they?

The natives of the local villages told me strange tales of them; how, if one put out a gourd of ntulu-beer and a bowl of food in the grain-gardens, these little folk would take the food and do some hoeing and weeding at night, as thanks. That, I can well believe, is myth; but my little brown men were real enough. They may yet be found. One could tell as yet other mysterious creatures, the irizima of the Congo; the ngagia, the chiruwi, the kitunusi and the ngojoma; some are definitely mythical, but it would be rash to aver that all are so. One must not forget that the okapi was once a "mythical beast" and once no one believed in the platypus or in Tibet's giant panda. Yet all these have been proved to be "real". So with the mystery beasts of the African bushveld and forest-ways, they may be improbable, but they are by no means impossible.

William Hichens "African Mystery Beasts", 1937 (1558)

The next year, vintner Cuthbert Burgoyne wrote a letter to the journal describing a sighting of something similar in the territory of Mozambique (then known as Portuguese East Africa) in 1927:

In 1927 I was with my wife coasting Portuguese East Africa in a Japanese cargo boat. We were sufficiently near to land to see objects clearly with a glass of twelve magnifications. There was a sloping beach with light bush above upon which several dozen baboons where hunting for and picking up shell fish or crabs, to judge by their movements. Two pure white baboons were amongst them. These are very rare but I had heard of them previously. As we watched, two little brown men walked together out of the bush and down amongst the baboons. They were certainly not any known monkey and yet they must have been akin or they would have disturbed the baboons. They were too far away to be seen in great detail, but these small human-like animals were probably between four and five feet tall, quite upright and graceful in figure. At the time I was thrilled as they were quite evidently no beast of which I had heard or read. Later a friend and big game hunter told me he was in Portuguese East Africa with his wife and three other hunters, and saw mother, father and child, of apparently similar animal species, walk across the further side of a bush clearing. The natives loudly forbade him to shoot.

Cuthbert Burgoyne "Little Furry Men", 1938 (1558)

Various theories have been proposed about the origin of these creatures, up to attributing the Agogwe to an unknown Pygmy tribe, but judging by their size and color, they most likely belong to one of the extinct species of apes.