In 1910, local people in the Congo Basin reported sightings of Mokele-mbembe, a legendary creature said to be a large aquatic animal resembling a dinosaur. The reports, documented by European explorers, sparked scientific and popular interest in the possibility of surviving prehistoric creatures in the unexplored African interior. The legend remains a subject of cryptozoological debate.

The Mokele-mbembe legend has inspired numerous works of fiction and poetry, particularly in the genres of adventure and speculative literature. The motif of the hidden dinosaur in the African jungle appears in the poetry of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reflecting European anxieties about the unknown and the persistence of myth in the modern world.