Case file · Folklore / legend
Tokoloshe
A small, mischievous or evil water spirit of Nguni (Zulu and Xhosa) belief, said to be sent by people wishing harm on others.
1990 CE · -28.50, 30.89 · status: legend
The account
It is said to turn invisible by drinking water or swallowing a stone, and to cause illness or death. Protection includes healers (sangomas) and, in popular telling, raising beds on bricks. In the 1990s, mothers of children found with needles in their bodies blamed the tokoloshe rather than the caregivers responsible.
The sceptical view
The bed-raising story may have been invented by Europeans to explain a practical custom. The tokoloshe is often used as a scapegoat for crimes and accidents.
Connections in the atlas
- Impundulu, the lightning bird
- Tokoloshe
- Inkanyamba at Howick Falls
- Callaway records the Amazulu
- Popobawa
- Grootslang