Across southern Africa, in Zulu and Xhosa belief, the tokoloshe is a small, hairy, malevolent water-sprite conjured or sent to do harm, to frighten, sicken or kill in the night. The reason so many old beds in the region stand on bricks is real: to raise the sleeper above the reach of the tokoloshe. It is a living, seriously-held tradition, not a tourist tale, woven into the region’s beliefs about witchcraft and misfortune. Told with respect as the folklore of the people whose land this is.
Southern Africa (Zulu & Xhosa country)
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