tokoloshe
9
9.9
- noun
- South African
:
tokoloshe
- People often leave their beds raised at night to protect themselves from the tokoloshe, which is said to be short and stealthy.
- Tokoloshe fat
- saw the tokoloshe
- catch a Tokoloshe
Examples
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Many children in South Africa are taught stories about the tokoloshe, making them wary of the dark.
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In South African folklore, the tokoloshe is known to disturb people's sleep and even cause mischief.
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The Tokoloshe becomes a trope for South African phallocentrism that continues to have devastating effects on women in contemporary South Africa.
Academic text (2005) -
When the accused is confronted with all the evidence against them, they enter a zombie-like trance and recount how they were 'bewitched' by the Tokoloshe, who took control of their body by some sort of demonic third force and made them commit the crime, so it's not their fault.
Blog text (25) -
Elder's analysis indicates that the Tokoloshe will continue to torment women until the heteropatriarchal spatial assumptions of Apartheid that still exist in contemporary South Africa are scrutinized critically and changed to allow more equal social relations.
Academic text (2005) -
This assumption, combined with the heteropatriarchal refusal to recognize women as subjects, has, metaphorically speaking, facilitated the malevolent activities of the Tokoloshe in that women still struggle to survive in landscapes of oppression.
Academic text (2005)
Synonyms
1
9.9
A Scottish water spirit that looks like a horse and tricks people into deep water to drown them
1
9.9
A mischievous spirit from Irish stories that often appears as an animal
A scary spirit from Caribbean stories that frightens people
Spirits in Jewish stories that often play tricks or hurt people
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Etymology
Tokoloshe comes from South African languages like Zulu and Xhosa and names a small, mischievous 'spirit' people believe can cause trouble or harm at night. So a Tokoloshe means that same kind of night spirit in stories.