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Illustration of Umkhovu
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
Faele Nom. 057 ya 446

Umkhovu

Gape e bidiwa: imikhovu, esemkofu, esimkovu
Dinaane tsa setso le ditlhamaneBaswi ba ba tsogilengBoloi1500 go ya go 1899

The umkhovu is the Zulu form of the witch's zombie: a body taken from the grave, revived by magic and kept as a familiar. Its tongue is removed so that it cannot speak. Colonial-era writers recorded the belief in the 1870s, half a century before The Magic Island popularised the Haitian zombi. It belongs to the same family as the zombie beliefs reported from South Africa in the late 20th century.1

Di lwantshe
E kwadilwe la ntlha
1875
Described in D. Leslie's Among the Zulus (1875)
Tshimologo
Zulu
Aforika Borwa
Se se e bakang
Boloi
A witch or wizard digs up a corpse and brings it back to life as a familiar.
O fetoga yone jang
A dead person exhumed and revived by a witch.
Botlhale
E sena tlhaloganyo

E tlhagile la ntlha leng?

Lefatshe la bogologoloMotlha wa Bogare1500 go ya go 18991900 go ya go 19671968 go ya go 19992000 go ya go 20092010 go fitlha gompieno1875

Described in D. Leslie's Among the Zulus (1875)

dikwalo tsa patlisiso

Se metswedi e se buang

1

The Zulu word means an exhumed corpse revived as a witch's servant1

2

The witch cuts out its tongue, so that it can only make a wailing sound1

3

English writers of the 19th century rendered the plural as 'Esemkofu'1

4

H. Rider Haggard used them in his Zulu novel Nada (1895), haunting a 'Ghost Mountain'1

5

The Dictionary of South African English records the term from 1875 to 19251

Metswedi

  1. Esemkofu - Dictionary of South African English

Ntlha nngwe le nngwe mo tsebeng e e tswa mo metsweding e, e kwadilwe ka mafoko a rona. O bone phoso? Re bolelele kwa [email protected].

Fepa letshwititi. Ga go na dipapatso, ga go na dilatedi, e duelelwa ke motho a le mongwe. Madi a tebogo a e boloka e le mo inthaneteng.Tlogela madi a tebogo

Dinaane tsa setso go tswa mo mafatsheng a le mangwe

South African witchcraft zombieSouth African (Tsonga, Sotho, Venda)

Motlha o o tshwanang: 1500 go ya go 1899

JiangshiChinese, 1789Zombi (Haitian)Haitian (Vodou folklore), 1750StrigoiRomanian, 1714Vampir (South Slavic)South Slavic (Serbian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Bosnian), 1725AbhartachIrish, 1870Arnold PaoleSerbian, 1732
Fepa letshwititiTlogela madi a tebogo