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Language: English
Umkhovu
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
When did it first appear?
1875Described in D. Leslie's Among the Zulus (1875)
What the sources say
The Zulu word means an exhumed corpse revived as a witch's servant1
The witch cuts out its tongue, so that it can only make a wailing sound1
English writers of the 19th century rendered the plural as 'Esemkofu'1
H. Rider Haggard used them in his Zulu novel Nada (1895), haunting a 'Ghost Mountain'1
The Dictionary of South African English records the term from 1875 to 19251
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].
South African witchcraft zombie
Jiangshi
Zombi (Haitian)
Strigoi
Vampir (South Slavic)
Abhartach
Arnold Paole