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Illustration of Umkhovu
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
Ifayela No. 057 kwangu-446

Umkhovu

Ibuye libizwe: imikhovu, esemkofu, esimkovu

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

Lwa nayo
Kuqoshwe kuqala
1875
Described in D. Leslie's Among the Zulus (1875)
Imvelaphi
Zulu
I-South Africa
Okuyibangela
Ubuthakathi
A witch or wizard digs up a corpse and brings it back to life as a familiar.
Indlela oba ngayo yinye
A dead person exhumed and revived by a witch.
Ubuhlakani
Abangenamqondo
amanothi ensimini

Okushiwo yimithombo

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

Imithombo

  1. Esemkofu - Dictionary of South African English

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