I have always had this fascination with tokoloshes. I love the word and I love the sense of folklore and fairytale about them. I know they are more than folklore to many people, but I haven't seen one yet. Although, apparently if you have seen one you can never say so or the tokoloshe will come back and get you. Supposedly it looks like "a very nasty teddy bear". It is all part of the African tradition that I do not participate in but find interesting nevertheless.
In Durban I was impressed by how religiously people put their beds on bricks. I always thought that this was to prevent you being carried away in the night, like in the Madam and Eve cartoons.
So how disturbed was I when I googled tokoloshes and found out that the reason you put your bed on bricks is because the tokoloshe has a freakishly long dick and can rape you in your sleep? My happy little fairytale bubble has been pricked (ahem).
I feel vaguely violated, much like how I felt after I discovered the truth about Father Christmas. (Apparently you are supposed to pretend he doesn't exist or he won't give you any presents. How set up did I feel at age 6 when my mom told me this and I realised that all along I had been receiving only her measly presents. Now that I pretend he doesn't exist he give me loads of presents each year. Why do our parents lie to us?).
What a twisted world we live in, hey?
