Live Tuesday 11 August
The wider musical history behind the kwela passage: how pennywhistle music grew in South African cities, what it sounded like and the social world around it.
Coplan, David B. In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
This dictionary history gives the chapter its most concrete account of pennywhistle players using music as cover when police vans approached street-corner dice games in Johannesburg.
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Kwela-Kwela, n. In A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles. Grahamstown: Dictionary Unit for South African English. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://dsae.co.za/entry/kwelakwela/e04173.
Used for the knot of language behind kwela: the command to climb or get aboard, the police-van nickname and the shrill whistle folded into the music’s name.
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Kwela, n. In A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles. Grahamstown: Dictionary Unit for South African English. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://dsae.co.za/entry/kwela/e04172.
The original four-page school essay reproduced and discussed in the chapter, including Mrs Warrington's comment, the Thandi incident and the sentence about Elsie's raised bed.
Fox, Kara. "Not After Dark." Unpublished school essay, 15 May 1996.
This supports the wider South African taboo around whistling after dark. It does not prove a universal tokoloshe rule, which is why the book keeps the belief inside one family’s version of the world.
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South African Superstitions: Myths, Meanings and the Science Behind Them. Secular Society South Africa, 6 October 2025. https://www.secularsociety.org.za/2025/10/06/south-african-superstitions-myths-meanings-and-the-science-behind-them/.
The song in the school-day memory, and the thread that leads the chapter back into kwela. Gallo’s release identifies the recording and the pennywhistle tradition it carries.
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Mango Groove. "Special Star." On Mango Groove. Johannesburg: Gallo Record Company, 1989.
The practical evidence behind the missing floor: the concrete slab remains exactly where engineering put it, while buildings rename it 12A, 14A or something equally hopeful.
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Lacy, Robert. “The Mystery of the Missing 13th Floor.” WSRB Blog, 13 May 2022. https://www1.wsrb.com/blog/mystery-of-missing-13th-floor.
A concise reference point for the tokoloshe in southern African folklore, including its small stature, water associations and the stories told about its ability to disappear.
Bane, Theresa. "Tikoloshe." In Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016.
The official TRC record anchors the chapter in 1996, when public testimony had begun and the hearings had entered South African homes through television.
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Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report. Vol. 5. Cape Town: TRC, 1998. https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume5.pdf.
Used for the wider cosmological setting around harmful spirits and protective practices. The chapter keeps the family’s particular rule as a family rule rather than pretending one belief belongs to everyone.
Berglund, Axel-Ivar. Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism. London: C. Hurst, 1976.