The Soucouyant tradition in Trinidad and the anglophone Caribbean

Record summary

The Soucouyant is a Caribbean night-being tradition, often described as an older woman who sheds her skin, becomes a fireball or attacks sleepers. Trinidadian forms overlap with the Guyanese Old Higue and related traditions elsewhere in the Caribbean. Early twentieth-century newspapers, colonial ethnography and later folklore collections provide routes for verification. The tradition matters for comparing nocturnal witch legends, African diasporic transmission and domestic social control. Researchers should keep island-specific names and narrative details separate rather than assuming a single Caribbean template.