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Inkanyamba

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Inkanyamba
Origin
CountrySouth Africa
RegionHowick Falls
DetailsFound in water

The Inkanyamba is a legendary creature in South African Folklore.

Etymology

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The name inkanyamba in Xhosa is literally 'snake cloud'[1] or 'snake in the sky', referring to the 'tornado'.[2] The sense is not merely the physical weather phenomenon, but encompasses the tornado spirit.[3]

Localization

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The lore of the inkanyamba is localized around several bodies of water, including the Umgeni River and Umkomazi River systems, in KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa.[4] It is especially said to dwell in the pool of Howick Falls (on the Umgeni River), thus known locally by the nickname "Howie".[4] It is also said to haunt various dams around Dargle [af],[4] a settlement along the Umgeni River system. The lore is also collected around Hogsback in Eastern Cape Province.[5]

Description

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Howick Falls

Inkanyamba is described to be a huge serpent whose coiling body extends from heaven to earth;[6] it is the root cause of tornados, a goddess of storm, water, and hail in Zulu belief.[6][7] It is not necessarily regarded as a single female deity, for a number of tales blame disaster on a male inkanyamba seeking a female partner or mate.[9][a][11]

Descriptions of the inkanyamba vary. A 1962 eyewitness account claimed a creature with a horselike-head and serpentine body was basking on a sandbank in the Umkomazi River.[12] Some describe, beside the horselike head, a row of dorsal fin running down its wholes spine, and sometimes wings and horns as appendages.[11] The inkanyamba of Howick Falls is a seven-headed creature according to Zulu folklore.[13][b][c] According to a Zulu informant,[d] the inkanyamba was a "two-headed snake" that preyed especially on women, lurking in the deep pools of rivers (Zulu: isiziba[15]).[16]

There were many anecdotes collected on inkanyamba connected with tornado incidents in Hogsback, South Africa in 1998, and local artisans created clay figurines depicting the inkanyamba as monsters, often of dragon shape, with horse or hog-like heads and wings, sometimes with horns, fangs, or even tentacles.[17] Artists may be inclined to resort to adopting dragon form, which is more stable with its four feet, over a coiling serpent aloft in air, for "technical reasons", but pragmatism may not be the only reason.[3] The folklore of Hogsback speaks of one type of inkanyamba, with a head like a cow's, with long extending horns, and a dragon's body, giving it an overall diabolical appearance.[3] Some speak of bird-like shape.[3] The inkanyamba having a fish-like tail is a common factor.[3]

Some commentators advocate the idea of mistaken identity by those who actually sighted only a crocodile or a giant eel.[4] Zulu people believe that coming in contact with the Inkanymba is dangerous, as it is suspected by some of being a swift, carnivorous eel which snatches people and animals from the shoreline in the blink of an eye.[18]

Lore on its habits

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Most active in the summer months, it is believed that the inkanyamba's anger causes the seasonal storms.[19][20] However, it's also believed that appeasing the Inkanyamba calms its anger and brings forth rain and fertility.[21]

People who have shiny corrugated metal roofs[e] can attract a inkanyamba; when it feels it has been tricked into visiting a sham pool of water, the people incur its wrath, and it sending out gusts of wind and hail, causing all sorts of destruction, uprooting trees, ruining crops, and stripping homes of rooftops.[10][22][11]

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Inkanyamba was featured in the 4th season of the Canadian documentary series Mystery Hunters.

See also

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Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ In a modern variant, inkanyamba occasionally flies from Howick Falls to see its partner at the Midmar Dam[10] (the dam is also near Pietermaritzburg, the provincial capital).
  2. ^ Kosgei compares the seven-headed nondo of the Kenyan coast to the inkanyamba.[8]
  3. ^ Nyameka Tshungulwana (of Mpondo, in the valley below Hogsback) was also taught that inkanyamba was a multiple-headed snake, and herself perceived of a 1996 hurricane as a snake.[14]
  4. ^ Zola Sikiti, after his grandmother.
  5. ^ Wood gives "unpainted zinc roofs" and Sandberg gives corrugated "iron" roofs, but these are presumably the same, i.e., corrugated galvanised iron roofs.

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Roberts & Sampson (1996) apud Alcock (2010), p. 293
  2. ^ Wood (2000), p. 82, abstracted in African Studies Abstracts: The Abstracts Journal of the African Studies Centre, Leiden 333: 169 (2002).
  3. ^ a b c d e Wood (2000), p. 82.
  4. ^ a b c d e Newton, Michael (2016). "Inkanyamba". Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and Their Pursuers. McFarland. p. 139. ISBN 9780786491537.
  5. ^ Wood (2000), p. 79.
  6. ^ a b Jordan, Michael (2004). "Inkanyamba". Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses (2nd ed.). Facts On File Inc. p. 139. ISBN 0-8160-5923-3. (IArchive)
  7. ^ Knappert, Jan (1995). "Serpent". An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend: African Mythology. Diamond. pp. 243–244. ISBN 978-0261666535.
  8. ^ a b c Kosgei, Jacky (2026). A Biography of the Indian Ocean: Imagined, Embodied and Experiential Cartographies. Taylor & Francis. p. PT76. ISBN 9781040801840.
  9. ^ Wood (2000), p. 83 also cited by Kosgei[8]
  10. ^ a b Sandberg, T. (May 2007). "Open Africa route: The uMngeni footprint route". South African Country Life: 26–31. apud Alcock (2010), p. 293
  11. ^ a b c McElroy, D.R. (2020). "Inkanyamba". Superstitions: A Handbook of Folklore, Myths, and Legends from Around the World. Wellfleet Press. p. 15. ISBN 9780760366295.
  12. ^ Witnessed 1962 by game warden named Buthelezi.[4]
  13. ^ Hall & Marsh (1996) apud Alcock (2010), p. 174
  14. ^ Wood (2000), pp. 82–83.
  15. ^ Bryant, Alfred T. (1905) A Zulu-English Dictionary with Notes on Pronunciation, s.v. "isi-ziba"
  16. ^ Wood (2000), p. 82 also cited by Kosgei[8]
  17. ^ Wood (2000), pp. 79, 81–82.
  18. ^ Largo, Micheal (2013). The Big, Bad Book of Beasts: The World's Most Curious Creatures. HarperCollins. p. 213. ISBN 978-0062087454.
  19. ^ Exelby, Narina (March 2004). "Legends of the deep". Gateway to Africa. Archived from the original on 13 January 2006. Retrieved 18 June 2007.
  20. ^ Regional Knowledge Sharing Exchange Visit (PDF) (Report). Pemba, Mozambique: Global Adaptation Network, Durban Adaptation Charter, United Nations. 25 November 2016. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  21. ^ Yarbrough, Ezekiel Redik. "Tzimtzum - The Zulu Covenant And The Chitauri Wound - Project AngelBook". Internet Archive. 3 (14): 6.
  22. ^ Wood (2000), pp. 83–84.

Bibliography

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  • Hall, Sian; Marsh, Rob (1996). Kan dit waar wees? Moorde en raaisels van Suider-Afrika [Could it be true? Murders and mysteries of Southern Africa] (in Afrikaans). Kaapstad: Struik.
  • Hall, Sian (June 1999). "Legend Of The Falls". Fortean Times (123), pp. 42–44
  • Wood, Felicity (1 November 2000). "The snake in the sky: Tornadoes in clay and local narrative in the Hogsback-Alice area". Critical Arts: A South-North Journal of Cultural & Media Studies. 14 (2): 79–95. doi:10.1080/02560040085310101.
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