Inkanyamba

The Inkanyamba is a giant storm serpent of Zulu and Xhosa belief in South Africa, said to live in deep waterfall pools such as Howick Falls and to cause violent summer storms and tornadoes when it is angry.

The Story

Howick Falls in KwaZulu-Natal drops about 95 meters into a dark pool on the uMngeni River. Its Zulu name, KwaNogqaza, is usually translated "place of the tall one." According to local belief, the pool at its foot is the home of the Inkanyamba, a huge serpent that should not be disturbed. Traditionally only izangoma, diviners and healers, approach the pool, to pray and to leave offerings that keep the creature calm.

The Inkanyamba is above all a creature of storms. In the summer, when violent thunderstorms, hail, and sometimes tornadoes sweep across KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, people have said that the serpent is angry, or that it has risen into the sky. The tornado itself can be seen as the serpent moving between the pools where it lives. In Xhosa, the word is often explained as meaning something like a snake in the sky, with the sense of a tornado spirit rather than just a storm.

Appearance and Powers

Descriptions vary from region to region. Some accounts describe a long, eel-like serpent with a horse-like head or a fleshy mane. Others say it has several heads, and some local descriptions and clay figures give it wings, so the number of heads and wings are left open in this entry. Its powers are those of weather and water: it brings destructive winds, lightning, and hail, and it rules deep pools and rivers.

Origins and Sources

The Inkanyamba belongs to a wider southern African tradition of powerful water beings, including snake spirits and the mermaid-like beings that diviners are said to meet in deep water. Anthropologists such as Penny Bernard have studied how these beliefs shape the way healers treat rivers and springs as sacred places. The literary scholar Felicity Wood has written about Inkanyamba stories in the Eastern Cape, including tornado lore and clay figures from the Hogsback and Alice area, and stories told about Khotso Sethuntsa (1898–1972), a famous and wealthy herbalist of Lusikisiki. Khotso's reputation included the claim that he had a relationship with the Inkanyamba, and in these stories the serpent could bring wealth and luck as well as destruction. The Inkanyamba comes from living oral tradition; the earliest dated printed mention found for this entry is in Drum magazine in 1984, describing tornado survivors who believed the "Black Snake" had come.

Legacy

Since the late 20th century, the Howick Falls serpent has also become a figure of local news, tourist lore, and cryptozoology, with reported sightings. These modern "monster" stories are separate from the creature's place in Zulu and Xhosa belief, where it is a spiritual force to be respected rather than an animal to be found. For other African serpent beings, see dragons of Africa and Oceania.

Related

• Grootslang: The Grootslang, Afrikaans for "great snake," is a giant serpent of South African legend said to lurk in a bottomless cave or pool in the diamond country of the Richtersveld and the Orange River.
• Rainbow Serpent: The Rainbow Serpent is a powerful creator being in the traditions of many Aboriginal peoples of Australia, a great snake linked to water, rain, and rainbows who shaped the land and punishes those who break its law.
• Aido Hwedo: Aido Hwedo is the rainbow serpent of Fon religion in Benin, who carried the creator Mawu as the world was made and now lies coiled beneath the earth, holding it together.
• Ninki Nanka: The Ninki Nanka is a dragon-like swamp monster from the folklore of the Gambia and southern Senegal, a huge reptile with a long neck and crested head whose very sight is said to bring sickness or death.
• Dragons Across Cultures
• What is a Dragon?

Sources and Further Reading

• Felicity Wood, "The Snake in the Sky: Tornadoes in Clay and Local Narrative in the Hogsback-Alice Area," Critical Arts 14, no. 2 (2000): 79–95
• Felicity Wood, "Blood Money: An Examination of Oral Narratives Concerning Wealth-Giving Snakes in the Career of Khotso Sethuntsa, with Particular Focus on Their Socioeconomic Implications," Journal of Literary Studies 21, no. 1–2 (2005): 68–92
• Felicity Wood with Michael Lewis, The Extraordinary Khotso: Millionaire Medicine Man from Lusikisiki (Jacana, 2007)
• Penny S. Bernard, "Ecological Implications of Water Spirit Beliefs in Southern Africa: The Need to Protect Knowledge, Nature, and Resource Rights," in USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-27 (2003): 148–154

Cite this entry: “Inkanyamba,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/inkanyamba.