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Overview

Uncama grows maize, but a porcupine repeatedly enters and wastes his crop. He waits for heavy dew so that its path will be visible and follows with his weapons. At the animal’s hole he goes inside, anger overcoming hesitation. He passes a pool, learns to see in the darkness, sleeps on the journey and crosses a river. After losing the footprints he continues because the tunnel remains a single route, determined to reach its end.

Light eventually appears ahead. He hears dogs and children, sees smoke and people moving about a village, and discovers a great country. Fearing its unknown inhabitants will kill him, he retreats without approaching them. He travels day and night back past the river and pool and leaves the hole. The underground landscape has mountains, precipices and rivers resembling the world above. The porcupine is not found or killed in the reported ending.

At home he asks his wife for a mat. She cries out at his return, and neighbors gather and repeat a funeral dirge. Believing him dead, she has buried his personal things and burned his blankets and mats. He explains his journey and fear-driven return. Umpengula Mbanda then distinguishes his own recollection: as a boy he saw the short, whiskered, very hairy man with missing teeth, who was identified as the traveler to the underground people. The account made children afraid to enter an ant-bear’s hole. This remembered identification is part of the contributor’s testimony; he does not claim to have accompanied the subterranean journey.

Follows porcupine’s dew trailTraverses underground riverSees inhabited underground countryRetreats without entering villageReturns after household mourning
01

Origins & earliest records

Umpengula Mbanda supplies and signs the account printed by Henry Callaway. His closing childhood recollection is distinct from the narrated journey. The inhabitants are called underground people; this passage does not expressly identify them as deceased relatives or equate their country with Kalunga.

02

Records & interpretation

Callaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus (1868), The Tale of Uncama-ngamanzi-egudu, complete bilingual pp. 318–320; contributor signature p. 320.

In the literature

“I saw him when I was a boy.”
Umpengula Mbanda · Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus
The Tale of Uncama-ngamanzi-egudu, printed p.320 · Henry Callaway

The named contributor claims childhood acquaintance with the man, while the journey itself is recounted narrative.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus

    Henry Callaway, collector and translator; Umpengula Mbanda, contributor · 1868

    Callaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus (1868), The Tale of Uncama-ngamanzi-egudu, complete bilingual pp. 318–320; contributor signature p. 320.

  2. 02

    Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus — The Tale of Uncama-ngamanzi-egudu

    Umpengula Mbanda; Henry Callaway, translator/editor · 1868

    HenryCallaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, VolumeI, Springvale,Natal:JohnA.Blair1868; bilingual Princeton scan. Complete selected English290–295/318–320 read; original290/293/295/320 visually inspected. Individual attributed accounts distinguished from editorial speculation and adjacent signatures.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus

HenryCallaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, VolumeI, Springvale,Natal:JohnA.Blair1868; bilingual Princeton scan. Complete selected English290–295/318–320 read; original290/293/295/320 visually inspected. Individual attributed accounts distinguished from editorial speculation and adjacent signatures.

  1. Uncama follows dew traces of a porcupine stealing his maize into a hole, perseveres beyond visible tracks, crosses water and sleeps along the subterranean route. On finding a village with smoke, dogs, children and moving people, he fears strangers and retraces his path. His wife has presumed him dead and disposed of his belongings. Umpengula’s closing says he saw the hairy, small, incomplete-toothed man as a boy and recalls children avoiding holes because of his story.

    The Tale of Uncama-ngamanzi-egudu, complete printed pp.318–320; UmpengulaMbanda signature320

The contributor’s remembered acquaintance is distinct from witnessing the subterranean journey. The adjacent318 UmpondoKambule signature belongs to the preceding passage; the Uncama account closes with Umpengula. The narrator does not call the porcupine a transformed spirit, and the separate Pococke Naga comparison is not this tale.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Collected Zulu narrative with facing English translation and named contributorCallaway 1868 — Uncama-ngamanzi-eguduResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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