Intulo

Intulo, the lizard or blue-headed gecko, is the counterpart of the chameleon Unwabu in the origin-of-death myth inherited by the Zimbabwean Ndebele from their Nguni forebears. When the chameleon delayed on its errand of everlasting life, Unkulunkulu sent the lizard with the opposite word, that people must die; it ran swiftly, spoke first, and its message could not be recalled. In Nguni-speaking communities, including the Ndebele, the intulo is consequently regarded with hostility and often killed on sight as the creature that brought death into the world.

Domains

• death

Powers

• to deliver the creator's sentence of death to humankind before the message of life arrives

Relations

• subordinate to: UnkulunkuluIntulo acts as the second messenger of Unkulunkulu, dispatched with the word that people must die.Henry Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu, Part I: Unkulunkulu, Springvale: Blair, 1870 (secondary)
• rival: UnwabuThe lizard's race against the dawdling chameleon, and its victory, is the pivot of the Nguni origin-of-death myth; both animals are killed on sight in traditional communities for their parts in it.Alice Werner, Myths and Legends of the Bantu, London: George G. Harrap, 1933, ch. 2 (secondary)

Sources

• Intulo the lizard (blue-headed gecko) is the second messenger of Unkulunkulu, who outran the chameleon and delivered the decree of death, thereby making mortality permanent in the Nguni origin-of-death myth shared by the Ndebele.: Henry Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu, Part I: Unkulunkulu, Springvale: Blair, 1870 (secondary); Alice Werner, Myths and Legends of the Bantu, London: George G. Harrap, 1933, ch. 2 ('Where Man Came From, and How Death Came') (secondary); Wallace Bozongwana, Ndebele Religion and Customs, Gweru: Mambo Press, 1983 (secondary)