Ntumba is the immense aardvark spirit whose burrow forms one of the passages leading from the surface into the subterranean world. When Shemwindo flees from his son, he takes refuge behind Ntumba, who blocks the tunnel and refuses to let the pursuing Mwindo pass. Warned in vain, the aardvark holds his ground until Mwindo calls down Nkuba, whose lightning blasts open the burrow and exposes the cowering father. As a burrowing master of the earth's hidden ways, Ntumba belongs to the chthonic guardians of the epic, akin to the other subterranean powers Mwindo must break through.