{"id":"BLIER2010-001","label":"The night Orò walked Porto-Novo","people_or_site":"Yoruba and Gun of Porto-Novo (Orò society)","country_current":"Benin","historic_region":"Porto-Novo, Ouémé department","macroregion":"Africa / West Africa","local_name":"Oro","source_term":"bull roarer","source_language":"English; Italian","object_description":"A bullroarer heard through closed shutters; its form is not described.","function_summary":"Gave voice to Orò walking the city streets at night, when no one might go out or look from a window on pain of harm.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"blier2010_imaginarium_porto_novo","source_type":"scholarly_article","source_url":"https://www.suzanneprestonblier.com/uploads/1/2/5/9/125984883/blier_maginarium_african_masks_and_western_mindsets_in__wonders_africa_98-109.2010_pdf.pdf","page_or_plate":"p. 103","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Porto-Novo city centre (Nominatim); street not recorded.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Stay indoors, keep the shutters closed, do not look out: Orò would be walking the streets of Porto-Novo that night, and anyone outside risked harm. Then, in the coastal city where Yoruba and Gun live side by side, a high, eerie, undulating “eu… eu… eu…” pierces the humid air with an almost electric tension. It was Orò, a masquerade made only of sound, its voice a bullroarer: the arm of the Ogboni elite, who held the right to arrest and punish serious wrongdoers, and a mask that almost no one but its performers has ever seen.","pull_quote":"No one was to go out that night or risk bodily harm, for Oro would be walking in the streets.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Suzanne Preston Blier, “Imaginarium” (2010), p. 103","term_gloss":"Oro: the Yoruba night power of the Ogboni elite, present as sound alone. Ogboni: the society of elders with judicial and punitive authority.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Suzanne Preston Blier, “Imaginarium: African Masks and Western Mindscapes,” in L’Africa delle meraviglie (2010), pp. 98-109","url":"https://www.suzanneprestonblier.com/uploads/1/2/5/9/125984883/blier_maginarium_african_masks_and_western_mindsets_in__wonders_africa_98-109.2010_pdf.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Suzanne Preston Blier, “Imaginarium: African Masks and Western Mindscapes,” in L’Africa delle meraviglie (2010), pp. 98-109","source_display":"Suzanne Preston Blier, “Imaginarium: African Masks and Western Mindscapes,” in L’Africa delle meraviglie (2010), pp. 98-109","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer heard through closed shutters; its form is not described.","function_display":"Gave voice to Orò walking the city streets at night, when no one might go out or look from a window on pain of harm.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"yoruba","display_name":"The night Orò walked Porto-Novo","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-012_mim_1977-011-02_djenne.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-012_mim_1977-011-02_djenne_thumb.jpg","credit":"Musical Instruments Museum, Brussels (RMAH), inv. 1977.011-02 — via MIMO","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_RMAH_95234_NL","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"The Djenné bromhout in three museum views","pool_id":"auto-SUBSAH-012_mim_1977-011-02_djenne","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"blier2010-001-yoruba-and-gun-of-porto-novo-oro-society"}