{"id":"DESCHAMPS1962-001","label":"Kwele / Bakwele namiqwott funeral bullroarer, Makokou","people_or_site":"Kwele / Bakwele","country_current":"Gabon","historic_region":"Makokou / Haut-Ivindo","macroregion":"Africa / Central Africa","local_name":"namiqwott","source_term":"bull-roarer; planchette tournant autour d'une corde (a small board turning around a cord)","source_language":"French","object_description":"A small board whirled on a cord.","function_summary":"Funeral-dance voice of the dead, not to be seen by women or children.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"deschamps1962_kwele_namiqwott","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers11-03/12584.pdf","page_or_plate":"p. 78","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Makokou informant/locality anchor; source does not locate a particular funeral.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At Kwele funeral dances in the forests of the Haut-Ivindo, a small board whirled on a cord — the namiqwott — was the spirit of the dead, and women and children were forbidden to see it. The Kwele, whose white-faced, heart-shaped ekuk masks are among the celebrated images of African art, told the historian Hubert Deschamps of it at Makokou: a spinning plank that was the voice of the revenants.","pull_quote":"Le namiqwott était un « bull-roarer » (planchette tournant autour d'une corde) employé pour les danses de funérailles, que les femmes et les enfants ne devaient pas voir. C'était l'esprit des revenants.","pull_quote_translation":"The namiqwott was a bullroarer — a small board turning around a cord — used for funeral dances, which women and children were not to see. It was the spirit of the dead.","pull_quote_cite":"Hubert Deschamps, Traditions orales et archives au Gabon (1962), p. 78.","term_gloss":"","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","death_rebirth","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Hubert Deschamps, Traditions orales et archives au Gabon: contribution à l'ethno-histoire (Berger-Levrault, 1962), Groupe Nord / Kouélé chapter","url":"https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers11-03/12584.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260311032128/https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers11-03/12584.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Hubert Deschamps, Traditions orales et archives au Gabon: contribution à l'ethno-histoire (Berger-Levrault, 1962), Groupe Nord / Kouélé chapter","source_display":"Hubert Deschamps, Traditions orales et archives au Gabon: contribution à l'ethno-histoire (Berger-Levrault, 1962), Groupe Nord / Kouélé chapter","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A small board whirled on a cord.","function_display":"Funeral-dance voice of the dead, not to be seen by women or children.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"kwele","display_name":"Kwele / Bakwele namiqwott funeral bullroarer, Makokou","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-011_mim_1976-038-06_gabon.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-011_mim_1976-038-06_gabon_thumb.jpg","alt":"Long dark wooden Gabonese blade photographed edge-on, with a raised ridge running lengthwise and small projections visible underneath.","credit":"Musical Instruments Museum, Brussels (RMAH), inv. 1976.038-06 — via MIMO","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_RMAH_95219_NL","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Gabonese bullroarer with a raised rib down its face.","pool_id":"gabon-bromhout"},"slug":"deschamps1962-001-kwele-bakwele"}