{"id":"EXH2026-042","label":"Mayogo (mbirimbiri)","people_or_site":"Mayogo","country_current":"Democratic Republic of the Congo","historic_region":"NE Congo","macroregion":"Africa / Central Africa","local_name":"mbirimbiri","source_term":"bullroarer (New Grove cross-entry)","source_language":"English","object_description":"Bullroarer; recorded Mayogo name mbirimbiri.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"exhaustiveness2026","source_type":"comparative_secondary","source_url":"https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/items/b9573a53-72f3-4bd4-9b8f-9be0313379b9?q=%22See+ATUAMBA%22","page_or_plate":"New Grove / Grove, Mayogo entry (term mbirimbiri)","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Mayogo country, Uele","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Say it aloud and you hear the thing itself: mbirimbiri, a reduplicated whirr of a word that the Mayogo and their Bangba neighbours, forest people of the northeastern Congo's Uele country, gave to the spun blade of wood whose drone it imitates. The name is what came down to us. Collectors carried off the sound-word but not the scene around it: who swung the roarer, whose ears it was meant for, and what its voice was made to summon among the Mayogo went unrecorded.","pull_quote":"mbirimbiri","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"K. A. Gourlay, 'Bullroarer,' Grove Music Online (after F. J. de Hen, 1960).","term_gloss":"mbirimbiri: the recorded Mayogo (and Bangba) name for the bullroarer.","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"An onomatopoeic name: the reduplicated word imitates the instrument's whirring, roaring sound. The Bangba use mbirimbiri too.","literal_gloss":"","semantic_cluster":"motion_sound","etymology_confidence":"medium","sources":[{"citation":"K. A. Gourlay, “Bullroarer,” Grove Music Online, Mayogo term mbirimbiri; after F. J. de Hen (1960)"},{"citation":"J.-S. Laurenty, La systématique des aérophones de l’Afrique centrale, Annales du MRAC, nouvelle série in-4°, Sciences humaines 7 (Tervuren: MRAC, 1974), via New Grove"},{"citation":"Ferdinand J. de Hen, Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Musikinstrumente aus Belgisch Kongo und Ruanda-Urundi (1960), via K. A. Gourlay, “Bullroarer,” Grove Music Online"}],"source_citations":"K. A. Gourlay, “Bullroarer,” Grove Music Online, Mayogo term mbirimbiri; after F. J. de Hen (1960); J.-S. Laurenty, La systématique des aérophones de l’Afrique centrale, Annales du MRAC, nouvelle série in-4°, Sciences humaines 7 (Tervuren: MRAC, 1974), via New Grove; Ferdinand J. de Hen, Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Musikinstrumente aus Belgisch Kongo und Ruanda-Urundi (1960), via K. A. Gourlay, “Bullroarer,” Grove Music Online","source_display":"K. A. Gourlay, “Bullroarer,” Grove Music Online, Mayogo term mbirimbiri; after F. J. de Hen (1960); J.-S. Laurenty, La systématique des aérophones de l’Afrique centrale, Annales du MRAC, nouvelle série in-4°, Sciences humaines 7 (Tervuren: MRAC, 1974), via New Grove; Ferdinand J. de Hen, Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Musikinstrumente aus Belgisch Kongo und…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bullroarer; recorded Mayogo name mbirimbiri.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"mayogo","display_name":"Mayogo (mbirimbiri)","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-149_mus2026-149-amvam-fang-evuntere.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-149_mus2026-149-amvam-fang-evuntere_thumb.jpg","alt":"Fang evuntere from Amvam, Gabon, made before 1960: a broad, weathered wooden blade with a coarse cord tied at one end and small holes across its face.","credit":"Musée des Arts et Traditions du Gabon / MIMO, MATG60.01.051","license":"Rights reserved; reuse licence unspecified. MIMO record marked LIBRE in preserved July 2026 capture; rehosted for non-commercial research.","source_page":"https://mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_GAB_GAB483656/evuntere","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Fang evuntere, a leaf-shaped wooden blade with cord, Gabon","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-149_mus2026-149-amvam-fang-evuntere"},"slug":"exh2026-042-mayogo"}