{"id":"HAD1898-006","label":"Yoruba Oro voice bullroarer","people_or_site":"Yoruba country","country_current":"Nigeria","historic_region":"","macroregion":"Africa / West Africa","local_name":"Oro","source_term":"Oro stick","source_language":"English","object_description":"A thin wooden blade tapering at each end, up to three feet long, slung from a pliable rod and whirled. Surviving Oro objects include MAA 1918.74 (Abeokuta, 'Voice of Oro'), PRM 1930.43.93 (Abeokuta), the forked PRM 1931.3.1-.2 (Oshogbo), a carved example at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, and British Museum Af1914,-.33, a complete Ibadan rig 71.1 cm overall, its narrow blade joined by cotton string to a long wooden handle. The British Museum also holds Af1962,17.70, a hard-wood strip 26.7 centimetres long and only 3.4 wide, its fibre line still threaded through the hole at one end. Seven carved Oro blades survive at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan: one bears a standing naked man, one a figure with arms stretched across the blade, and one, about 45 cm long, a snake zigzagging its full length with the cord hole at its tail.","function_summary":"The voice of Oro, sounded through the town while women stayed shut indoors.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"batty1890_yoruba_country","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://doi.org/10.2307/2842066","page_or_plate":"Batty 1890 pp. 160-164; Haddon 1898 pp. 289-290; Fig. 39; RMCA MO.1977.27.1; MAA 1918.74; PRM 1930.43.93; PRM 1931.3.1-.2 | British Museum Af1914,-.33","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"representative coordinate for named people, place, or region in Haddon","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Across Yoruba country, the whirring roar from the forest was the voice of Oro, god of terror and vengeance bound up with civil authority. When Oro was abroad, women shut themselves indoors on pain of death — no woman might see the bull-roarer and live. At Ondo his festival, Oro Doko, lasted three lunar months, the women confined from daybreak to noon every ninth day while the men paraded the streets whirling the blades, dancing, and drumming; stray dogs and fowls were killed and feasted on. On the lower Niger it was said that heavy blades voiced the great-grandfathers, lighter ones the newly dead. Carvers gave the voice a body, too. Of seven Oro blades kept at the University of Ibadan, one bears a standing naked man and another a figure whose arms stretch from edge to edge; the most striking, some forty-five centimetres long, is covered by a single snake that zigzags the whole board, its tail at the cord hole.","pull_quote":"The voice of Oro is produced by whirling round and round a thin strip of wood, some 2½ inches broad, 12 inches long, and tapering at both ends, which is fastened to a stick by a long string. It is, in fact, the instrument known to English boys as the \"bull-roarer.\"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (1894), ch. VI, pp. 110-111","term_gloss":"Oro: a Yoruba god of terror and vengeance whose voice is the bull-roarer; also the cult and rite tied to civil authority, from which women were excluded on pain of death.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","snake","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"etymology":"Batty (1890), reproduced by Haddon, glosses the cult name Oro as \"Torment\" — a Yoruba god of terror and vengeance whose \"voice\" is the bull-roarer.","literal_gloss":"Torment","semantic_cluster":"spirit_voice; initiation; clan_or_ritual_office","etymology_confidence":"medium","sources":[{"citation":"R. Braithwaite Batty, 'Notes on the Yoruba Country,' Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 19 (1890), pp. 160-164","url":"https://doi.org/10.2307/2842066"},{"citation":"A. C. Haddon, The Study of Man (1898), pp. 289-290, fig. 39, reproducing Batty"},{"citation":"A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (1894), ch. VI, pp. 110-111"},{"citation":"AfricaMuseum / RMCA, object MO.1977.27.1"},{"citation":"British Museum, object Af1914,-.33"},{"citation":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, object 1918.74"},{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, objects 1930.43.93, 1931.3.1 and 1931.3.2"},{"citation":"O. I. Pogoson, A. Adeduntan and A. Akande, \"Ritual, Art and/or Physics? Seven Rare Wooden Orò Bullroarers in the Collection of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria,\" West African Journal of Archaeology 46 (2016): 235-248, pp. 239-246, plates 1-7","url":"https://repository.ui.edu.ng/handle/123456789/14781","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013012221/https://repository.ui.edu.ng/handle/123456789/14781"},{"citation":"Edwin M. Loeb, 'Tribal Initiations and Secret Societies,' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 25(3) (1929), p. 263, citing Talbot, vol. 3, pp. 758-759"}],"source_citations":"R. Braithwaite Batty, 'Notes on the Yoruba Country,' Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 19 (1890), pp. 160-164; A. C. Haddon, The Study of Man (1898), pp. 289-290, fig. 39, reproducing Batty; A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (1894), ch. VI, pp. 110-111; AfricaMuseum / RMCA, object MO.1977.27.1; British Museum, object Af1914,-.33; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, object 1918.74; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, objects 1930.43.93, 1931.3.1 and 1931.3.2; O. I. Pogoson, A. Adeduntan and A. Akande, \"Ritual, Art and/or Physics? Seven Rare Wooden Orò Bullroarers in the Collection of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria,\" West African Journal of Archaeology 46 (2016): 235-248, pp. 239-246, plates 1-7; Edwin M. Loeb, 'Tribal Initiations and Secret Societies,' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 25(3) (1929), p. 263, citing Talbot, vol. 3, pp. 758-759","source_display":"R. Braithwaite Batty, 'Notes on the Yoruba Country,' Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 19 (1890), pp. 160-164; A. C. Haddon, The Study of Man (1898), pp. 289-290, fig. 39, reproducing Batty; A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (1894), ch. VI, pp. 110-111; AfricaMuseum / RMCA, object…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A thin wooden blade tapering at each end, up to three feet long, slung from a pliable rod and whirled. Surviving Oro objects include MAA 1918.74 (Abeokuta, 'Voice of Oro'), PRM 1930.43.93 (Abeokuta), the forked PRM 1931.3.1-.2 (Oshogbo), a carved example at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, and British Museum Af1914,-.33, a complete Ibadan rig 71.1 cm overall, its narrow blade joined by cotton string to a long wooden handle. The British Museum also holds Af1962,17.70, a hard-wood strip 26.7 centimetres long and only 3.4 wide, its fibre line still threaded through the hole at one end. Seven carved Oro blades survive at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan: one bears a standing naked man, one a figure with arms stretched across the blade, and one, about 45 cm long, a snake zigzagging its full length with the cord hole at its tail.","function_display":"The voice of Oro, sounded through the town while women stayed shut indoors.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"yoruba country","display_name":"Yoruba Oro voice bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/HAD1898-006_maa_1918_74_oro.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/HAD1898-006_maa_1918_74_oro_thumb.jpg","alt":"Abeokuta “Voice of Oro” bullroarer: a slender dark wooden blade with a cord hole near one end and a long, tangled fibre cord.","credit":"Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, Cambridge, 1918.74","license":"© Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge — rehosted low-res for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/527807/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Abeokuta 'Voice of Oro' itself — a small dark blade on its long tangled fibre cord, its paper label still reading 'The Voice of Oro'.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/HAD1898-006.png","thumb":"assets/objects/HAD1898-006_thumb.jpg","alt":"Yoruba Oro bullroarers figured by Haddon in 1898.","credit":"A. C. Haddon, \"The bull-roarer\" / The Study of Man (1898), pl.","license":"Public domain (published 1898)","source_page":"https://doi.org/10.2307/2842066","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Yoruba Oro bullroarers figured by Haddon in 1898."},{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/hambly1926_plate46.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/thumbs/hambly1926_plate46_thumb.jpg","alt":"Hambly’s 1926 plate of seven wooden bullroarers; no. 6 at right is the Ibadan Oro rig, with a long slender handle, wound cord and short suspended blade.","credit":"W. D. Hambly, Tribal Dancing and Social Development (London, 1926), plate facing p. 46","license":"Public domain in the US (published 1926)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/tribaldancingsoc0000hamb/page/n58/mode/1up","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Hambly's 1926 plate: no. 6, the long-handled rig at right, is the Ibadan Oro rig."},{"full":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/HAD1898-006_bm_af1914_33.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_10_03/HAD1898-006_bm_af1914_33_thumb.jpg","alt":"Yoruba Oro rig from Ibadan, British Museum Af1914,-.33: a long wooden whirling stick with cord spiralling around it and a narrow blade suspended beside its lower end.","credit":"© The Trustees of the British Museum (Af1914,-.33)","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1914-33","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Yoruba Oro rig from Ibadan: the blade hangs from its long whirling stick (British Museum Af1914,-.33)."}],"also":[{"label":"Yoruba bullroarer, British Museum Af1962,17.73","page":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/bm_E_Af1962-17-73.jpg","credit":"© The Trustees of the British Museum (Af1962,17.73)","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0"}]},"slug":"had1898-006-yoruba-country"}