{"id":"HEUMEN2020-001","label":"Nguon's beetle voice","people_or_site":"Bamoun (Bamum), Nguon rituals at the royal palace, Foumban","country_current":"Cameroon","historic_region":"Foumban, Noun Division, West Region (Bamum kingdom)","macroregion":"Africa / Central Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"rhombe","source_language":"French; Shüpamom","object_description":"Not recorded.","function_summary":"Sounds as the Fonaanguon, messengers of the great initiates, enter the palace in total darkness on the first night of Nguon, carrying medicines and the people's grievances; entry is restricted to initiates.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"cameroon_inventory2020_nguon","source_type":"ethnographic_survey","source_url":"https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/49219-FR.pdf","page_or_plate":"Description de l'élément, first day (PDF p. 6)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Royal palace of the Bamoun kings, Foumban; offset from ZERRIES1942-004 (town point 5.7282, 10.8972).","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Before the king of the Bamoun is judged by his people, his messengers come in through the dark. The Fonaanguon, messengers of the great initiates of Nguon, travel the whole kingdom gathering medicines and the people's grievances. On the Friday night they enter the palace at Foumban in total darkness, bags of medicine slung from their shoulders, to the sound of the bullroarer, loud and strange, like the flight of the beetle called nguon. Only initiates may follow. 'Who tries, will see,' they say as they pass in. In the morning the Mfon empties their bags into his own; then he is set aside from his throne and tried by his people, sitting as a court.","pull_quote":"Qui tente, verra","pull_quote_translation":"Who tries, will see","pull_quote_cite":"Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel national, Cameroun 2020, fiche Nguon","term_gloss":"Nguon: the Bamoun governance rituals, and the beetle whose flight the roar resembles. Fonaanguon: messengers of the Titaanguon, the great initiates. Mfon: the king.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel national, Cameroun 2020, 'NGUON : Rituels autour du pouvoir sacré du Mfon'","url":"https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/49219-FR.pdf"},{"citation":"UNESCO, 'Nguon, rituals of governance and associated expressions in the Bamoun community' (2023)","url":"https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/nguon-rituals-of-governance-and-associated-expressions-in-the-bamoun-community-01955"}],"source_citations":"Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel national, Cameroun 2020, 'NGUON : Rituels autour du pouvoir sacré du Mfon'; UNESCO, 'Nguon, rituals of governance and associated expressions in the Bamoun community' (2023)","source_display":"Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel national, Cameroun 2020, 'NGUON : Rituels autour du pouvoir sacré du Mfon'; UNESCO, 'Nguon, rituals of governance and associated expressions in the Bamoun community' (2023)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Not recorded.","function_display":"Sounds as the Fonaanguon, messengers of the great initiates, enter the palace in total darkness on the first night of Nguon, carrying medicines and the people's grievances; entry is restricted to initiates.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"bamoun","display_name":"Nguon's beetle voice","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-088_mqb-269126.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-088_mqb-269126_thumb.jpg","credit":"Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 71.1938.46.295","license":"Rights reserved (© musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac); rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/#/objet/269126","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Uni, a Fali spearhead-shaped roarer on its bean-vine cord","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-088_mqb-269126","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"heumen2020-001-bamoun-bamum-nguon-rituals-at-the-royal-palace-foumban"}