{"id":"LEMOAL1980-003","label":"Lebere’s rhombe, lent and never returned","people_or_site":"Bobo, Lebere Dwo cult (holders at Kuka)","country_current":"Burkina Faso","historic_region":"Kuka, Bobo country, western Burkina Faso","macroregion":"Africa / West Africa","local_name":"Dwo","source_term":"rhombe","source_language":"French","object_description":"An iron rhombe of Lebere Dwo: a long narrow blade pierced near both ends.","function_summary":"Sacred body of Lebere Dwo, found with the cult’s three red-fibre masks inside a termite mound; a Lebere rhombe lent by the Kuka smith lineage to the village land-chiefs was never returned.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"lemoal1980_bobo_masques","source_type":"ethnographic_monograph","source_url":"https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_6/Tra_d_cm/01256.pdf","page_or_plate":"p. 112, fig. 3 no. 4 (drawing of the Lebere rhombe); p. 291 (myth); p. 308 (the unreturned loan); p. 317 (Lebere Dwo at Kuka)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Kuka as plotted on Le Moal 1980 Carte 3 (PDF p. 531), about ±0.03°: the village where Lebere Dwo is held (p. 317) and where the loan took place (p. 308); the abandoned Lebere is not located.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Out in the bush, an ancestor began to hollow a cathedral-shaped termite mound for a shelter, as Bobo farmers still sometimes do to guard far-off fields. Inside he found a rhombe, then the woven heads of three masks: first Byépla, “two horns,” then Byétale, “one horn,” and last Wurozolo, “rain from the sky,” a mask that dances even in a downpour. All three were dressed entirely in red fibre. Their finding came at the moment a taboo of Kwele Dwo was broken, and it began the cult of Lebere Dwo, one of the god’s oldest. A Lebere rhombe also gave a clan its motto. The smiths of Kuka once lent theirs to the village’s land-chiefs, the Sanu of the eagle, who never gave it back, and the land-chiefs’ own motto still says so: “Bad returner, he takes a thing to look at and never gives it back!”","pull_quote":"Mauvais rendeur, il prend une chose pour regarder et ne la redonne plus !","pull_quote_translation":"Bad returner, he takes a thing to look at and never gives it back!","pull_quote_cite":"Motto of the Sanu (eagle), in Guy Le Moal, Les Bobo (1980), p. 308","term_gloss":"Lebere Dwo: a figure of the Bobo god Dwo first revealed at Lebere. Byépla, Byétale, Wurozolo: its three red-fibre masks, “two horns,” “one horn” and “rain from the sky.” rhombe: French for bullroarer.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Guy Le Moal, Les Bobo: nature et fonction des masques, Travaux et Documents de l’ORSTOM 121 (Paris: ORSTOM, 1980), pp. 112, 291, 308","url":"https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_6/Tra_d_cm/01256.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20220812112620/https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_6/Tra_d_cm/01256.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Guy Le Moal, Les Bobo: nature et fonction des masques, Travaux et Documents de l’ORSTOM 121 (Paris: ORSTOM, 1980), pp. 112, 291, 308","source_display":"Guy Le Moal, Les Bobo: nature et fonction des masques, Travaux et Documents de l’ORSTOM 121 (Paris: ORSTOM, 1980), pp. 112, 291, 308","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"An iron rhombe of Lebere Dwo: a long narrow blade pierced near both ends.","function_display":"Sacred body of Lebere Dwo, found with the cult’s three red-fibre masks inside a termite mound; a Lebere rhombe lent by the Kuka smith lineage to the village land-chiefs was never returned.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"bobo","display_name":"Lebere’s rhombe, lent and never returned","image":{"full":"assets/objects/shared_lemoal1980_fig3_dwo_rhombes.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/shared_lemoal1980_fig3_dwo_rhombes_thumb.jpg","alt":"Line drawing of four pierced Dwo rhombes numbered 1 to 4: a short pointed blade, a large cross, and two narrow slats.","credit":"Guy Le Moal, Les Bobo: nature et fonction des masques (ORSTOM, 1980), p. 112, fig. 3","source_page":"https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_6/Tra_d_cm/01256.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The iron rhombe of Lebere Dwo, a narrow blade pierced near both ends (right in a drawing of Dwo’s cult objects).","last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"lemoal1980-003-bobo-lebere-dwo-cult-holders-at-kuka"}