{"id":"LLOYD1879-001","label":"Xam, the roarer a lion answers","people_or_site":"Kavango !xun (Northwestern !Xun) — !nanni and Tamme","country_current":"Namibia","historic_region":"Kavango, west of Rundu along the Okavango (bordering southern Angola)","macroregion":"Africa / Southern Africa","local_name":"Xam; !ne","source_term":"whirring instrument","source_language":"English; !xun","object_description":"A whirring instrument made from half of a large, sharp, flat seed-pod (1879); in Tamme's 1881 watercolour, a wooden blade of ǂnin (wild teak) on a string from a stick handle.","function_summary":"Sounded at night with so loud a noise that a lion answered, taking it for another lion; then the players stopped.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"lloyd1879_xun_xam_ne","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digitalbleeklloyd.uct.ac.za/collection/drawings/Iziko_SAMLB_TaBook1_012.JPG","page_or_plate":"Lloyd !kun notebook A2.1.109 pp. 9041v-9042; Tamme watercolour TaBook1_012; Du Toit 2024 p. 5 and notes i, xv","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative point on the Okavango west of Rundu, for the western Rundu / Kavango homeland of the Northwestern !xun speakers (Du Toit 2024 note i); the instrument was described and drawn at Mowbray, Cape Town, and no performance place is recorded.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The !xun would rather not say the lion's name. Xam was avoided for fear of offending the animal, and the lion was called !ne instead; the whirring instrument carried both names. Sounded at night, it made so loud a noise that a lion answered, taking it for another lion, and then the players stopped. In 1879 two !xun boys from the Okavango, !nanni and Tamme, living far from home in Cape Town, said it was made from half of a large, sharp, flat seed-pod. Two years later Tamme made one from the wood of the ǂnin tree, the wild teak, and painted it in watercolour: a blade, a stick handle, the string between them, and above them the word Xam, 'lion'.","pull_quote":"which makes such a loud noise, used at night, that the lion answers, believing it another lion","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"!nanni, Tamme and Lucy Lloyd, !kun notebook BC151 A2.1.109 (1879), quoted in du Toit 2024, p. 5","term_gloss":"Xam: \"lion\", the instrument's name in Tamme's 1881 watercolour. !ne: the respectful name used for the lion in place of xam, and the instrument's name in 1879. ǂnin: wild teak, Pterocarpus angolensis.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Tamme, watercolour 'Xam' (7 June 1881), Iziko SAMLB TaBook1_012, Digital Bleek and Lloyd","url":"https://digitalbleeklloyd.uct.ac.za/collection/drawings/Iziko_SAMLB_TaBook1_012.JPG"},{"citation":"!nanni, Tamme and Lucy Lloyd, !kun notebook BC151 A2.1.109, p. 9042 (1879)","url":"https://digitalbleeklloyd.uct.ac.za/collection/lloyd_kun_nb_lowres/BC_151_A2_1_109/A2_1_109_09042.JPG"},{"citation":"Magdaleen du Toit, 'Convening Context: Reading the Bleek and Lloyd !xun Collection Digitally', Journal of the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa 5(1) (2024), p. 5","url":"https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/dhasa/article/download/5015/4128/21408"}],"source_citations":"Tamme, watercolour 'Xam' (7 June 1881), Iziko SAMLB TaBook1_012, Digital Bleek and Lloyd; !nanni, Tamme and Lucy Lloyd, !kun notebook BC151 A2.1.109, p. 9042 (1879); Magdaleen du Toit, 'Convening Context: Reading the Bleek and Lloyd !xun Collection Digitally', Journal of the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa 5(1) (2024), p. 5","source_display":"Tamme, watercolour 'Xam' (7 June 1881), Iziko SAMLB TaBook1_012, Digital Bleek and Lloyd; !nanni, Tamme and Lucy Lloyd, !kun notebook BC151 A2.1.109, p. 9042 (1879); Magdaleen du Toit, 'Convening Context: Reading the Bleek and Lloyd !xun Collection Digitally', Journal of the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa 5(1) (2024), p. 5","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A whirring instrument made from half of a large, sharp, flat seed-pod (1879); in Tamme's 1881 watercolour, a wooden blade of ǂnin (wild teak) on a string from a stick handle.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"kavango xun","display_name":"Xam, the roarer a lion answers","image":{"full":"assets/objects/LLOYD1879-001_tamme1881_xam_watercolour.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/LLOYD1879-001_tamme1881_xam_watercolour_thumb.jpg","alt":"Red watercolour of a bullroarer blade joined by a string to a stick handle, with handwritten labels.","credit":"Tamme, watercolour, 7 June 1881; Iziko South African Museum, SAMLB TaBook1_012 (Digital Bleek and Lloyd)","source_page":"https://digitalbleeklloyd.uct.ac.za/collection/drawings/Iziko_SAMLB_TaBook1_012.JPG","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Tamme's 1881 watercolour of the Xam, 'lion': blade, stick handle and connecting string, made of ǂnin wood.","last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"lloyd1879-001-kavango-xun-northwestern-xun-nanni-and-tamme"}