{"id":"MBENDJE2016-002","label":"Mahongwé roarer at Mékambo","people_or_site":"Mahongwé (Kota group)","country_current":"Gabon","historic_region":"Ogooué-Ivindo, northeastern Gabon (Mékambo)","macroregion":"Africa / Central Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"rhombe; joamiala","source_language":"French","object_description":"A wooden blade about 15 cm long on a cord, whirled to give a drone.","function_summary":"Shared with the Banzèbi, Bekwil and Pové: frightens by its noise and is sounded at the secret bongoja dance, held to get at the truth, while anyone not concerned stays at home.","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"mbendje2016_laban_joamiala_mahongwe","source_type":"comparative_secondary","source_url":"https://bantoozone.org/culture-art-gabon-afrique/joamiala-le-rhombe-musique-du-gabon/","page_or_plate":"Joamiala entry (Ethnies; Fonctions)","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Mékambo (Ogooué-Ivindo; Nominatim), the centre of Mahongwé country in Perrois's Kota-Mahongwé studies and the CREM Sallée 1966 recordings; no instrument site named.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In the forests around Mékambo, in Gabon’s far northeast, the Mahongwé whirled a small wooden blade on a cord until it droned. The sound was there to frighten. It went with bongoja, a secret dance staged to bring out the truth, and anyone the matter did not concern kept to the house until it was over. The Mahongwé, a Kota people, are better known for their bwete, the ancestor guardians whose flat, leaf-shaped faces are sheathed in fine strips of brass and once stood over baskets holding the relics of the dead.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"joamiala: the inventory's heading name for the Gabonese rhombe; the Mahongwé word is not recorded. bongoja: the secret truth-finding dance at which the instrument sounds. bwete: Kota-Mahongwé reliquary figure.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Brice Emery Mbendje, 'Joamiala (Le Rhombe): instrument de musique traditionnelle', Bantoozone (2016), after the LABAN inventory, Université Omar Bongo","url":"https://bantoozone.org/culture-art-gabon-afrique/joamiala-le-rhombe-musique-du-gabon/"},{"citation":"Louis Perrois, 'Notes sur les figures du bwete', African Arts 2(4) (1969)","url":"https://doi.org/10.2307/3334384"}],"source_citations":"Brice Emery Mbendje, 'Joamiala (Le Rhombe): instrument de musique traditionnelle', Bantoozone (2016), after the LABAN inventory, Université Omar Bongo; Louis Perrois, 'Notes sur les figures du bwete', African Arts 2(4) (1969)","source_display":"Brice Emery Mbendje, 'Joamiala (Le Rhombe): instrument de musique traditionnelle', Bantoozone (2016), after the LABAN inventory, Université Omar Bongo; Louis Perrois, 'Notes sur les figures du bwete', African Arts 2(4) (1969)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A wooden blade about 15 cm long on a cord, whirled to give a drone.","function_display":"Shared with the Banzèbi, Bekwil and Pové: frightens by its noise and is sounded at the secret bongoja dance, held to get at the truth, while anyone not concerned stays at home.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"mahongw","display_name":"Mahongwé roarer at Mékambo","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-072_mus2026-072-wereldmuseum-rv-1393-308.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-072_mus2026-072-wereldmuseum-rv-1393-308_thumb.jpg","alt":"Carved wooden Kundu bullroarer with a broad decorated blade, geometric incisions, raised crosspieces, and a split pronged tip.","credit":"Collectie Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen / Wereldmuseum, RV-1393-308; cropped","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0 (museum object record); cropped","source_page":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/701821","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Carved wooden bullroarer, Kundu, Cameroon, before 1903","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-072_mus2026-072-wereldmuseum-rv-1393-308","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"mbendje2016-002-mahongwe-kota-group"}