{"id":"MERRITT1976-001","label":"Bukusu leopard-voice bullroarer","people_or_site":"Bukusu (Mwalye custom / Bamwalie Khulicha clans)","country_current":"Kenya","historic_region":"North Kabras location, Kakamega District / Bungoma–Kakamega Bukusu country, western Kenya","macroregion":"Africa / East Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A bull-roarer; its form is not recorded.","function_summary":"Sounded within the Khulicha coming-out ceremony that closed the Bukusu circumcision season at Lwandeti: as the Khulicha songs were sung, a bull-roarer simulated the growl of a leopard said to be loose nearby, initiates were taught a protection song to keep the roaring leopard from eating them, and elders on hearing it ate bananas and drank beer, shouting that they had heard him and were glad. Each initiate was then taken aside and given two parallel cuts near the left elbow, understood as the leopard's own claw marks from wrestling him.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"merritt1976_bukusu_khulicha_leopard","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/items/9a3b0934-b96c-419b-b6b2-6cd8aaebb01e","page_or_plate":"pp. 85–86 (water passage, naluvonga snake and corpse/awakening); p. 87 (bull-roarer sentence and n. 97); p. 141 (n. 90, Khulicha observation); Simiyu 2011, p. 29 (entwitwi)","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Approximate centroid for the North Kabras location / Lwandeti area, Kakamega District, western Kenya; the source names the locality but not a precise ceremonial site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A defanged snake hung impaled above the river-side doorway through which Bukusu initiates crawled into the water four times. They were carried across the stream like dead bodies, then awakened. This was the first stage of Khulicha, the coming-out ceremony after circumcision. Later, a bullroarer gave a leopard its growl. Boys learned a protection song to keep it from eating them; elders answered with shouts, beer and bananas. Two cuts beside each boy's left elbow became the claw marks of his struggle with the leopard. All were sworn to secrecy.","pull_quote":"A bull-roarer is used to simulate the leopard's growl.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"John Hilton Merritt, A Study of Change in Circumcision Rituals among the Abaluyia of Bungoma and Kakamega Districts of Western Kenya since 1910 A.D. (PhD thesis, University of Nairobi, 1976), p. 87.","term_gloss":"Khulicha: the Bukusu post-circumcision coming-out ceremony. Mwalye / Bamwalie: the clan custom, glossed by Merritt as \"those coming from the east,\" associated with the leopard scene. entwitwi: a double-headed friction drum, sounded by rubbing a wet reed against its membrane, which could stand in for the bull-roarer in the same rite (Simiyu 2011, p. 29). naluvonga: the defanged snake placed over the river-side doorway in the earlier Khulicha water passage.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","snake","initiation","death_rebirth","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"sources":[{"citation":"John Hilton Merritt, A Study of Change in Circumcision Rituals among the Abaluyia of Bungoma and Kakamega Districts of Western Kenya since 1910 A.D. (PhD thesis, University of Nairobi, 1976), pp. 85–88, 141; Reuben Simiyu, The Role of Music in Traditional Circumcision Rituals of the Babukusu of Bungoma District (2011), p. 29","url":"https://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/items/9a3b0934-b96c-419b-b6b2-6cd8aaebb01e","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013033557/https://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/items/9a3b0934-b96c-419b-b6b2-6cd8aaebb01e"}],"source_citations":"John Hilton Merritt, A Study of Change in Circumcision Rituals among the Abaluyia of Bungoma and Kakamega Districts of Western Kenya since 1910 A.D. (PhD thesis, University of Nairobi, 1976), pp. 85–88, 141; Reuben Simiyu, The Role of Music in Traditional Circumcision Rituals of the Babukusu of Bungoma District (2011), p. 29","source_display":"John Hilton Merritt, A Study of Change in Circumcision Rituals among the Abaluyia of Bungoma and Kakamega Districts of Western Kenya since 1910 A.D. (PhD thesis, University of Nairobi, 1976), pp. 85–88, 141; Reuben Simiyu, The Role of Music in Traditional Circumcision Rituals of the Babukusu of Bungoma District (2011), p. 29","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bull-roarer; its form is not recorded.","function_display":"Sounded within the Khulicha coming-out ceremony that closed the Bukusu circumcision season at Lwandeti: as the Khulicha songs were sung, a bull-roarer simulated the growl of a leopard said to be loose nearby, initiates were taught a protection song to keep the roaring leopard from eating them, and elders on hearing it ate bananas and drank beer, shouting that they had heard him and were glad. Each initiate was then taken aside and given two parallel cuts near the left elbow, understood as the leopard's own claw marks from wrestling him.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"bukusu mwalye","display_name":"Bukusu leopard-voice bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/HOBLEY1922-001_hunterian_e1936_10_front.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/HOBLEY1922-001_hunterian_e1936_10_front_thumb.jpg","alt":"Marion Stevenson’s Kikuyu kiburuti: a small flat wooden blade hangs from a long pole rig, shown beside a scale bar.","credit":"The Hunterian, University of Glasgow (GLAHM:E.1936.10), via IIIF","license":"© The Hunterian, University of Glasgow; no published reuse terms — displayed with credit, source linked","source_page":"https://www.gla.ac.uk/collections/#/details?irn=102180&catType=C","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Kikuyu kiburuti with its pole rig, 1907–1929 — 'Bull-roarer.","pool_id":"auto-HOBLEY1922-001_hunterian_e1936_10_front","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-02"},"slug":"merritt1976-001-bukusu-mwalye-custom-bamwalie-khulicha-clans"}